Sony has a conference now. So far it's one of the most boring things ever. I mean, sure, understanding what they're saying would help, but... this is BORING. They're showing almost no games -- apart from one minute or two long, very boring demo reel of Vita stuff (some tennis game, a Picross-ish thing, golf I think, etc.), nothing so far.
Instead, they've thrilled the audience with things like a demo of the Vita interface, ten minutes of a guy from NTT DoCoMo (the Japanese cellphone giant) talking about the Sony/NTT partnership and their data plans for the 3G version of the Vita (it's... expensive. Like, $65 a month for 100 hours or something stupid like that... or, pay by the hour! Or, smarter, buy the WiFi only model?), Sony people talking about charts and graphs, people on stage just talking, etc. Yeah.
Wait, no, they just showed a game actually being played! ... it's a little touchscreen minigame or web game or something, demonstrating how you touch the screen or something like that.
Also, it'll have Facebook, Foursquare, Skype, and Twitter!
Most of Sony's entire presentation is literally a slideshow, apart from that one tiny demo reel and the Vita demos -- which aren't fully on screen, but were just people playing Vitas while the camera tried to zoom in on the screen.
... Wow, another demo reel! It's about time... some character from some anime or something (a cat) is going to be in SF v Tekken. Joy. Oh, and Ultimate MvC3 will be out day one for the Vita. No footage shown of course. Ono's on stage for some time, and that's the only footage shown during the whole thing? Really? What is Sony trying to do here, have the most boring gaming press conference ever caught on film?
Now, Square-Enix. They're showing off (not) the already announced action-RPG Lord of Apocalypse. They also show a logo for something called Army Corps of Hell. Then, release date annoucements for FF Type-0, the PSP game that started as part of the FFXIII "project" (October) and FF XIII-2 for PS3 (December).
Then, the shock announcement everyone was waiting for (
) -- FFX HD is coming to PS3 and Vita. No footage shown, naturally, so it's probably just an upscale and not a remake, but who knows. Yeah, not FF7, that'd be way too obvious...
Then, the S-E guy tries to leave the stage. The boring host has to call him back for a minute to talk a bit more.
Then he escapes... "whew, finally out of here!" is probably the thought. :)
Next, Kojima. He talks about stuff. Joy. MGS2+3 HD this year, MGS2+3 HD also for Vita as well as PS3 (2012 on Vita), transfaring....
Then, the first trailer of the entire conference, over an hour into it. It's Zone of the Enders HD Edition. Short trailer, more anime cutscene than game. It's not new games, just the two old ZOE games in a PS3 and Vita collection, 2012. He talks about how they have an engine that works on both systems (this was already known).
Next slide is for Everybody's Golf 6. Also, some 8 bit style sidescrolling rpg thing (the "Badman" series I believe, not sure if it's a new game) -- with five-ten seconds of actual gameplay footage! wow!, Friend Network (ah, so this is where that cat in SFvTekken comes from, I think... another one with a little bit of footage. It's on screen video.)
... On that note, they can do on screen video! Why didn't you do that for the earlier demos... were they trying to prove that it's live? Even so, why not use video out... that the guy had trouble turning on the Vita was fitting for this conference, though. :)
Anyway, next, it's someone from the company that owns NicoNicoDouga, the Japanese video site. Apparently NicoNico will work on Vita. They show a demo video on the screen, and the guy talks a lot. There are slides of videos, slides of the roadmap for features that will be added to NicoNico on Vita over the next year, etc. As with every segment it drags on and on.
They keep porting PS2 games to PS3. Apparently the real reason for removing PS2 compatibility from the system is Sony realized they could make more money releasing games with very slight visual upgrades for profit.
I'm getting Ico HD though. I want that co-op mode.
Now, logos for 26 upcoming Vita games, flashed on the screen. 2011 launch titles maybe?
Next, text-only titles for some more upcoming titles. 100 titles coming. ZOE HD, MGS Sigma, Wipeout, Rayman Origins, Starstrike Delta, Gravity Daze, etc. Lots and lots of PS3 ports are coming to Vita.
Now, on to the last checkbox on the list of things to cover in this conference (literally, they show a list of check boxes on screen), PSP games. Because there's no UMD slot on the Vita, Sony is looking into having a tradein program of some kind for UMD games. Yeah. Sure. I'm sure it'll happen this time, just like last time (with the PSP go)...
Next, they say that 31 Vita games will be playable on the floor at TGS.
Oh, one other thing -- in addition to the mostly-slides presentation, also there are random, two second long music clips sometimes. It's kind of odd. Maybe they're supposed to be between sections, but they're too short to work for that...
Then, after some final comments about the Playstation family, it ends. Yup. No big reveals. Nothing of the sort here. Instead, just lots of slides and photos and maybe three or four minutes worth of game footage in the whole 100 minute conference. Yes, seriously. And that estimate might be a little optimistic.
"In conclusion, we're holding a photo session. Thank you for attending the SCEJ press conference."
... I think that pretty much sums this incredible waste of time up.
Well.... Sony's outdone themselves.
Yeah, and I thought Sony E3 conferences were boring... but this far exceeded anything of theirs I'd seen before.
Some more fun for Vita owners... remember, it doesn't have internal memory if I remember right. So, you need a memory card if you want to download anything... which, in Japan at least, will not be included. Remember, it's not compatible with PSP memory sticks, it's a new format. How about the prices?
http://kotaku.com/5840053/the-ps-vitas-3...s-in-japan
Quote:Memory card 4GB December 17, 2011 ¥2,200
Memory card 8GB December 17, 2011 ¥3,200
Memory card 16GB December 17, 2011 ¥5,500
Memory card 32GB December 17, 2011 ¥9,500
The only saving grace is that because Vita games are on cards themselves, many will have internal saving on the cards. However, some will apparently require memory cards to save, too; it'll depend on the game. On the DS and 3DS, of course, Nintendo requires internal save in all games; the Game Boy line always had it as optional, so third party games frequently would ditch batteries in favor of password saves (particularly on the GB and GBC, but on GBA to an extent as well), but Nintendo changed that on DS, and it was a great change. I wonder if this actually means some PSP games won't have saving on the cards, or if some games will require more save space than the amount on the card so you need a memory card too... we'll see I guess.
Battery life: About as expected.
Quote:< Reference: About Duration of the Battery>
Game: Approx. 3~5 hours
Video: Approx. 5 hours
Music (in stand-by mode): Approx. 9 hours
* Screen brightness default setting, Bluetooth feature off, headphones used
* Game, when not using the network
* The duration may change depending on the brightness of the screen, what content being played and if the network (3G/Wi-Fi) feature is being used or not
< Reference: About Charging Time of the Battery>
AC adaptor charging: Approx. 2 hours and 40 min.
* Charging from zero battery power.