PSA: Sony "updates" the Vita with less features

I can give you an exact reason. Unfortunately, it's also a reason that I think holds very little weight, but it is THE reason for region-locking these days: price.

Specifically, Japanese games cost more than American games (although despite Japan's infamous "super-expensive games and DVDs", their games, at least, are about the same price as they are here in New Zealand. More on that soon). Nintendo are afraid that the Japanese players will import all their games instead of buying them locally because they're cheaper (thanks, exchange rate), which is not so true, especially right at the moment. The thing is, as far as I know, not all 3DS games have all languages on the cart (although it seems more and more of them do, and only the region-locking is actually different, except for games like Bravely Default and DOA Dimensions that have stupid censoring edits). Anyway, the idea here is that if they imported a game that doesn't have Japanese language support, very few Japanese gamers will be able to play it, since the majority of Japanese people know very little English, if any at all (as opposed to China where you can assume a good majority can, at the very least, speak broken English, if not fluent English). At the end of the day, they're trying to stop their home market from losing out sales.

One of the solutions is to stop putting Japanese text in western copies of games (and vice versa). The other is for them to just deal with it (like what Sony is doing).

Here's the real kicker, though: in Australia and definitely in New Zealand, our games are just European versions. Sure, we get (or, at least, got) different Club Nintendo cards, and our cartridges are usually stamped with "AUS" instead of "EUR" (which, as far as I know, is just a manufacturing/distribution thing), but the games are identical. They're also a hell of a lot cheaper to import from the UK (there's a company that runs under different names for different regions, called OzGameshop and NZGameshop, although they ship worldwide, and they're UK-based, therefore are a perfect source for importing games at a much lower cost into Oz/NZ). And this is all still English (or French or Spanish or German and however many other languages are available to us these days), so removing "unnecessary" languages would do them no good. The difference between the NZD and JPY is negligible, whilst the difference between NZD, USD and GBP is about the same. Therefore, us importing games from the UK is equivalent to the Japanese importing games from the US. We can do it, but they can't (and I can't import Japanese games that'd cost me the same as a game here would). And therefore, Nintendo's whole argument is moot unless they are ONLY concerned about Japan (which, granted, is probably the case, considering just how many metric craptons of games (and other bonuses) - even just on VC - that they get and we don't).

Of course, we'd all love to have no region-locking, but Nintendo would rather screw us over, instead. Yay.

Possibly. I've done a bit more reading and it sounds like Google charges out the ass for these licenses, so I guess it's no surprise. It's just disappointing that they're being removed, but at the same time, they keep preventing the Vita from being hacked (and granted, I don't care for piracy, but being able to add in certain functionality that Sony refuses to or has removed would be nice). The bonus with 3G Vitas is that, for now, they still work if you have them. I don't see any reason for them to stop working, and having 3G on the Vita can be surprisingly fantastic. I used it on the train a lot, even just to browse the Playstation store.

The one problem is topping it up. It comes with a regular SIM card, but I thought I could just get a prepaid voucher to top it up. Nope. Is it on-account? Nope. It's a weird proprietary thing where you have to use the browser to connect to your telco's website. You're taken to a specific page where you sign in and top up via credit card. It's all quite the mess (and no, a regular SIM doesn't work, at least as far as I've tried, but I should try again sometime, since my spare was on-account and may not have even worked properly). It also makes you disable WiFi to top up, as far as I remember (I believe all 3G features that had WiFi counterparts, apart from GPS, were disabled when WiFi was connected but I could be wrong). It's a shame, really, because it was a great idea that just didn't pan out, and now 3G in handhelds might be dead forever. I was hoping I could link it to my account that I have for my phone (since I'm on a plan), but my telco told me they were completely different systems and it was impossible.

Yeah, I realise it was more so Google's fault, but it just sucks to have the Vita devalued, even if just by the tiniest bit. The memory cards bug me because they're based on microSD technology but are NOT microSD cards. I ended up getting a 64GB one just because I got so annoyed with only having a 4GB card and it was worth it, but that price...

I definitely think the Vita needs some more AAA games (where's my Gravity Rush sequel? They said it was going to happen...) but what is there is fantastic. All the crazy-weird Japanese games that have been translated, as well as the hotly-debated ports that are typically better than the original versions, make the system a must-have for me and many others. It's a shame that there are still tons of people who blatantly hate on the Vita just because they don't have one. And a lot of them own a 3DS, which really is quite crap, hardware-wise (and OS-wise).

I will admit that the addition of email baffled me. As it is, email settings can be picky enough, without adding another, redundant client into the mix.

Also, you still need to play Persona 4 Golden~

GPRS can rot in hell. And this is coming from the guy who had 56kbps (barely) dial-up until 2007.

Perhaps, but YouTube has never really had successful web UIs. In fact, they've traditionally been quite crappy. On the other hand, the Vita's YouTube app has a great UI and functions well. I could be wrong, but I thought they updated it for HTML5 support a long time ago. Plus, I personally prefer dedicated apps.

 

LOL, this is Sony. Nothing new here. Not like they haven't done this before.

Sony fucked the Vita before it was even released. They've no one but themselves to blame for it's poor performance (quite literally, few games can perform with stable framerates let alone at native resolution)

 

Other than these two, SONY also made some games region-locked. I remember that they were recommending games to be region-free, although games could be (optionally) made region-locked.

Exactly. Plus they also wrote that 3G support will continue to be present with the first generation of PSVita consoles, so it will likely stay that way.

My own PSVita is the WiFi model, but I'm quite sure that a normal SIM card could be used... as long as your PSVita isn't one of those carrier-locked models.

Other than this, I also hate the fact that they've made it impossible to copy files over to the PSVita like we used to with the PSP. I have to use their cumbersome DRM tool and I can't use my console as a storage device anymore.

Really? But isn't the only device that can do that (PSIO) still in development?

What do you mean by "native resolution"? Why do you say that they have only themselves to blame for its poor performance? Shouldn't it be up to the game's developers to ensure the quality of their releases?

 

I received this email as well, although I was a bit upset when I first read it, I realized that most of these features are easily (not as easy as just touching the button) available online.

I guess to save money (always about saving money) and space on the internal memory this update may be a good thing.

Or you always have a option of not updating from 3.36 although I am guessing that regardless of the updates those programs still won't work.

 

Parallel port devices to play imports and "backups" have been around forever. AFAIK, they all require disc swaps, though.

 

Agree on both fronts, you are correct HTML5 support has been there for a while it's only last week that Google decided to default the video player to HTML5.

 

As long as it still plays games then i'm good. But it has seemed that Sony have removed many features over the years, for PS3 especially. The PS4 came off the blocks with even more functionality missing. But again, importantly, it plays games. I think Sony's focus has narrowed more to "Just Games"... Now they need to start cranking more out for Vita (and PS4, but not so worried there). Eventually I fear that the focus will shift to Mobile, its already apparent with remote play for Z3 phones and tabs, the fact that one can use a DS4 even surpasses Vita as a remote play device.

I still love my Vita though (And PSP,PS1,2,3 and 4)

 

It just makes the Vita seem more second class than it already is. The 3DS, Android, iOS, and even Windows Phone (hell, I think Blackberry might too) have dedicated Youtube apps, and if the Vita is going to survive, it's gotta at least have a better selection of apps than the 3DS. It won't get better first party games, because that's just about all Nintendo does well.

 

None of the things being changed were used by me. It sounds like a Google thing more than a Sony thing, ultimately.

 

Doesn't help when people don't actually buy the device in the first place. Second not really an issue for Youtube. The browser is HTML5 compliant and is regularly updated to improve it's compatibility with HTML5, So there is less of a reason to really need to maintain a separate app.

 

While I don't care for NEAR or Maps I did actually use the YouTube app since it is far better then that terrible web UI, Plus it is missing some features the app had but I can't exactly remember what they were off the top of my head.

BTW Doesn't the removal of NEAR make some content in games impossible to get?

I know dat feel bro....