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Possible new PlayStation Portal model pays homage to the Vita's OLED

While much of the focus on PlayStation's next steps is the PS6 and PS6 Portable , the two-year old PlayStation Portal could be getting a revamp according to those pesky internet rumours.  Update : Hints at pricing are around £/$250-299 for the new model, but everything remains deeply in rumours territory. Presumably the goal is to hit the 10% (currently 7%-ish) adoption rate among PS5 owners, something that would make it a bone fide hit gadget.   The recent February  PlayStation State of Play  saw no announcement. But, PlayStation needs to make Portal more a core member of the PS5 family, rather than the distant cousin that most of its appearances suggest.  As the improvement in connectivity and streaming tech, proven by many gamers enjoying their PS5 or PlayStation Plus streamed content from around the world, an updated Portal Pro could be on the cards.  Possibly featuring a 120Hz display and an OLED screen in honour of the mighty Vita, that'd be coo...

What is MonoGame, and why do we need it?

MonoGame is a development system, tagged as "Write once, play everywhere!" That's not quite true as you can't easily port MonoGame titles to the Vita, yet. That nugget came out in a Q&A with the Axiom Verge crew, AV is a MonoGame title and Sony is still developing new tools to port the game, I'm guessing via expert port team Blitworks - see video.

The good news is, it sounds like it shouldn't take too long, although if Sony is involved - you never know. Previous MonoGame titles like Fez have come to the Vita, but it seems Blitworks has a new, easier, way in the pipe.



But what else could enabling MonoGame ports to the Vita bring us? Bastion was also built with MonoGame and has been announced for the Vita, presumably they're waiting on the same porting tools. Other developers using MonoGame include 17-Bit software, whose Skulls of the Shogun would be a good Vita game (they're also bringing the Unity-powered Galak-Z to the Vita). Then there's a host of other games that might get a port if the process is easy enough.

Developers are hopefully still keen on the Vita, if there's enough good vibes among the dev community about revenue and the loyal fanbase. I'd rather like to see the currently-in-Kickstarter tower defence Hydraulic Empire get a port, and there are bound to be more.


With Unity looking like it is moving ahead without much Vita support, Sony getting MonoGame and other dev tool support is vital to keeping the trickle of games coming, let us know if you think of anything else that would be a great Vita game. Any developers care to comment?

Currently playing on my Vita/PS3/PS4/PS5


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