I guess it is always the way if you have a critical or inquiring mind, you enjoy the buzz of an event, but then with your last thought of the day you go, "hang on a minute..." and start thinking through what was missing, what was wrong and what's next.
Firstly, Sony did an
excellent job of revitalising the Vita, bundles will sell like hot cakes this Christmas with some top games attached to them. The new titles on-show will lift the interest of core gamers and Twitter was abuzz with people swearing at being "forced" into people having to buy one just for Tearaway. That's a good kind of negative feedback.
But, a few home truths. First Sony needs to ditch Jim Ryan as a frontman. Too many big points were slipped in (firmware, Cross-Buy etc.) and almost passed they audience by. Steve Jobs would hammer home a small feature repeatedly if he thought it would make a big difference. Even Steve Ballmer would play like a terrier with a rag toy if he thought an item was worth it. Jim just read his autocue and moved on like a zombie news reader, no obvious sense of passion or verve.
Second, if Sony is so committed to getting new third parties on-board, where were they? That issue has been all over the news in the last few weeks. All Sony needed was a list on screen of who was working on 2013/14 titles (which didn't even needed to be named) and it could have been swept under the bridge. But that question still remains, and Sony clearly has no answer.
That's not much of a bitch list, in fact it would be hard to give Sony anything less than an "A-" for pulling some hip cats out of the bag, just when it needed to. Finally, one thing kind of outside of Sony's control, go look at the tech sites. There was one story on CNET about the Vita (and that's about PlayStation Mobile) and one on Engadget about the firmware update. No wonder iPhone and Android are "winning" at gaming when Sony can't get any coverage on those sites, read by billions. They influence buyers a lot more than any gaming site, did Sony forget to invite them?
What did you think of Sony's show? Just how impressed were you, and will it restore your faith in the Vita?
