I got one of these. It's really cool. Anyone else waste a big chunk of money on a portable game device for children?

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nope

I thought it didn't come out until this coming Wednesday?

If you got the Baller Bundle that came with the highest model, a 4GB card, a game and a case you got it a week early.

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Four whole gigabytes?

Yeah the 4GB card is effectively worthless unless you're only going to keep game saves on there. I got the 32GB card and that'll probably be all I'll ever need - couple hundred songs, a couple of games and movies, and cart saves.

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Whoo boy those games are incredibly overpriced.

Yes they are. Hopefully this won't last long, right now I only have FIFA, Rayman Origins and a handful of PSP games. I think Sony are the only people who don't get that $50 for a handheld game is not reasonable, but they'll come around, just like they did with the PS3.

For me, $40 is the upper limit of what I'll pay for a handheld game, although really FIFA is basically the console FIFA 11 management game with FIFA 12's soccer engine, so getting that for $40 is a pretty good deal. The one thing that's surprising is how good these games look, sound and play. The quality I've seen (other than Uncharted, which is kind of a pretty skin on a shitty launch game) out of this system is pretty close to what you'd see on console. Everything doesn't run at a straight 60 FPS all the time, and the video cache seems to fill up pretty quickly, so like cutscene animations at the end of a 15-minute FIFA game will be a little hitchy, but I'd say 90% of the graphical quality I've seen is incredibly smooth.

To be clear, it is NOT worth the high price for basically anyone. But after being burned a few years in a row on PSP FIFA games (basically the only thing I play at my desk when I have time for office gaming), seeing a console quality soccer game on a device that does all the shit other devices do (except an e-reader, I guess) was enough to sell me on it. I paid too much for it, but I don't regret buying one. I would much rather have overpaid by about $100 of what I'd say this thing is worth than not have one.

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I'm positive Sony has secured a solid corner of the market here, and that with a few marketing moves, their future in the market will be totally secured. I only have one remaining question, really.

What's your Vita's number?





...Wait. You mean it's not a phone?

Predictable snark aside, I think you're right. With the right price points for downloadable games and some successful marketing, this thing could be huge in the states.

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I think it's a niche, and one that's narrowing every month. It can't compete with Tablets for mobile entertainment marketshare.

I think it's narrowing just because the 3DS is a piece of crap and the PSP hasn't been supported since the Vita was announced. I think a lot of people want to be able to play non-iOS games on the go, and this is the best device to do so. If you only want to ever play Angry Birds, you already have the avenue to do it. If you don't want shitty touchscreen controls for real games made by real game companies (i.e. bad iOS ports), this is the way to do that.

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Im seriously thinking about getting one to play PS3 games in my bed in remote mode. The PS3 is in the living room.

Thank you Fin, I have a new definitive example for the term "edge case".