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It was a rocky event indeed, not through any fault of the PS Vita hardware itself, nor the attempts at entertaining the crowd by Empire of the Sun DJ's or any over-indulgence of the pre-event drinks by this correspondent. The PS Vita launch was unsteady due to the gentle motion of the Sydney Harbour floating pontoon night club it took place upon.
With the rock steady backdrop of the Harbour Bridge, and through the not so steady Sydney weather Michael Ephraim, Managing Director, Sony Computer Entertainment Australia and New Zealand spoke what the new vision for a Sony hand-held, while journalists, publishers and developers swayed to the beat of harbour water.
Ephraim spoke of ''¦. a new level of integration with the now well established PlayStation Network, and communication cross network with other PS Vita owners and PS3.' Without touching on the PlayStation Portable or PSP GO Ephraim emphasized that ''¦We are taking a long term view with the PS Vita as a gaming platform, as we did with the PS3, and continue to do so today. The PS Vita will remain future proof and always compelling'
The target market is the 'active gamer' and with features such as the now obligatory applications such as Facebook and Twitter, Sony is also bringing an opt-in expanded and more powerful version of what Nintendo introduced into the competing 3DS platform. Near geo-locates other PS Vita owners nearby and raises the prospect of hooking up for games with the like-minded.
Ephraim welcomed the publishers and developers that had joined the party last night, touching on local developers such as Nnooo (Pop, myDiary), Big Ant, Torus Games (Scooby-Doo! First Frights), and Half-Brick Studios (Fruit Ninja, Jetpack Joyride). Whilst no actual titles were announced, speaking with the developers in question all had Vita projects on the go. Other developers present at the party were more reserved in the Vita's prospects, taking a wait-and-see approach to announcing any plans for the platforms content.
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