playstation vita
Latest
PlayStation Vita out in October, says Blockbuster UK flyer
Blockbuster may have had its share of trouble here in the States, but that doesn't mean its British brother isn't doing well enough to have (and leak) a big-shot release date or two. According to a flyer brandishing the Blockbuster logo and that good 'ol co.uk extension, the PlayStation Vita will land in the United Kingdom on October 28th. That's ominously close to Halloween -- not that we're suggesting anybody is having pre-holiday PSV boot-shakes, or anything -- and the flyer's fall release prediction squares up nicely with Sony's "end of 2011" launch window. As always, we suggest taking rumors and leaks such as this with a grain of salt -- but considering Sony's sinkable record regarding loose lips, we'd understand a low sodium approach. Hit the break to get a peek at the Blockbuster UK flyer -- ready and waiting for your judgement.
Rumor: PS Vita UK release date outed by Blockbuster
If the unverified Blockbuster UK flyer above is to be believed, it can only mean two things: 1) Blockbuster done goofed it, and 2) Her Majesty's gamers will be able to get their hands on Sony's touchy-feely handheld as early as October 28. The mailer was delivered to IGN by an anonymous reader, and while the authenticity of the advertisement has yet to be authenticated, the date does coincide with Sony's global launch window. As of press time, no changes have been made to Blockbuster UK's pre-order listing for the Vita, which still lists the street date as "TBA." We'll be keeping a close eye on this one, but for the time being we're going to file it under "hrmmmm" in our massive rumor rolodex.
Dan and Anna knocked out of Street Fighter X Tekken's final roster
According to series producer Yoshinori Ono, Street Fighter X Tekken's character roster has been finalized, and it looks like last year's trailer was too much for Dan Hibiki to handle. Speaking with Siliconera, Ono stated that Street Fighter's pinkest protagonist "won't be in Street Fighter X Tekken" due to the fact that "he was killed by a Tekken character at Comic-Con last year." Ono also remarked that Tekken veteran Anna Williams will be staying on the sidelines as well, albeit for less lethal reasons. "As much as I personally wanted to have a cool Nina and Anna tag battle," he said, "the director was against putting Anna because we already had Nina in." While we sincerely doubt that Dan is actually, for-reals dead, we can't help but be saddened by the news. A Yoshimitsu Super-Taunt doesn't seem like it would have the same flair, you know?
Report: Samsung manufacturing the PlayStation Vita CPU
For the PlayStation Vita, Sony is foregoing the hardware design strategies used for the PSP and PS3 -- custom, expensive, Sony-designed chips -- in favor of cheaper off-the-shelf hardware, which is one reason it can charge $250 for something that seems like it came from the future. One example of this new strategy: a brief note on the Semiconductor Industry News site says that Samsung will manufacture the four-core ARM Cortex A9 CPU for the handheld, using a 45nm process. That saves Sony money on R&D, and saves us from having to read marketing about the purported magical abilities of another Sony chip like the "Emotion Engine" or the Cell.
Report: PlayStation Vita memory 'about ten times' that of PSP [update]
Sony hasn't officially shared the PlayStation Vita's technical specifications, and rumors insist that the amount of memory in the system has been cut since developers originally got on board. Daniel Sánchez-Crespo, CEO of Invizimals developer Novarama, recently provided some calming context to these claims in an interview with Develop, saying that his studio was "unaffected" by any rumored RAM reduction. "It's actually good for developers to work under constraint," he said. "Generally for Vita, we still have a whole lot of headroom in terms of GPU power, CPU power and indeed RAM." According to Sánchez-Crespo, the Vita's quantity of RAM (Random Access Memory) bests that of the PSP by "about ten times." With the first PSP making do with 32MB -- yes, really -- that would put the Vita somewhere in the region of at least 256MB. "Remember, more hardware features means more costs for buying the handheld," Sánchez-Crespo added. "Our main interest is for Sony to sell a lot of [PS Vita] units. Clearly the Sony guys in Japan have a tough job of what to leave in and what to leave out." The Sony-exclusive Novarama is currently working on a few augmented-reality projects, including another Invizimals hunt and Reality Fighters, a camera-enabled fighting game for PlayStation Vita. Update: Develop now reports that one of its Sony Japan sources insists that no cuts have been made to the system's RAM. Of course, whether or not changes have been made to the specification is less relevant when we don't know how much memory there was to begin with. What we want is a number, and Sánchez-Crespo's comparison of Vita to the original PSP has been the best hint thus far, outside of official confirmation.
Supremacy MMA pummeling PlayStation Vita holiday 2011
Supremacy MMA is all but guaranteed to be the supreme MMA game on at least one platform at launch: the PlayStation Vita. In addition to the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions, out September 20, publisher 505 Games announced a PlayStation Vita version, due "holiday 2011," thus putting it somewhere within the hardware's launch window. The Vita version packs exclusive stuff not seen in the console versions, including fighters, venues and undefined "features" exclusive to the handheld version. Sometimes you just need a quick shot of brutal hand-to-hand combat while you're out of the house. At least 505 hopes so.
PlayStation Vita's Near, LiveArea and other social features outlined
Between its Near, Party, LiveArea and Activity social features, there's a whole lot going on under the hood of the PlayStation Vita. SCEE R&D exec Phil Rogers broke down those capabilities at Develop last week: Near, for instance, will allow Vita owners to look at the favorite games of nearby players, and allow players to drop and pick up "gifts," which could range from special in-game items to high score challenges. Rogers explained that Party will give players cross-game chat capabilities, allowing them to invite friends to groups and launch games directly through the UI, which all party members will be invited to. The LiveArea is a tad more esoteric: it will display information about software as it is launched, and will allow users to "comment on people's activities within the game as well as publish your messages." Sounds like the perfect receptacle for smack talk. Finally, the Activity feed will show the in-game accomplishments of friends (including high scores and Trophy unlocks) in real time. The feed can also be updated by publishers and developers, though Rogers suggested, "it's important not to spam users too much and to use it sensibly." We pray that Rogers' advice is heeded.
Sound Shapes preview: Run, jump, dance
Do you own any of the following? A. Very flexible, DJ-quality headphones B. A messenger bag sized specifically for vinyl records C. A modded Game Boy/Game Boy Color/etc. for creating music D. The freshest styles and moves, straight from Planet Funketron If you answered "Yes" to any of the above, and you also share my love for precision platforming in video games like N+ and Super Meat Boy, then Sound Shapes is gonna be your jam.%Gallery-125607%
Capybara, Metanet helping to develop Sound Shapes
This morning, while thoroughly enjoying a preview of Queasy Games' next project, Sound Shapes for the PlayStation Vita, I had a chance to chat with project leads Jonathan Mak and Shaw-Han Liem. Given Mak's past with game development (Everyday Shooter), I wondered how much his team had grown since its first Sony game -- and accidentally stumbled on a really exciting detail about the forthcoming music/platformer. "It started with us two, then there were four of us, then there were six, then there were eight," Liem told me. "We have some people helping, on contract," said Mak. "Capybara Games is helping us, Metanet is helping us. We're all friends in Toronto." It seems that, beyond the small group of people employed under the "Queasy Games" umbrella, folks from acclaimed indie dev houses Capybara Games (Critter Crunch) and Metanet (N+) are putting work into Sound Shapes. Mak further noted, "A lof of these levels are actually Capy," referencing the levels I played in the preview build on-hand. He also explained to me that the folks at Queasy iterate on the levels before they make it into the game. Which isn't to say that the only folks working on Sound Shapes are Queasy Games and the aforementioned duo of dev houses. "All the indie game companies in Toronto hang out together and help each other out," Liem explained. "For us, I think a lot of the stuff that we're doing is new to us, or stuff that we're doing for the first time. So to be able to draw upon the people who've gone through it before is really great."%Gallery-125607%
LittleBigPlanet Vita dev signs exclusivity deal with Sony
Sony has added another LittleBigPlanet developer to its collection. Franchise originator Media Molecule became a Sony-exclusive first party in 2010, and now PlayStation Vita LBP developer Double Eleven is joining them in the exclusive club, though through a contract and not outright ownership. Double Eleven has signed a deal with Sony in which the developer, formed by ex-Rockstar Leeds lead engineers, will create games exclusively for SCEE. That includes LittleBigPlanet, along with "new titles for Sony platforms" -- mostly the Vita, we assume, given the studio's predilection for handheld gaming.
Final Fantasy XI may be ported to PlayStation Vita
It's not definite yet, but signs are pointing to a possible port of Final Fantasy XI over to the recently announced PlayStation Vita in the indeterminable future. Siliconera reports that Square Enix is mulling over a basic port of the aging title to the beefed-up portable platform. While the plans are not definite at this point, it's an intriguing concept especially when you consider Vita's Wi-Fi and 3G capabilities. Hiromichi Tanaka, former lead designer for Final Fantasy XI and producer for Final Fantasy XIV, says that while a Vita port is a possibility, the difficulties of working with the PlayStation 3 mean that a version on that console doesn't look likely (the PS3 version of XIV is still in limbo). Final Fantasy XI recently received a dollop of quality-of-life improvements in the July update.
Levine talks BioShock Infinite's Move functionality, no plans for Wii U
In a recent IGN interview, Irrational Games creative director Ken Levine discussed how he made that demo for BioShock Infinite so very, very good. Of course, we all know the answer to that is "witchcraft" -- however, Levine also talked about the game's Move functionality, a feature first announced at E3. He explains it will be entirely optional to the experience, saying, "my hope is that we'll succeed in the experiment and people will like it. But if they don't like it, they'll never know it's there. And that's cool." As for the franchise's future, Levine reiterated that the BioShock title planned for the Vita will be "a new game," which is going to be "strange and surprising to people." As for E3's other hot-ticket piece of hardware, the Wii U, Levine explained, "I'm not saying it can't happen, but we have no plans to do any games for that platform." That's a shame -- we bet that tiny screen would be perfect for an upsettingly visceral EVE Hypo-injecting metagame.
Sony must support indie developers, says Yoshida
Speaking to Develop Online, Sony Computer Entertainment's Worldwide Studio President Shuhei Yoshida said that the gaming megalith sees value in the continuously expanding world of indie development, and that supporting those developers is the key to industry growth. "We have to support those smaller teams," he said. "Without doing so, the whole industry will stall, in terms of innovation." Yoshida thinks Sony's forthcoming PS Vita will serve as a good platform for indie developers currently subsisting in the mobile-phone universe, citing the handheld's capacitive touch-screen and AR capabilities as an entry-level gateway for development on the platform. He also added that the Vita's development kit has been specifically engineered with affordability in mind, and that the system is "small and light and easy for developers to handle." With smartphones gobbling up increasingly larger slices of the mobile gaming pie, Sony seems to be positioning itself as the indie-friendly option for mobile developers looking to enter the world of dedicated gaming devices.
Activision head Bobby Kotick positive but unsure on Vita; sees Wii U as 'really necessary' for Nintendo
When Bobby Kotick's not busy making appearances in major motion pictures alongside Brad Pitt, he heads up Call of Duty publisher Activision. And as head of one of the largest (if not the largest) third-party game publisher, what he says about the future of various consoles can have some major implications. It seems that, like Activision has done in the past with new platforms, Kotick's stance on both Nintendo's Wii U and Sony's PlayStation Vita is "very interested" with a heavy side of apprehension. In an interview with The Guardian, Kotick spoke to his feelings on the PS Vita. "Technically, we're super excited about what we can do on it, it's really something incredible. The question is, where is the market?" While he's excited by the capability of the PS Vita, and his company has already pledged support, Kotick acknowledged the burgeoning smart phone market for games as well. "It's a really nice product and its very well differentiated from what you can get in even the most capable smartphone or tablet today," he professed. As for Nintendo's Wii successor, the Wii U, Kotick said that Activision has had dev kits "for awhile now" and that, while Nintendo has yet to fully clarify its online system even to him, the console apparently makes "rich multiplayer games" a possibility -- a first for Nintendo, if true. As far as timing goes, Kotick stated that Nintendo's hardware reveal was a necessity. "For the kinds of games we create, it was becoming very difficult for us to support the Wii with the expectations that our gamers have ... from a development perspective, having a Nintendo device that is on parity with the other hardware from a graphics perspective was really necessary." As you might expect, Activision is apparently "very enthusiastic about it," though he wouldn't detail any specific titles in development at the publisher. When pressed on new intellectual properties, Kotick deferred to Bungie's unannounced project, as well as "the new MMO from Blizzard" (the rarely spoken of "Titan" project). And as expected, he spoke ambiguously regarding this year's Guitar Hero franchise gutting. "Until we can deliver a really high level of innovation and tap into the high level of creativity and inspiration of the people we have making games, we won't put the products out," he admitted. "That goes for everything -- we've always subscribed to that philosophy." We're not sure that the last few Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk titles would back up Mr. Kotick's claim, but then we're not the corporate figurehead of an enormous public company.
Sony demos PS Vita 'Face Control,' we get super creeped out forever
During the aptly named Game Tools and Middleware event held yesterday in Tokyo, Sony showed off an intriguing, terror-inspiring feature of the PlayStation Vita: "Face Control." That capability isn't inherently horrifying, but the tech demo Sony used to illustrate its uses certainly was. While video chatting with a remote friend using the handheld, players used their facial movements to control the eerie, lifeless faces of 3D avatars. You can check out a video of the tech demo posted above. Just be forewarned: If we're ever chatting with any of you on our PS Vita, your human face is suddenly replaced by that of a virtual tiger, we're going to hang up immediately and then burn your very memory from our consciousness, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind-style.
Invizimals developer Novarama working exclusively with Sony
Invizimals developer Novarama didn't just announce a new game in its PSP augmented reality series today: it announced a new deal with Sony that will ensure more of the Spanish company's games will appear on Sony systems. The AR-focused developer has entered into an exclusivity agreement with SCEE. That means that the PlayStation Vita fighter Reality Fighters will remain a Vita-only experience, and Novarama will also begin working on new games for Sony. "For a studio geared towards innovation like Novarama, having a partner of the size and experience of Sony is the perfect blend," said Novarama CEO Dani Sánchez-Crespo. "By extending our partnership, we will continue making kids believe in invisible creatures and turning gamers into video game characters." Put that way, it sounds a lot more like the work of some evil mastermind. "Soon, all the children will believe in invisible creatures! And then, the world is ours!"
BioShock Infinite sweeps Best of E3 Game Critics Awards, PlayStation Vita wins Best Hardware
There was little confusion amongst this year's E3 judges as to which game was most deserving: Super Stick Man Golf. Unfortunately it wasn't eligible for nomination, already being out and all, so the judges (this writer included) had to settle on another game. Luckily, Ken Levine and his crew at Irrational Games brought the scrumtrulescent BioShock Infinite which, when the votes were all tallied up, managed to win an admittedly finite number of awards. While we're sure the team is disappointed, we'd like to remind them that Infinite won every award it was nominated for, including Best of Show. Other notable winners include The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which bagged both Best Role-Playing Game and Best Console Game; Battlefield 3, which took home Best Action Game and Best Online Multiplayer; and Sound Shapes which scored Best Handheld Game and Best Social/Casual Game. We've assembled a list of all the nominees with the winners in bold just past the break. If you want some more stats (Xbox 360 was the lead platform with 14 wins) check out the Fast Facts link below!
LittleBigPlanet Vita being developed by Double11
In case you didn't know, we quite liked LittleBigPlanet's PlayStation Vita outing when we played it during E3. Heck, it was even Griffin's game of the show. And as of today, we know who to thank for brightening our annual week of overwork -- Double11. The ex-Rockstar helmed studio has been recruiting for LBP Vita and grown to over 30 staff members since being formed in 2010. "We've spent the best part of a year recruiting a crack squad of games development professionals and we're delighted that we can finally announce it," CEO Lee Hutchinson notes in the announcement. Also in the release: news that the game is being co-developed by Sweden-based Tarsier Studios, who contributed to previous LBP games on PS3. Reps from Tarsier didn't get to say anything in the release.
PlayStation Vita's rear touch panel almost got bumped
It seems as if Sony wasn't quite feeling the PlayStation Vita's rear touch panel at first. Speaking to Famitsu (as translated by Andriasang), Sony's president of worldwide studios, Shuhei Yoshida, revealed that the portable's most groundbreaking feature was nearly stricken from the final design due to cost concerns. Specifically, Sony wasn't sure that the effect it would have on gameplay was worth its part of the sticker price. That changed, though, after people actually got their hands on it; it went from questionable to being a must-have feature. Yoshida said in the same interview that while the touch panel is definitely a keeper, some small elements of the Vita's design are still subject to change. We're guessing he means minor cosmetic tweaks, since the hardware we saw at E3 seemed pretty much final. Whatever gets altered, it'd better not involve removing the ultra-spiffy PlayStation icon pattern on the touch panel.
Yoshinori Ono on the 'violent' and 'friendly' rivalries in Street Fighter X Tekken
Capcom was showing a playable build of its latest, and weirdest, crossover fighter, Street Fighter X Tekken at E3. So I'm sure producer Yoshinori Ono had dealt with his share of dazed, sputtering journalists in interviews, all fresh from having their minds scrambled by a mix of Tekken speed, Street Fighter controls (mostly) and unfamiliar rules from both sides. But Ono himself was energetic as usual, sitting in a meeting room within Capcom's E3 booth, Blanka figure, as ever, nearby. He helped make sense of the mishmash of new rules, the X (cross) in the name -- and of the addition of a new element, Infamous's Cole McGrath.
