Comments on: Is Console Gaming about to go Portable?

By: Kev-o

Kev-o — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 00:49:17 +0000

Vita is just a product for people that aren’t always around there 42′ tvs.. It will definitely be popular but not revolutionary.. There are soo many people playing on there iphone/itouch’s, but has the console sells/online percent of users gone down? I’d say a tad but not noticeable.

By: Jay

Jay — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 00:37:57 +0000

Darrin: @Jay, your assertion is that the Vita is far below PS3 level hardware and that the Vita/PS3 gap is larger than the laptop/desktop gap. OK, that’s a debate of technical merits, and if you’re right, and there’s still a huge capability gap, then people won’t migrate to portable devices. However, I’m not convinced the Vita will be so underpowered. The screen is way smaller than a big screen, and the resolution is less than 720p (it’s a hair under the iPhone 4 resolution which is very high pixel density for the screen size), but this actually has more RAM than a PS3. We shall see.

That's not what I am saying. I am saying that PS4-level specs will not be possible on a handheld device and that handheld devices will still be limited compared to the things a home console can do. Both have their advantages, but a handheld will still never be able to replace a home console and the advantages that provides.

By: Eddie

Eddie — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 19:14:30 +0000

A lot of the RAM is going to be used for multi-tasking as you can see in some of the new videos and slides I posted in the forums. However Sony did say textures and vertex’s can live in that RAM pool.

The resolution is great. Most games are natively around 544p anyways and upscaled to 720p (MW2 for example).

To the topic at hand though, if we have to ask the question of whether portables will phase out consoles or not, then we already know the answer and that is they both will continue on until we don’t have to ask this question anymore.

By: Darrin

Darrin — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 18:46:08 +0000

@Pedro, I agree with your revised statement. Most people are satisfied with the power they get from a laptop, the additional power of a desktop is overkill, and the convenience of a laptop outweighs the sacrifices that they make. I completely agree and I am claiming that this same dynamic applies to home/portable console gaming.

By: Pedro

Pedro — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 18:08:37 +0000

Sorry Darrin, but I don’t think I’m “wrong, wrong, wrong”. I can get a 17 inches Intel Core i7 Quad-Core 2,2GHz, 8GB RAM, 750GB 7200 rpm, AMD Radeon HD 6750M 1GB GDDR5 macbook pro and that gives me enough power. Ok, I agree it’s not the same as an iMac with nearly double that, but it’s already a pretty powerful notebook that could handle various games on high settings.

As Jay said, the difference between a 17″ screen and a 23″ isn’t anywhere as big as the difference between a 7″ and 42″ and that’s assuming everyone uses screens that big, at work I use a 19″ screen.

I can honestly say that any notebook with at least 14″ offers you a decent keyboard that doesn’t suck that much and while not ideal you don’t need to use a portable mouse, I don’t, I have a very big one and I don’t care, I just don’t carry it around. Track pad is ok after you get used to it.

Using a handheld never get’s comfortable, I have big hands and even the DS3 feels small at times. I find looking at a small screen really tiring as well. I have those issues, but I don’t mind using a notebook, hell, I haven’t used a desktop (for personal use) in years… I actually prefer it. I’m not saying the Vita sucks, it doesn’t and I’ll probably get it, but I’ll never switch to a handheld and leave home consoles behind.