Featured Post

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...

Back to the start with leaked Uncharted Vita developer pitch

As the Vita heads to museums and becomes a bit of a gaming curio, the race is on to archive and recover as much of the early information as possible. While the Ark of the Covenant will be the specs for any Vita second-generation model, for now check out this 380MB pitch document distributed to Sony by Bend Studios as development of Vita games got underway. 


The Vita might be 10 years old, but developers were working on games for it years in advance. Still one of the best looking games on the Vita, Uncharted NGP (or Golden Abyss as we know and love it) was massively ambitious for a portable game, as Sony realised the console-gaming-on-the-go dream. 

The files include a video presentation from 2009 showing just how full-on development was years before the Vita launched. And how it used the Vita's touch and tilt controls to increase interaction, with melee combat and the social networking integration with social media, all of which made it into the game to some degree. There's also some early art and videos of the Vita's features in action against an early prototype device. 

The multiplayer was supposed to have more social elements in the form of a treasure hunt, before eventually settling on the card-game update, Fight for Fortune. 


The total budget was $13.5 million and was expected to break even at 650K copies sold at around $32 (price to stores?) a game, but the retail price points ended up higher. Overall, Uncharted Golden Abyss is estimated to have sold 1.6 million (physical copies) according to VGC, so was hopefully a decent success. 

I wonder what else will turn up from the vaults! 

Currently playing on my Vita/PS3/PS4/PS5


Any news or interview requests, please contact psp2roundup@gmail.com Please note, As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.