Resistance: Burning Skies dev finds Vita not that different to PS3

Resistance: Burning Skies developer Nihilistic hasn’t struggled with the transition from PlayStation 3 to Vita development.


“[Sony] were looking for PS3 developers to milk the power out of the Vita, and I think that’s definitely the right way to go because it’s got a lot of power,” Nihilistic’s Rob Heubner told the US PS Blog.

“It’s got all the shaders, it’s got a lot of CPU.”

Huebner said similarities between the PlayStation 3 and Vita’s capabilities meant it wasn’t “really that big of a change” for the studio to switch over to the new portable.

“We’re a PlayStation 3 company. That’s our engine, that’s our technology,” he said.

The developer also teased upcoming “surprises” foregrounding Vita’s unique controller set in addition to announced touch screen and twin-stick schemes.

No release date has been set for Resistance: Burning Skies

Sony: There’s a “real strong” market for rich portable gaming

Sony’s research has convinced it there is a market for portable gaming of the kind smartphones can’t yet provide.


“When you look at the type of consumer that’s playing cell phone games currently, it’s someone that enjoys smaller ‘kill time’ gaming and has not gravitated to the larger, richer, deeper experiences that true handheld gaming provides,” Sony’s John Koller told Gamespot.

“We’ve certainly seen that on the PSP, and I know Nintendo has probably commented on it for their products, but as we go toward the PlayStation Vita, I can tell you that as we started looking at that product and the market opportunity several years ago, we saw a real strong demographic for those deeper, richer, console-type experiences.”

The hardware maketing director said the controls which make Vita unique in the portable space set it apart, appealing to both core and casual users.

“That ‘new ways to play’ idea, particularly for Vita, really differentiates from what’s available on mobile phones or tablets and, frankly, what will be available on those platforms over the next three to five years,” he said.

“You’re going to see PS Vita expand what a lot of people believe to be true about handheld gaming, and you’re going to see a lot of those current mobile phone and tablet gamers come over to Vita. We’re very convinced of that.”

PS Vita is 'technically brilliant,' says SEGA West boss

SEGA West overlord Mike Hayes has heaped praise on PlayStation Vita, labelling Sony’s shiny new pocket brick as ‘technically brilliant.’

Chatting with IndustryGamers, Hayes made it clear that the company is fully behind the tech-heavy handheld, making note of Sony’s desire to target hardcore gamers with the device.

"We had Virtua Tennis World Tour on PSP when it first came out. It was one of the biggest 3rd party sellers - obviously bigger in Europe than it will be in the States, but we've managed to use a lot of the functionality of Vita. And we've made it very clear we're going to support Sony with that title," said Hayes.

"It's interesting on Vita - technically it's brilliant, it's beautiful, and it's really great to play. And Sony has made it very clear they want to target core gamers primarily. So we take that on board with the titles that we're going to bring out."

Hayes added that he thinks one of Vita’s main attractions will be its diverse range of software prices, noting the scales won’t just be tipped in favour of high-end releases.

"The nice thing about the Vita, I think, is ultimately going to be the range of software pricing types that you can put on it so it's not just the high end game at the high end price,” he offered.

"You can do the mid-point, more like your XBLA or PSN titles and of course maybe even a small bite size of more app type software. For me, the strength of that device is the whole spectrum of software, that will either sell as physical or as digital. That, I think, is a big point of difference for us as a developer."

Analyst Believes Sony Must Lower Vita Price “or Risk a Major Failure”

With the recent announcement that Nintendo is slashing the price of their handheld by $80, analysts have begun to speak out on how this will affect the upcoming PlayStation Vita. According to one analyst, Hideki Yasuda of Tokyo-based Ace Securities, the future of Sony’s handheld is not looking too bright – at the current price anyway.


Yasuda said:

Gamers are increasingly anticipating Sony to lower prices, especially after the 3DS cut. Sony is under major pressure to cut the price of the Vita or risk a major failure.

While the 3DS price cut will no doubt make things a bit more difficult for Sony, lowering the price may not necessarily be the answer. Shiro Mikoshiba of Nomura Holdings told Bloomberg he doesn’t believe that the higher price point of Sony’s portable is anything to worry about.

The customers Sony is targeting with its Vita are those willing to spend a lot of money. That’s a valid strategy even if the volume’s low as long as it can sustain the higher price.

In addition, Sony chairman Kazuo Hirai spoke out yesterday proclaiming that Sony has no intention of getting into a price battle with Nintendo.

Sony explains PS Vita’s online features

Sony has unleashed lots of new information regarding Playstation Vita’s online modes Near, Party, LiveArea and Activity.


Near is like the Nintendo 3DS’ SpotPass. It’s “a location-based gifting system”, which allows users to gift each other and find out more about games.

“What Near does is it allows users to discover each other, leave gifts for each other and essentially find out more about games,” said Phil Rogers, SCEE’s research and development boss, at Develop last week.

“You can see where people are in relation to your location, their five most recently played games and also gifts that they’ve registered.

“This is fairly cool because it exposes users to games they might not have heard of and you can see how popular those games are and how people are rating them.

Another interesting feature is that “unlike another platform”, Near’s gifts don’t settle down in one place, following you around as you “go about your daily life”. Near allots you with one 100KB gift box per game. You can store multiple gifts per box but can’t exceed the 100KB data limit imposed.
Rogers went on to illustrate a verbal picture of such a scenario:

“Imagine user A visits locations one to ten through that day, and they get home and sync with the server and it uploads to the Near server your ten locations that you’ve been to.
“User B comes along, does the same thing, but at some point in User B’s day they passed User A’s location five, which means they’re now able to collect gifts that that user’s dropped. That comes into the Near application and then in-game they pick up those gifts.”

Players will be able to specify how many times a gift can be collected, its availability from  your daily locations in terms of relative distance, how long a gift lasts for, access to the gift, and other players chances of finding it. Rare items might only be discovered by one lucky person out of 100 people.
“You could have a rare ship and you could drop that and someone could collect that by using Near.”

Rogers also revealed that gifts can be more than just service-specific items: you can also gift challenges and even in-game gear. He also confirmed that Near will come with a feature which will allow players to write a gift note to your gift-giver in order to thank him.
Rogers then went on to discuss that Party feature of Vita.

Party is “really good for having friends together to discuss games, chat about them and get into them”, Rogers said.

Similar to Xbox Live’s, Vita’s Party is “platform-wide” and allows you and three friends to form a party that sticks together irrespective of what you do on the handheld. “You can chat across games through text and voice,”Rogers revealed.

Rogers put particular emphasis on Vita’s cross-game voice chat feature. “Cross-game voice chat, it’s there and it’s on Vita.”

Rogers explained that you’ll also be able to launch Vita games from within Party and your friend will be able to click and button and join in the action.

“You can have different Party groups for different games or genres,” expanded Rogers. “Maybe you’ve got a first-person shooter group that you can all chat and go into.

“The voice chat part you can override,” he added, “so if in-game you’ve got your own teams for audio then you can override the Party chat and turn that off.”

He concluded by saying that Party is integrated with friends lists but isn’t mandatory and developers can opt out of including it in their games. “Games can choose not to,” said Rogers.
He then went on to explain the LiveArea and Activity features:

“The LiveArea is essentially where you go to launch your PlayStation Vita day,” Rogers quipped.
There are three modes in LiveArea: Index, Live and Game. The top area you’ll see is the content information zone, which is the “landing point for when you start any game on PS Vita”. The communication zone is where you “comment on people’s activities within the game as well as publish your messages”.

“Activity is a way for players to discuss progress,” explained Rogers. “The system automatically puts a few activities in there,” he added, such as Trophies and ratings. “That encourages people to then comment similar to Facebook style.”

“Publishers: it’s important not to spam users too much and to use it sensibly.”
Developers and publishers will be able to update LiveArea.

“When you ship the game it’s got the standard LiveArea that you bake into the game card,” said Rogers. But through updates “you can even customise it to the user” by pushing out different data.
Publishers can also “push data to users” by putting images on the LiveArea frontpage as well as announcements on the bottom part of the logo. “It’s a good way to push DLC,” said Rogers. “So there’s new levels out, click, go to the Store.” It’s also a good way to push news about the game. But Rogers offered a word of warning to publishers that “it’s important not to spam users too much and to use it sensibly”.

LiveArea also has location features and allows pubs/devs to track Vita owners “either by GPS on the 3G model or triangulation of mobile phone cells”.

“As well as that we work with Skyhook and they provide wireless access points around to keep a general idea of where you are,” elaborated Rogers. “So even with the Wi-Fi-only SKU you can still have a vague concept of where the user is.”

He concluded by admitting that Sony doesn’t have a concrete idea about the utilization of these features by developers. “We’re generally open to innovation.”

Marvel Pinball heading to Vita, Wii U, 3DS, more

At Comic-Con the Marvel Interactive team came together to talk about there latest announcements and updates for already released games.

Specifically, Marvel said that the well-regarded pinball game will be brought to a variety of new platforms by the end of 2012, including the PlayStation Vita, 3DS, Wii U, and PC, as well as iOS and Android devices. As for versions of the game that are already out, Zen Studios will be releasing the Marvel Pinball: Vengeance and Virtue add-on pack through Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network this winter. The add-on brings four new tables, one of which will be themed around Ghost Rider.

Capcom COO: Monster Hunter Vita Has To Happen

Good news all around

One game made the PSP a success in Japan: Monster Hunter. With series sales in the tens of millions, it proved the system had a lot to offer and became a genuine phenomenon. Capcom would be foolish not to bring the series to Vita of course, and chief operating officer David Reeves knows it.

Speaking to MEGamers, Reeves spoke of the company's plans for Vita support in future, revealing there are four games in development including an unnamed launch title. It won't be Street Fighter X Tekken though; that's due later, along with two other titles, of which Reeves says:

I am sure you can guess what one of them has to be, considering the success in Japan.

Adding further fuel to the hunter's fire, Reeves had this to say too:

I think down the road, you could probably see a Monster Hunter iteration somewhere. Probably on both of them [3DS and Vita].

Tokyo Game Show happens in September. Will we get our first sniff of a Vita Monster Hunter then?

Kojima dishes on Peace Walker HD, Vita with Sony

Hideo Kojima described to the PS Blog some of the changes his team made to Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker so the PSP title would work on PS3.


“PSP obviously has fewer buttons than the PS3 controller, and it had some limitations when it comes to control,” he said. “Using the DualShock 3, movement of many things improved…as did, of course, [the addition of] rumble support.

“On the PSP, it was also hard to tell some textures apart. Now, rendered in HD, they are are much easier to see. The in-game text is also easier to read.”

Kojima went on to say that “transfarring” will allow players to take their Peace Walker save files from one PSP to another PSP, and that the next step is to take PS2-quality games like MGS 2 and MGS 3to HD and “then to take them to Vita transfarring.”

“My next step is games that will come out for the PS3 from now on, so I can take advantage of this technology with the Vita with content that is exactly the same,” he said. “I hope that cloud service is available now, and it would be ideal for me if transfarring were to serve as a bridge between the two services.”

Naughty Dog Believes the PS3 and Vita Can Replicate Wii U Gameplay Experiences

In a recent interview, Naughty Dog’s Game Director, Justin Richmond was asked what he thought of Nintendo’s upcoming console, the Wii U. He wasn’t too impressed and, if anything, he thinks that Sony’s platforms are capable of the same technology. He stated:

Nintendo was under the spotlight at this year’s E3 with their new Wii U, a console that works together with its handheld-like controller to produce unique gameplay experiences. While a lot of the crowd was skeptical (including me), there’s no denying that it’ll offer new possibilities, and with the right support can be truly innovative. However, the development kings at Naughty Dog seems to think that the Wii U isn’t the only platform that will be able to offer handheld-to-console gameplay.

To be honest with you, the idea of it is very, very cool. But there’s nothing that the Wii U has that the Vita and PS3 doesn’t.

Sony still hasn’t announced the PlayStation 4, but it’s definitely near. I’m convinced that Sony is looking into offering gameplay that merges both the upcoming Vita and PS4, if not the current PS3. The price point to experience this type of gameplay is going to be a big hurdle for both companies, but if people truly enjoy the style, then it isn’t worth chancing it and ending up behind the curve like what happened with motion gaming. Most of all, if Sony is able to produce the same effect, then they’ll have the upper hand since the Vita is actually portable and has two touchscreens, while the PS3 and possibly the PS4 offer Blu-Ray.

Capcom: At least four Vita games planned, one based on popular IP in Japan

Capcom Euope’s David Reeves has said the firm is treating 3DS and Vita “pretty equally,” but in terms of the latter, current plans for the handheld include four titles, one of which is based off a popular IP in Japan.


Speaking in an interview with ME Gamers, Reeves said there will be at least one launch title for the system, with Street Fighter vs Tekken and two others on the horizon. One of the two planned, Reeves is “sure you can guess what one of them [it] has to be, considering the success in Japan.”

“I think down the road, you could probably see a Monster Hunter iteration somewhere,” he added. “Probably on both [3DS and Vita]. I haven’t heard any concrete plans…they don’t always share those plans…because they switch teams many times.

“Personally, I find Vita a little bit more enticing. It’s got more to get into, it has 3G, it feels good in the hand. I find…and Nintendo will probably tell you as well…that 3D is not what they are going to sell it [3DS] on. They think 3D is something that will draw people in, but after a while, that’s it. People will just use the slider and put it into 2D. And they are aware of that.

“It’s going to depend on the software ultimately, whether it be a Zelda or a Mario, they are the games that will probably draw players in and sell systems. It will be interesting to see who prevails. I think in the Middle East it will probably be Vita, because of its PlayStation brand. In Russia it will certainly prevail as well. I think in the US and Europe, however, it’s going to be quite a battle. And that’s only good for consumers.

“But Capcom themselves are pretty agnostic about it. They will choose the game that will suit the individual platforms and develop for both of them. Just as other publishers, like Ubisoft, who are developing for both of them as well.”

BlazBlue producer: “Now is the time for fighting games”

Street Fighter IV has opened the way to a resurgence of the fighter genre, according to Arc System Works’ Toshimichi Mori.

“Thanks to Street Fighter IV, people are playing fighting games a lot more than the past,” the BlazBlue producer told Siliconera.

” … Games trends are cyclic. RPGs, for example, can be really popular at one time and then come back later on. Action games, shooting games are like this too. Now is the time for fighting games.”

BlazBlue doesn’t have the immediate recognisability of Capcom’s fighters, but it’s a highly-respected franchise among genre fans, hailing from the same stables and sharing many similarities with the Guilty Gear series.

“We have been making fighting games for a long time and we’re always going to compete with Capcom to make better games,” Mori noted. “We hope the players will enjoy the all of these games.”

The latest games in the BlazBlue series is the upcoming 3DS and Vita title, currently called BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II Plus.

Bigger focus on Vita games compared to the PSP launch

Speaking before E3, Sony's head of WorldWide Studios Suhei Yoshida told us that the company's decision to concentrate much more on PS3 software than PSP titles was a "mistake" and hurt the handheld.

However, it is not a mistake that Sony will make twice.

"We are doing about the same number of titles [on Vita as on PS3] so that means a lot," "One of the things we didn't do to well to support PSP was that right after PSP came out we moved on to working on the PS3 launch titles. "So we shifted too much resource out of PSP so after a couple of years the PSP support when quickly down."

They tried making up for the lost time a phew years ago, but Sony thinks it was already to late by then. This time around, Sony will balance PS3 and Vita production evenly and bring out allot of triple-A games for both systems.

Vita will be surpassed by smartphones in 2 years

In an interview with John Carmack, the man implied that it’s going to be a bit hard for Vita to compete in the “post-smartphone world.”

 he believes Sony has “learned a lot from the PS3, and they’ve gone out of their way to make sure that the development is as easy as possible,” on Vita.

“However, I wouldn’t want to be the executive making the decision to launch a new portable gaming machine in the post-smartphone world,” said Carmack who thinks Vita could end up competing with Sony’s Xeperia.

“I think that they’ve picked as eminently a suitable hardware spec as they could for that, they’re going to have you program for it like a console, so it’s going to seem twice as powerful as a smartphone with the exact same chips in there.

“But of course, by the time they actually ship, there may be smartphones or these tablets with twice as much power as what they’re shipping with on there. And a year or two after that, it’s going to look pretty pokey. You make a game that’s fun and quick to do, and you grab low-hanging fruit with the technology there. So, even if that plays out, such that people find that they can easily bring over their full-on, full-blown AAA console titles and put it on [the Vita], that’s going to give it a reason for existence.”

Epic’s Rein keen on Vita

Mark Rein is a key figure behind one of the most successful and prevalent engines in our industry, the Unreal Engine. So when he likes a new bit of tech – say, the PS Vita – it’s time to pay attention. In his eyes the handheld blew him away and he wanted to take one home with him immediately.

Commenting that he’d “love” to do games for the system, Rein said Vita is an entirely new kind of device.

“The PSP was never that kind of a device,” he said, adding “People are worried about where Vita lives in the world of iPod Touch and iPhone, but it’s a completely different device.

“It’s hard until the device is in the market and people know how users are gonna respond, but I came away really lusting for one.”

Sony's Jack Tretton not concerned about smartphones

When asked if Sony is concerned over the phenomenal rise of gaming on Apple's iOS platform, Tretton replied: "No."

"The great thing about gamers is that they have tremendous influence over what they want to play. If their parents say I'm getting you an iPad and that's your device, but their friends are playing a dedicated console like a PSP, then the kids will find a way to get a PSP." 

Lets all hope the good man is true. We will know for sure when the handheld is on the market for a phew years. Out this year, Sony will sell the Vita for $249 for the base Wi-Fi model, or $299 for a 3G-equipped version.