Nintendo Switch
Banned
Revisiting this topic, I realize that Microsoft partnering with Valve and releasing an Steamboy or Xboy One that could play your entire Xbox and Steam game libraries would be vastly preferable. MS has the software emulation experitise to get the Xbox store and steam software running on either Intel or AMDs newest mobile APUs.
Add in a tv out port and compatibility with all Xbox One controllers and they could completely dominate the game industry and offer immense value to gamers everywhere. Plus it would give Microsoft a first and giant stake in the portable hybrid space that Switch is hooking gamers to. Every reason below applies, just swap Sony with Microsoft. It could even revive the Windows Phone OS.
Old Post:
Both PS Vita and the Xperia Play would have succeeded if they had shared the same architecture and games. An Xperia Play that could play Vita games would have served the desire of older gamers for an all in one device. The people paying $1000 for a Galaxy phone or iPhone would have happily plopped down that much for the same phone but with real games and actual gaming controls if they had even a passing interest in a gaming handheld. Instead, in 2011, Sony for some idiotic reason released two handhelds with radically different internals that could not play each other's games. Why any company would release two handhelds with vastly different architectures the same year is beyond me. If we consider the Xperia Play the PSP2 given its April 2011 release and weak specs and we consider the PS VITA the PSP3 given its significantly beefier specs and Dec 2011 release, a PSP4 is long overdue.
This time, the PSP3 or 4 (not sure which to call it) should be launched alongside a more expensive Smartphone variant ($299 PS4P and a $999 Xperia Play 2 (available for free with a 24 month carrier contract)) with the same identical CPU, GPU and ram, the only difference would be 4G, external design and the amount of built in storage. But both devices should share the same game library. A new Playstation Xperia Play 2 smartphone with much better controls and games than the original with a Snapdragon 845 would be killer. Especially if it has stock android and could play all psn arcade titles, vita and PSP games and also has PS4 Remote Play functionality and slide out controls akin to the PSP Go. Sony is in a unique position to leverage their Xperia phone experience with their PSP and Xperia Play experience and offer something to gamers that no one else can. An all in one device that doubles as both a smartphone and a gaming handheld with dual stick slide out controls (a significantly improved version of the slide out controls found on the PSP Go).
It would look like this when not being used for gaming (please don't add any text to the front of the device Sony, letters ruin the look and without text it could look correct to hold either upright or sideways, like the pictured phone below)
It running stock android when not playing games (similar to the Google smartphones) is a must. Stock android is fantastic and would be a killer feature for the smartphone by itself. But as soon as you slide the controls out, andriod goes into standby mode and it changes to a user interface identical to the one found on the PS4.
Just as important, having both an SD card slot and a separate gaming cartridge slot would be critically important to success. Digital only would work for arcade titles and psp/vita ports but the device would also need ports of games like Doom and LA Noire to succeed and that would necessitate cartridges
But most importantly, it needs to nail the controls and the launch software lineup if it wants to outperform the Nintendo Switch.
1. A simple tv out port and compatibility with all existing DualShock 4 controllers would be all it takes for the PSP3 to offer the same hybrid functionality that the Switch offers. An sd card slot would fix the one weakness that held back the PS Vita, a return of the Vita's beloved d-pad in the slide out controls would be heralded by portable gamers, and with a 7nm+ quad A75 chipset, the PSP3 could easily run ports of any third party games released on the Switch at 1080p with 60 fps and 16x AA. It could also get ports of PS4 games and a wide variety of indie games akin to the Vita. A powerful wifi chip capable of Wifi Direct would also let Remote Play from PS4 to the PSP3 work very smoothly.
2. The PSP offered a resolution of 270p, the PS Vita quadrupled the resolution to 540p while offering backwards compatibility with most PSP games, the PSP3 could once again quadruple the resolution to 1080p and offer backwards compatibility with most PSP and PS Vita games. And it would set the stage for a future backward compatible PSP4 with 4K resolution and portable 4K VR functionality for simpler games. A 4K screen would also allow for 1080p glassless 3D for games with clean cartoony graphics akin to 3D Mario titles
3. Gamers would have more incentive to stick with the PSN ecosystem and continue Playstation Plus subscriptions if Sony once again had a portable in its ecosystem to supplement it's home console. Free PSP3 crossplay indie titles each month would intice gamers to pick up the PSP3, and would allow Sony to offer something that Xbox Live could never match.
4. The PSP and the PS Vita were both profitable for Sony and both portables are well regarded by gamers. The PS Vita continues to get numerous indie releases, though it's starting to show its age. A PSP3 might not outsell the Nintendo Switch, but that doesn't mean that it wouldn't be profitable.
5. The Switch is rather large and cumbersome with a very poor battery life, my 10 year old nephew can barely even hold the Switch. There is significant demand for a lighter portable with pocketability and improved battery life, especially in Japan and especially with younger gamers.
6. A PSP3 packing a quad core A75 manufactured at 7nm+ would run circles around the Nintendo Switch's quad A57 chip manufactured at 20nm, while also being more portable and offering dramatically better battery life.
7. The aesthetic design of the Nintendo Switch leaves a lot to be desired as outlined in the opening post of this thread... http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1457455 Here are three keys ways that the PSP3's design could stand head and shoulders above the Nintendo Switch...
Bezel Free OLED
Bezels serve no function and are ugly, modern devices have done away with them altogether, and yet the Nintendo Switch has the largest bezel of any modern portable and paired with a cheap screen to boot. The Vita has a far better screen than the Switch and there is no reason why a PSP3 can't offer the same.
Symmetry, Symmetry, Symmetry
Here is how the Switch should have looked.
Notice the absence of the large unseemly bezel.
Notice how the Home and Capture buttons are round, symmetric and centered. It's aesthetics/design 101. On the Nintendo Switch, the design and placement of the Home and it's asymmetry with the capture button on the other side is ugly and distracting. There is no reason for the Home button to have a white circle encircling it. Ideally, the Home button should be a single black circle (no white border) with a corresponding circular Capture button on the left Joy-Con identical in size and shape to the Home button, as in the neon design pictured above. The overall design of the Switch and the Joy-Cons would also improve significantly if the Capture and Home buttons were both round and perfectly centered (or at least aligned with the other buttons) on their respective Joy-Cons so that they line up directly under the Joystick and Down/B Button and act as the center button when the Joy-Con is held sideways.
The one thing that Nintendo did right with the Switch is relegating the name of the device, and the Nintendo name and logo to the back of the device rather than to the front. I would hope Sony doesn't make the mistake of plastering the front of their PSP3 with the device's name or the Sony logo.
Quality of Life Improvements
The Switch has a number of questionable decisions, such as placing the usb, type c charging port on the top rather than the bottom so that people can't charge the Switch while they are playing in handheld and table top modes but nothing is quite as questionable as the lack of a d-pad.
Since the PSP3 will not have detachable JoyPads, it could include a real d-pad akin to the one found on the PS Vita, it could also pack a PSP Go like slider design and offer bigger buttons than all prior portables, analog buttons and triggers and larger, more comfortable analog sticks as well.
The best of all worlds would be a design that looks near identical to the Samsung Galaxy S8+ (no text or device name anywhere on the front of the device please)
with slide out controls like the PSP Go, a cheap version without 4G or smartphone functionality and a more premium $799 variant with a 4G chip inside that runs Andriod and doubles as a high end smartphone. Or, as suggested by Appiration...
Sony wouldn't even need to spend any money on developing a new chipset, they could use the upcoming Snapdragon 845 and surpass all the performance targets outlined above...
An alternative take...
Very well said. I would love an updated Vita.
All the doom predictors on gaf sound the same as the ones the predicted that the Switch would be a giant failure. http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1333545I I don't think they understand the appeal of a portable. And thanks to how large, heavy and cumbersome the Switch is, Sony could take the entire portable only market for itself.
Add in a tv out port and compatibility with all Xbox One controllers and they could completely dominate the game industry and offer immense value to gamers everywhere. Plus it would give Microsoft a first and giant stake in the portable hybrid space that Switch is hooking gamers to. Every reason below applies, just swap Sony with Microsoft. It could even revive the Windows Phone OS.
Old Post:
Dam a phone with integrated controls that could play, ps3/vita games would be really awesome.
I love my switch, but the true is I play it docked 99% of the time, a good gaming phone would get a lot more portable use because I would carry it everywhere anyway.
Both PS Vita and the Xperia Play would have succeeded if they had shared the same architecture and games. An Xperia Play that could play Vita games would have served the desire of older gamers for an all in one device. The people paying $1000 for a Galaxy phone or iPhone would have happily plopped down that much for the same phone but with real games and actual gaming controls if they had even a passing interest in a gaming handheld. Instead, in 2011, Sony for some idiotic reason released two handhelds with radically different internals that could not play each other's games. Why any company would release two handhelds with vastly different architectures the same year is beyond me. If we consider the Xperia Play the PSP2 given its April 2011 release and weak specs and we consider the PS VITA the PSP3 given its significantly beefier specs and Dec 2011 release, a PSP4 is long overdue.
This time, the PSP3 or 4 (not sure which to call it) should be launched alongside a more expensive Smartphone variant ($299 PS4P and a $999 Xperia Play 2 (available for free with a 24 month carrier contract)) with the same identical CPU, GPU and ram, the only difference would be 4G, external design and the amount of built in storage. But both devices should share the same game library. A new Playstation Xperia Play 2 smartphone with much better controls and games than the original with a Snapdragon 845 would be killer. Especially if it has stock android and could play all psn arcade titles, vita and PSP games and also has PS4 Remote Play functionality and slide out controls akin to the PSP Go. Sony is in a unique position to leverage their Xperia phone experience with their PSP and Xperia Play experience and offer something to gamers that no one else can. An all in one device that doubles as both a smartphone and a gaming handheld with dual stick slide out controls (a significantly improved version of the slide out controls found on the PSP Go).
It would look like this when not being used for gaming (please don't add any text to the front of the device Sony, letters ruin the look and without text it could look correct to hold either upright or sideways, like the pictured phone below)
It running stock android when not playing games (similar to the Google smartphones) is a must. Stock android is fantastic and would be a killer feature for the smartphone by itself. But as soon as you slide the controls out, andriod goes into standby mode and it changes to a user interface identical to the one found on the PS4.
Just as important, having both an SD card slot and a separate gaming cartridge slot would be critically important to success. Digital only would work for arcade titles and psp/vita ports but the device would also need ports of games like Doom and LA Noire to succeed and that would necessitate cartridges
But most importantly, it needs to nail the controls and the launch software lineup if it wants to outperform the Nintendo Switch.
1. A simple tv out port and compatibility with all existing DualShock 4 controllers would be all it takes for the PSP3 to offer the same hybrid functionality that the Switch offers. An sd card slot would fix the one weakness that held back the PS Vita, a return of the Vita's beloved d-pad in the slide out controls would be heralded by portable gamers, and with a 7nm+ quad A75 chipset, the PSP3 could easily run ports of any third party games released on the Switch at 1080p with 60 fps and 16x AA. It could also get ports of PS4 games and a wide variety of indie games akin to the Vita. A powerful wifi chip capable of Wifi Direct would also let Remote Play from PS4 to the PSP3 work very smoothly.
2. The PSP offered a resolution of 270p, the PS Vita quadrupled the resolution to 540p while offering backwards compatibility with most PSP games, the PSP3 could once again quadruple the resolution to 1080p and offer backwards compatibility with most PSP and PS Vita games. And it would set the stage for a future backward compatible PSP4 with 4K resolution and portable 4K VR functionality for simpler games. A 4K screen would also allow for 1080p glassless 3D for games with clean cartoony graphics akin to 3D Mario titles
3. Gamers would have more incentive to stick with the PSN ecosystem and continue Playstation Plus subscriptions if Sony once again had a portable in its ecosystem to supplement it's home console. Free PSP3 crossplay indie titles each month would intice gamers to pick up the PSP3, and would allow Sony to offer something that Xbox Live could never match.
4. The PSP and the PS Vita were both profitable for Sony and both portables are well regarded by gamers. The PS Vita continues to get numerous indie releases, though it's starting to show its age. A PSP3 might not outsell the Nintendo Switch, but that doesn't mean that it wouldn't be profitable.
5. The Switch is rather large and cumbersome with a very poor battery life, my 10 year old nephew can barely even hold the Switch. There is significant demand for a lighter portable with pocketability and improved battery life, especially in Japan and especially with younger gamers.
6. A PSP3 packing a quad core A75 manufactured at 7nm+ would run circles around the Nintendo Switch's quad A57 chip manufactured at 20nm, while also being more portable and offering dramatically better battery life.
7. The aesthetic design of the Nintendo Switch leaves a lot to be desired as outlined in the opening post of this thread... http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1457455 Here are three keys ways that the PSP3's design could stand head and shoulders above the Nintendo Switch...
Bezel Free OLED
Bezels serve no function and are ugly, modern devices have done away with them altogether, and yet the Nintendo Switch has the largest bezel of any modern portable and paired with a cheap screen to boot. The Vita has a far better screen than the Switch and there is no reason why a PSP3 can't offer the same.
Symmetry, Symmetry, Symmetry
Here is how the Switch should have looked.
Notice the absence of the large unseemly bezel.
Notice how the Home and Capture buttons are round, symmetric and centered. It's aesthetics/design 101. On the Nintendo Switch, the design and placement of the Home and it's asymmetry with the capture button on the other side is ugly and distracting. There is no reason for the Home button to have a white circle encircling it. Ideally, the Home button should be a single black circle (no white border) with a corresponding circular Capture button on the left Joy-Con identical in size and shape to the Home button, as in the neon design pictured above. The overall design of the Switch and the Joy-Cons would also improve significantly if the Capture and Home buttons were both round and perfectly centered (or at least aligned with the other buttons) on their respective Joy-Cons so that they line up directly under the Joystick and Down/B Button and act as the center button when the Joy-Con is held sideways.
The one thing that Nintendo did right with the Switch is relegating the name of the device, and the Nintendo name and logo to the back of the device rather than to the front. I would hope Sony doesn't make the mistake of plastering the front of their PSP3 with the device's name or the Sony logo.
Quality of Life Improvements
The Switch has a number of questionable decisions, such as placing the usb, type c charging port on the top rather than the bottom so that people can't charge the Switch while they are playing in handheld and table top modes but nothing is quite as questionable as the lack of a d-pad.
Since the PSP3 will not have detachable JoyPads, it could include a real d-pad akin to the one found on the PS Vita, it could also pack a PSP Go like slider design and offer bigger buttons than all prior portables, analog buttons and triggers and larger, more comfortable analog sticks as well.
The best of all worlds would be a design that looks near identical to the Samsung Galaxy S8+ (no text or device name anywhere on the front of the device please)
with slide out controls like the PSP Go, a cheap version without 4G or smartphone functionality and a more premium $799 variant with a 4G chip inside that runs Andriod and doubles as a high end smartphone. Or, as suggested by Appiration...
Sony wouldn't even need to spend any money on developing a new chipset, they could use the upcoming Snapdragon 845 and surpass all the performance targets outlined above...
An alternative take...
I would really like an updated Vita.
The Switch is good but the Vita 2000 feels much nicer to hold especially for prolonged periods.
If they could basically take the Vita 2000 chassis, add buttons for full 1:1 DS4 mapping so remote play is better and put in a modern chipset and I would be happy. Something along the lines of the Switch undocked power wise. The Switch has been out for close to a year and I think the chipset it was based on wasn't brand new when the Switch released so could probably get something similarly as powerful but a bit easier on the battery by now.
1080p screen would be great for 1:4 pixel scaling but then you would get the same situation as Vita where games often run under native resolution. I would take 90% of games running at a native 720p on a 720p screen than 50% of games running at subnative on a 1080p screen. Make it 720p and lose some of the bezel from Vita 2000 for a slightly larger screen (maybe 5.5") for a decent compromise that wouldn't chew through battery.
Push CrossBuy with PS4 titles and make cloud saves seamless (if they aren't already, haven't really used them all that much) and I think it would be a decent competitor. If the system is close specs wise to Switch it'd be pretty easy to port Switch games over. Also allow pairing with a DualShock 4.
Very well said. I would love an updated Vita.
All the doom predictors on gaf sound the same as the ones the predicted that the Switch would be a giant failure. http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1333545I I don't think they understand the appeal of a portable. And thanks to how large, heavy and cumbersome the Switch is, Sony could take the entire portable only market for itself.
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