Sony is clearly going all out with the PlayStation Vita, and with good reason.
Ever since the PlayStation Portable, or PSP to its friends, went on sale back in late-2004 in Japan and early-2005 everywhere else, the little PlayStation has had a hard life. Missing the dual thumb-sticks that many argued were a necessity in the post-dual shock world and packing an expensive price point, the PSP struggled for years to make a real impact in a market dominated by machines with Nintendo branding on them.
Now Sony is trying again, and in the PS Vita they might actually have a winner, assuming you can get past that name of course.
With hardware specifications that would have rivaled home computers not that long ago, the Vita is taking the approach of ‘more is best’ and promises to offer PS3-level gaming in the palm of your hand. Now, those old enough will remember that Sony said the PSP was going to over PS2-level gaming, and while things did improve later on, the machine never did really live up to that promise.
Part of that PS3-level of performance may actually include real PS3 games that are playable remotely on a PS Vita, according to information picked up by Eurogamer.
According to Eurogamer, the PS3 games will be remotely playable on a Vita thanks to an upcoming PS3 software update. The downside is that games will only be playable at the PSP resolution of 480×272, with the image then being upscaled to fit the Vita’s screen.
Future games will not have this limitation as they will be able to send a 480p image to the Vita’s 960×544 resolution screen. Much better!
Sony has already shown off what the Vita can do when a PS3 game is played remotely. Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida showed Killzone 3 off at the Tokyo Game Show recently, with the possible limitation of a lack of some Dual Shock buttons being eliminated by the addition of the Vita’s touch screen.
Can Sony be on to a winner this time around, or will Vita prove to be PSP Mk2, despite the company’s clear reluctance to have the Vita affiliated with its failed portable by name so far?
We’ll be picking one up regardless!
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