In its ongoing campaign to recapture the handheld market it once reigned upon, Sony has released its nextgen PSP – the PSVita in Japan. While the US release is still a couple months off, it hard not to wonder that Sony is too lat to the table and with the wrong hardware. Before we talk about approach, here are the Vita’s specs:
- CPU: ARM® Cortex™- A9 core (4 core) - GPU: SGX543MP4+ - Ex. Dim: 182.0 x 18.6 x 83.5mm - Screen: (Touch)5 inches (16:9), 960 x 544 - Rear Touch PadMulti touch pad - Cameras: Front camera, Rear camera - Sensors: Six-axis motion sensing system - (three-axis gyroscope, - three-axis accelerometer) -Three-axis electronic compass - Wireless Comm: (3G) - IEEE 802.11b/g/n - Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR - Location: Built-in GPS - Wi-Fi -
Essentially, it’s bringing to the party some great specs (at a great price $249) but that doesn’t take away from the fact that it’s a one use device (gaming). It will be directly compared to all the smartphones that will also come out in the spring, some of which will have similar specs and have multiple use functions, not just gaming.
So, is Sony going after the ever shrinking audience that wants just a handheld gaming device with better controls than a smartphone? Hard to believe, since the mobile industry is moving so heavily into smartphones as the dominent one off device. Does Sony not see this? Are they stuck in a time loop and don’t possess the leadership to see where gaming is going?
Sadly, all the diehard gaming companies seem to have fallen under this mindset, even Nintendo. Stop making the DS and releases all your franchise games on Android and iOS – evolve and turn yourself into a gaming company (not hardware).
Source: Sony
