Re: Playstation Vita (formerly PSP2/NGP - $250)
Wall of text incoming!
The funny thing that happens when people bring up the value proposition comparison between iOS/smartphone gaming and dedicated gaming handhelds (vita, 3ds) is that most forget the immediacy of the hardware upgrade cycle in the former.
This is actually one huge flaw that a lot of hardcore iOS gamers have started to realize. Because Apple releases a new, more powerful iteration of iPhone/iTouch hardware every year, the performance disparity grows and is fracturing their games marketplace. Some older models from just 2 years ago won't play the newest games, and if they do, they run at ____ frame rates. Infinity Blade 2, just released last week, runs like crap on the iPhone 4. Don't bother playing it on the 3GS.
The PSP and DS provided a dedicated platform for 6-7 years, and it should be expected that Vita and 3DS will do the same. In that regard, is the price for entry that bad in comparison to you'd end up paying on iOS hardware alone? Also Developers manage to make games look and play better on traditinal gaming handhelds years into the systems' existence. Can you say the same for ios?
What're you gonna tell your kid when they find out that the game they want won't run on their 1-year old iPod Touch?
I think the Vita will do just fine. The PSP wasn't a failure. A handheld that carved a niche (a 75 million sold niche) for itself against Nintendo when all previous contenders failed is a success in my book.
There will always be a place for dedicated gaming handhelds. I won't argue that Vita will have a tough time against ios and smartphones. The reality is that iOS has taken a sizable chunk from The dedicated handheld gaming market, but I think that that current structure can't sustain itself for long. I don't think the $.99 model will last. For every Angry Birds, there are thousands of games that barely make any money. Part of this can be attributed to Apple's piss-poor management and support of the marketplace. The second factor is one that Darthviper alluded to: most iOS games are junk. The casuals can keep their 16-bit re-treads, FarmVille ports and complete IP rip-offs (90% off Gameloft's releases).
Say what you want about the cost of games on 3DS and Vita, but when you consider the value proposition in games that look like Mario and Uncharted compared to ios's highest profile games (and what are those, exactly?), you can see what you're getting. Infinity Blade 2 as mentioned earlier, is most arguably the highest profile hardcore iOS game of the year. It looks great, but its essentially a repetitive on-rails hack-n-slash that lasts maybe 4 hours. For $7, that's fine, but you get what you pay for.
Aside from the fact that touch-only controls are poor substitutes to tactile buttons on dedicated ga,img handhelds, iOS has no exclusive franchises. Angry Birds made its way into 3DS already, Id bet more and more developers will begin to migrate away from ios as conditions there become less ideal. Along with the more traditional experiences, casual ios-like types of games can be find a place on vita, as it has a capacitive touch screen.
I love my iDevices, but none of the games I have on it are played for more than a couple hours at most. Id consider the $250 for the vita a great value, even when you consider the price of memory, which will go down quickly (as it did for PSP's pro duo sticks).
Vita's browser currently does not support either flash or HTML5. Come on.
