Righting the Vita ship - part I

Intro
Although I feel its unnecessary at this point to write about this topic, the business side of me wonders what I would do if given the opportunity to resolve issues for Sony.  After approximately seven months of being released in North America, there certainly have been lessons learned and steps I believe need to be taken to "right this ship".

Keeping the Base Happy
As of today, there have been roughly 2.5 to 3 million PlayStation Vitas sold globally.  This means 2.5-3 million buyers of your product that have made a commitment and hopefully a long-term investment.  You'll need to energize the base, as recently seen at the Republican and Democratic National Conventions last month.  The base is typically your early adopters, the fans that have purchased the hardware and ample amount of software on day one.  There is eternal optimism on the long term viability of the system and they are always looking for a reason to defend their purchase and are willing to promote the system by word of mouth.  How does Sony bring those users in and revitalize them?

The first step is a consistent flow of backward compatible titles for the PSP as well as the PS One.  This is not only an additional revenue stream but a much needed factor in Vita adoption.  A large part of why PSP users have not upgraded to the PS Vita are (1) they've installed custom firmware and (2) their UMD discs are rendered useless.  SCEJ did offer a UMD-to-Digital download program but it failed to launch largely due to the negative feedback received about the pricing model.  This makes availability all the more important.  However, games like Final Fantasy Type-0 and Crisis Core from Square Enix are not available in digital format and fans have been clamoring for it since the release of the PS Vita.

[As of 9/29/2012]
PSP digital titles - 392
PSP games on Vita store - 282
PSOne digital titles - 181
PSOne games on Vita store - 73

% PSP moved to Vita = 72%
% PSOne moved to Vita =  40%

Conclusion - the Vita must provide at least 90% parity with titles offered on the PSP digital stores.  By the end of 2012, it should have 360 PSP titles available for download on the PSP games section of the Vita store.  In addition, there must be at least 160 titles PS One titles.  With 90% parity to what exists on the PSP digital store, future buyers of the hardware are assured a decent back catalog of titles.

Pub Fund for Two
One of the most innovative business decisions Sony has made in the last five years is the "Pub Fund".  The "Pub Fund" is a funding initiative where smaller developers are given "funds" to create and co-market new and innovative content for the PS3/PSP/PSN.  Some of the more prominent titles that have been created using the "Pub Fund" have been hits Joe Danger and Tales from Space: About a Blob.  By all accounts, titles produced under this initiative have been a critical and commercial success.

It is time to extend this initiative to the PS Vita.  If a game is given a "Pub Fund" allocation of $2 million to create content for the PSN on the PS3, I propose that this same developer be given an additional $500K-$1 million to port the content to the PS Vita with cross-play/cross-save functions (these allocations are estimations).  This will allow the developer to hire additional resources and convert code in parallel thereby keeping to the original project timeline.

The argument can be made, why not just create exclusive content for the Vita?  The PS3 has already plenty of content available on the PS Store.  Yes.  However, if the marketing and product strategy is to push cross play/buy/save, content must be on both platforms and there must be a top down policy to make this a priority.  As much as I respect and understand Sony's focus on letting the developer create content on the platform it wants to create it on, this will fragment the same user-base it is actively marketing.

Conclusion - Through the "Pub Fund for Two" initiative as well as other creative business deals with larger publishers, Sony must make an internal target of having 75% of PSN content published at the same time for PS3 and Vita by end of 2013.  Even with development and marketing shifting to the PS4, I see that percentage increasing to 90% by end of 2014.

Vita Remote Play - update

One of the biggest factors in my purchase decision for the Vita was Remote Play.  The Vita has the ability to map all input of a Dual Shock 3 controller so the possibilities were endless in trying to remotely play PS3 titles.  Interest peaked when custom firmware users uploaded videos of the Vita playing titles like Battlefield 3 and Red Dead Redemption.  There is still hope for this type of technology but it was sure slow to get off the ground.

The release of the Vita remote play saw limited support and by limited I mean using PSP remote play as a common denominator (ie Lair, Pixel Junk Monsters, etc).  Suffice to say, the technology did not improve as it felt like a copy and paste effort from the PSP to the Vita.  During TGS (Tokyo Game Show) 2011, Sony's Shuhei Yoshida demonstrated their flagship title Killzone 3 through Vita's updated Remote Play.  It wasn't perfect but it was indicative of things to come.  Unfortunately, it wasn't until Q3 of 2012 that this potential was realized.  Four PS3 titles were patched.  Ico and Shadow of the Colossus HD and God of War Collection (GoW I and GoW II).  The only title that I've tried myself has been Ico and can confirm that the execution of Remote Play has been relatively flawless if using the PS3 has an access point.  There isn't data yet that measures the latency of control input of the main character but it's been minimal to next to nothing.  It greatly helps connectivity if the Vita is in close proximity to the PS3 and in my case, it was less than 10 feet.  

Image quality, on the other hand, could improve.  Even in the camera shots provided below, it's evident that there's still a bit of artifacts on the screen.  It's not enough to detract you from playing this title through Remote Play but with better hardware in future PlayStation consoles, I an only see this improving with the integration of Gaikai.

(screenshots of Ico HD)

Vita game recommendations

Platforming (Action/Adventure)


The above games come highly recommended not only critically but also praised by the gaming community as a whole.  

Provided below are Official Thread links on NeoGAF (a community that I'm actively apart of).  This will provide you with ample information about the premise of the game and it's features.

Gravity Rush
Uncharted Golden Abyss
Little Big Planet Vita
Rayman Origins

Mario 3D Land - impressions

Let me preface this impression/preview by saying that I did recently purchase a 3DS once the price of the handheld dropped to $169.99.  Having replayed Super Mario World and New Super Mario Brothers on the Nintendo DS, I bought Super Mario Land 3D with high expectations.

Platforming is a lost art in gaming these days.  With the top selling games in 2011 being a shooter and an open world western RPG, there is very little writing space for top of the line platform games in most gaming media outlets.  Enter Mario 3D Land.

As with any Mario game, after booting up the game and getting past the tried and true "Princess Peach in trouble" scenario, it's time for true platforming.  Platforming involves jumping, climbing, swimming, and spinning your tail to float in the air?  Yes, spinning your tail is a critical element in this game for not only floating but also as an attacking mechanic.  Mario 3D land takes aspects of the previous Mario games before it.  Take for example jumping on a wire, which is from Mario Sunshine.  Even though the Tanooki Suit is from Super Mario Brothers 3, the float mechanics are similar to using the FLUDD in Mario Sunshine.  Nintendo has done a wonderful job of bring many past ideas to the table coupled with a few new ones in this 3DS adventure.

Despite the feeling that this game is relatively simple for most Mario veterans there is a sense of progression from World 1 to World 4.  Each world has five levels capping off with a boss battle at the end.  Although there is a some progression of difficulty between World 2 to World 3, the levels do not progress within the world. World 2-1 can be more difficult than World 2-3.  In addition, there have been levels in World 4 or 5 that I feel are more simple than World 1 or 2.  I prefer increasing difficulty for a platforming game but the variety all but makes up for it.  There are special levels after you finish World 8 with more difficult enemies added to the mix.  This does crank up the difficulty a bit but Mario veterans will have no problem.  The boss and mini boss battles are incredibly easy and if you die five times in a row, you get a special Toonaki suit that is virtually indestructible (unless you fall in lava).  There should also have been some variety in defeating Bowser and I believe Nintendo got a bit lazy on this.  Overall, despite my qualms on difficulty and boss battle approach, you will still enjoy it's progression.

Mario 3D Land is extremely satisfying as a 3D platformer.  I was originally skeptical at the premise of a 3D platformer with some 2D platforming mechanics.  Miyamoto has once again proved the skeptics wrong as he did with Mario 64 on the N64.  The graphics, platforming, music, and charm that you'd expect to see in a 3D Mario title is all there.  This is a must have title for 3DS owners as it's not only a great game but one that uses the 3D effects well.

Wii U - Gameplay concepts (Random Thoughts 2)

If you ask a PC gamer, what's the best way to play a first person shooter (FPS), it's a keyboard and mouse.  If you ask a console gamer, it's with a controller with two analogues and a left and right trigger to zoom and shoot.  How can Nintendo expand on the experience using their innovative controller?  As a follow up to Wii U game play concepts part I, the following suggestions will focus on improving the first person shooter.

Concept 4:

Use the LCD controller as an eagle eye for deploying drones.  Drones can serve multiple purposes.  They can be used for reconnaissance, supply deployment, or attacks.  Imagine playing Call of Duty and taking control of an intelligence drone where it will identify enemies on the map for your fellow team members.  Each identified enemy, when killed by your team member, will be given XP to your overall match point total.  If you deploy an attack drone, a top down view of the map is shown on the LCD with enemies highlighted.  Touch areas on the LCD screen where the enemies are located and a barrage of bombs will be released.

Concept 5:

Alternative views displayed on the LCD controller. A first person shooter is of course in first person.  A first person point of view is through the eyes of the player holding the gun.  The Wii U controller can display a third person view of the character to give the player a better layout of the surroundings.  The third person camera angle is high enough to the player a better sense of depth perception without removing the element of surprise.  This screen can also be used as the "death cam".  Instead of displaying the way you were killed on the main screen, you can see this on the controller.  Couple the display of your death with some stats on how you were killed (killed by Player X 3 times, killed by AK-47U, etc) and you're getting information in real-time without waiting to re-spawn.

Concept 6:

Accessibility to the menu system without having to pause the game.  There is nothing more defeating than getting shot while taking a brief moment to modify your gear.  Having the inventory system displayed on the LCD controller will allow the user to modify with some sort of awareness of his/her surroundings.  Take the concept of the "Gunsmith" that Ubisoft is showcasing with the next Ghost Recon.  Using this method of a weapon system to update your parts in real-time along with the ability to access this during a match .. makes for some interesting strategies.

HD Collections

The previous generation of home consoles have given us plenty of quality titles that can be played over and over again for years.  I'm not quite sure what to call the current flux of PS2/Xbox titles that have been given a high definition makeover.  The obvious business answer is a publisher's strategy to recoup on investments made three to five years ago.  You could also call it capitalizing on nostalgia.  Whatever it is, it's a win/win situation for the publisher and the potential buyer of the remade games.

Below is a list of HD collections/games:

Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection (2 games)
God of War Collection (2 games)
God of War: Origins Collection (2 games)
Prince of Persia Trilogy HD (3 games)
Splinter Cell Classics Trilogy (3 games)
The Sly Collection (3 games)
Tomb Raider Trilogy (3 games)
Metal Gear HD collection (3 games)
ZOE HD collection (2 games)
Resident Evil Collection (2 games)
Devils May Cry (3 games)
Silent Hill (3 games)
Monster Hunter 3 (1 game, PSP re-make)
Halo: Combat Evolved: 10th anniversary (1 game)
Beyond Good and Evil HD (1 game)
Ninja Gaiden Sigma (1 game)

I would like to suggest the following series/games to have HD equivalents

Jak and Daxter
Rachet and Clank
Final Fantasy X, X-2, and XII (PS2)
Final Fantasy Crisis Core and Type 0 (PSP)
Kingdom Hearts
Grand Theft Auto
Okami
Level 5 RPGs (Dark Cloud 2, Rogue Galaxy, and Dragon's Quest VIII)
Jade Empire
Halo 2
Fable

Improvements to Remote Play with PSVita?

The original PSP had the ability to remotely connect to the PS3 sort of like a Citrix connection. While you could only play Lair, PSOne games were playable along with the ability to log into the PlayStation Store and queue up content downloads.  Despite a limited feature set, Sony did experiment with this functionality and it's conceivable that it can be expanded on better hardware.

The Wii U has the ability to stream the game to it's LCD controller.  While the technology isn't new, they key words are "low" and "latency".  The stream is 1:1 or very close to 1:1.  What I'm proposing is to replicate this cross connectivity with the PS3/PSVita, specifically the stream function.

Not all games will have a PSVita version of the game where you can transfer the save file to continue on the PS3 or vice versa.  Allow the PSVita user to remotely play a PS3 game by streaming the image to the lovely 5 inch OLED screen.  The user can continue to play the game while the HDTV is used for other purposes like watching cable TV or Netflix.  The PSVita can be used as the Dual Shock 3 controller with the rear touch pad serving as virtual buttons for L2 and R2.