Vita Dead Before Launch?

Really?

Sony’s new handheld is due to launch in the UK on the 22^nd Feb and by the looks of it will have much the same sort of problems they faced with the PSP and PS3: price and developer involvement (so says my crystal ball, best not argue).

Retailing the wifi version at £229.99, it’s certainly not cheap, and while the hardware is powerful, I cannot help but feel that something is missing in the design concept. As I see it, Sony has done much as Nintendo with the 3DS and not fully understood its market base in handhelds. While both companies have massive resource structures and teams of people just to check this stuff, something is wrong still, otherwise the PSP and 3DS would have sold like hot cakes.

The crux of it is gamers on the move are not as interested in hardware capabilities as us gamers on comfy sofas. Games like Angry Birds have done so well because they are so simple; perfect pick up and play titles suited to quick commutes, or waiting for a mate at the pub. Handhelds should be catering towards ease of use, not power and graphics because it a. is not what the customer wants and b. will be harder to attract developers and publishers to put in large sums of money.

Power in mobile gaming

However, if you are after proper power, Infinity Blade II proves the power of iOS (or Android) games; smartphones are becoming more and more like handhelds without the buttons, and are you really prepared to splash out so much on those buttons? Look at the new Razor tablet, a perfect example of a meld between high end gaming and tablet convenience. I expect to see more and more such products announced this year as the market for dedicated machinery dwindles. The handheld market evolved way before mobiles and has struggled to compete since the smartphone revolution.

So, what's the Vita like? From all corners, it does seem to be a nifty little machine capable of delivering where it counts. Unfortunately, there's no need for it as we see more and more devices emulate a crossover ideal.