A little while back, I wrote what ended up being a fairly controversial article on why I wasn’t interested in the PlayStation Vita. I gave my reasons as to why I felt it was, in my opinion, inadequate; it caused a little bit of a stir in the comments of both this site and article aggregator N4G. Though a lot of the retorts were nothing but fan-boy white noise, there were some insightful responses among the various replies. They went a long way towards showing just how much of the decision to purchase a console is down to personal preference in a number of areas. At the time, it was unfortunate that the Vita’s combination of features wasn’t appealing to me; as one commentator put it, I wasn’t the “target market” and I should “move on”.

But the problem is that I sort of am the target market. I like games and I love hand-held consoles. I’m particularly fond of them when compared to smartphones for gaming purposes. It just so happens that, until now, there’s not been a good enough reason (or combination of reasons) for me to get a Vita. With the recent announcement of a new Vita Slim and a price drop for the original model, I felt it might be a good time to re-evaluate my position on the PlayStation Vita. How many of my original concerns still hold true? How has the PlayStation 4 connectivity influenced my views? Let’s take a closer look.

First up, there was my personal rule for buying a console, which was generally “don’t buy it unless there are exclusive titles that you want to play”. The number could fluctuate depending on my desire to play said exclusives, but I would normally set the bar at five games. At the time of my first article, there was only one that I was marginally interested in getting – namely, Uncharted: Golden Abyss. In the months since then, has the situation changed?

Strictly speaking, no. Bearing in mind that “exclusives” are those games which I could only play by purchasing a Vita, there’s not a single additional game that could convince me to buy a Vita. Soul Sacrifice was touted by one previous commentator as something I should consider, but it would be an incidental purchase. “OK, I have a Vita, I might as well get this game” – not something that drives the purchase of the console itself. The same goes for other titles, both existing and upcoming, like Tearaway. While this technically means the Vita still loses out on this point, its impact has been lessened somewhat by advances in other areas.

I still hate touchscreen gaming, because it’s so rarely done in a way that isn’t terrible. There are titles on the 3DS which utilise the stylus in acceptable ways, but physically tapping or swiping at a screen with my fingers is frustrating. It’s never as accurate as I want it to be, never mind the mess it makes of the screen itself. I tolerate it on my phone because I don’t use it for gaming, but on the Vita, it’s still something that I can’t get behind as a “feature”. It adds precisely nothing to the attractiveness of purchasing the console and can often be a negative should the game focus on it unduly. As I mentioned before, the rear touchpad is less offensive for the same reasons, but games are best controlled using keys, buttons, triggers and sticks: physical interfaces with real feedback.

The main change I see as beneficial in this regard is that Sony have shut the hell up about it. They realised that core gamers don’t care about these features and have decided to focus on other aspects of the device that make it a more attractive purchase. In the five months between my previous article and this one, I have warmed to the Vita considerably more than I thought I would have. A lot of it has to do with Sony’s shift of focus away from lacklustre “interface” features and towards elements I personally find enticing.

I am happy to say that I have reversed my position somewhat on this point. Whereas before I couldn’t see much point in having games that could be played on both a Vita and my PS3, with the announcement and elaboration of the PS4’s much more interconnected existence with the Vita, I am re-examining this stance. It’s no longer just a case of playing my console remotely, though that option remains.

For an example of what I mean, let’s examine the Wii U and the Xbone. Both of them have mandatory peripherals that Microsoft and Nintendo have made a requirement for their consoles. Despite furious back-pedalling on Microsoft’s part, the Kinect is still going to be a major focus for their games and you have no choice but to buy it. Same goes for the Wii U’s controller, except in Nintendo’s case, there’s actually been proof of it having some real benefits. If one positive thing has come from the Wii U, it’s the revelation that having a second, portable screen for console gaming can be a real asset.

It’s not a case of taking my PS3 or PS4 games with me on the go – my position on that remains the same, since I only play games at home. But I imagine how cool it would be to be able to play my PS4 from any room in the house, or from the comfort of my bed. Being able to play Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn on a hand-held console is something that I actively want to experience. Now the duplication of effort isn’t a negative – since Sony have told developers to make just about every PS4 game work on Vita with Remote Play, what we’re getting is freedom. I don’t have to buy a game for Vita – I can buy it for PS4 and play it on the Vita as well.

By switching their marketing from lacklustre games designed solely for the Vita, to the interconnectivity and “single market” strategy of the PS4 and Vita ecosystem, Sony have ironically made the Vita more attractive to me. It becomes less of a console in its own right, but more of a “PS4 Portable”. There’s every chance that the Vita will see increased adoption based on this set of features, which may mean that developers pay more attention to it. We already have confirmation of a slew of Indie developers who are very interested in the Vita and many of their games are more suited to hand-held consoles, so there’s real hope in this regard.

The above argument also negates this previous roadblock to Vita ownership. One of the major features I touted regarding the 3DS was its backwards compatibility with DS titles. News has come from TGS this week that the Gaikai game streaming service will be offering backwards compatibility to the Vita as well as the PS4. The Vita will also reportedly have the ability to switch on your PS4 remotely from standby, which opens up new realms of interactive possibility. Not since the GBA and the GameCube has there been such a connection between two consoles. While Microsoft are attempting to get on board with this as well via Smart Glass, they can’t hope to match the Vita in terms of its functionality.

Ironically, the Vita might end up being the hand-held console I use most of all, due to the simple fact that it can do almost as much as my PS4 can. It certainly doesn’t have games that make it worthwhile as a standalone console (yet), but when the PS4 is released, the Vita becomes much more than that. It transcends the boundaries of poor game selection and gimmicky hardware. Regardless of its failings in its previous incarnation, its new life as a companion device for the PS4 make the arguments for Vita ownership much more powerful.

My last gripe with the Vita was the price. I felt that it wasn’t worth the cost for the value being offered. Had the price stayed the same amid the new and improved functionality announcements, I would have been happy. Had Sony only announced a price drop, I would have been extremely happy. But Sony went ahead and announced a price drop and a Vita Slim, with improved features and (presumably) an equally low price. Not only that, but a limited edition Final Fantasy X/X-2 version, which is irresistible nectar to geeks like me.

At the time of writing, we’re still to hear confirmed release dates for this new Vita – or whether it will even be released in the West – but I have hope that Sony will continue their recent unblemished record of success. In the past half-year, they’ve done more to convince me of their worthiness than any other console manufacturer. It seems inconceivable that they would hamstring themselves by not giving us the Vita Slim.

Here’s a direct quote from my previous article; the closing paragraph:

“Hey, Sony. Lower the price of your console. Make some decent games. Make them exclusive. Stop pushing the stupid touch-screen features, or make them non-stupid (a feat which no-one has yet accomplished). Learn from Nintendo. Do all this for the inevitable re-launch of the Vita as the Vita Slim or whatever you’re going to call it. Do all this, or face the very real possibility of having to bow out of the hand-held console market altogether. Do all this, or don’t, but don’t expect me (or thousands of others) to buy your console unless you do.”

I mentioned in a comment to the N4G site afterwards that I was a Sony fan and that I desperately wanted to like the Vita. Now I can safely say that I do. I have no doubt that I will end up owning one, as soon as we get confirmation of its existence in deliciously slim FFX format here in the UK. Sony might not have been listening to me specifically, but it’s clear that my views were not isolated. I wasn’t being unreasonable in my “demands”, because they were clearly valid. They dropped the price. They’ve made a massive host of decent games available via Remote Play and Indie developers. They stopped pushing the gimmicks of the console. They directly emulated the Wii U’s best feature. They went ahead and launched the Vita Slim – hell, they even did the Vita TV!

Over the course of its life, the Vita has transformed from a Game Gear into a Game Boy; a must-not into a must-have. Thank you, Sony, for being awesome and listening to your critics and fans alike.

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