Skip to main content

PS Vita gets PlayStation Plus on Nov. 19. Can it help save the system?

playstation vita price drop
Image used with permission by copyright holder

The PlayStation Vita is in dire need of a pick me up. As it approaches its first birthday, the Vita continues to build an impressive array of original titles. Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation, Sound Shapes, and Gravity Rush, alongside high quality versions of console games like Mortal Kombat, Need For Speed: Most Wanted, and Metal Gear Solid HD Collection have made the handheld a formidable venue for quality video games. Those games haven’t, however, enticed people to actually purchase the device. Sales have been abysmal. PlayStation Plus support, due next week, may be just the fuel the Vita needs as it enters its second year.

Sony will release PS Vita firmware 2.00 on Nov. 19 bringing PS Plus with it. Vita owners will get the same access to discounts on games that they do on PlayStation 3 with PS Plus, but the real draw is a selection of full games available in the Instant Game Collection. The initial line up for PS Vita includes Gravity Rush, Wipeout 2048, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Jet Set Radio HD, Mutant Blobs Attack, and even the PSP game Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions.

The Instant Game Collection is the biggest draw for Sony’s premium subscription service on PlayStation 3, and the support on Vita should help incentivize leery players to actually give Sony’s handheld a shot. The Vita’s PS Plus support, like Cross Play, comes closer to building an ecosystem between Sony’s portable and home consoles.

At this point, though, Sony isn’t aggressively promoting PlayStation Plus or Cross Play in its advertising campaigns. In fact, marketing support for the PlayStation Vita has been relatively low. Sony committed a huge amount of money to marketing the PS Vita in the US ahead of its spring 2012 release. Senior VP of marketing Guy Longworth actually confirmed that the $50 million budget committed to the Vita earlier this year was its biggest advertising push by dollar amount ever in the country. Heading into the holiday season, the Vita isn’t receiving nearly the marketing attention it did earlier this year.

Those marketing costs may not have been worth it for Sony. As of August, Sony had only sold 2.2 million Vitas worldwide. The company then confirmed at the beginning of November that it had sold just 1.6 million PS Vitas and PSPs combined between July and September.

The PS Vita has great games and strong services, but those aren’t enough to make it a success it seems.

Anthony John Agnello
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Anthony John Agnello is a writer living in New York. He works as the Community Manager of Joystiq.com and his writing has…
You’ll finally be able to play Half-Life: Alyx on PlayStation VR2 this summer
Half-Life Alyx being played with a PlayStation VR2 headset.

Sony has finally unveiled its PC adapter for PlayStation VR2, which will be released this August and finally enable players to try games like Half-Life: Alyx with the headset.

PSVR2 sports some impressive tech, but it's no secret that Sony has failed to support it with compelling games for the PS5. Earlier this year, it was teased that Sony was working on PC compatibility for the headset; now, we've learned that this will come in the form of a PC adapter that people can use with a DisplayPort 1.4 cable in order to play VR games through Steam. These are the minimum specs your PC will need in order to get the PSVR2 up and running, straight from the PlayStation Blog.

Read more
Sony just put one final nail in the PlayStation VR2’s coffin
The PlayStation VR2 sits on a table next to Sense controllers.

PlayStation VR2 has been murdered. The culprit: Astro Bot.

My favorite announcement of Sony's May 30 State of Play was Astro Bot, a new 3D platformer from Team Asobi that celebrates PlayStation history. It looks incredibly charming and stands out from the typical narrative-action games like Stellar Blade that Sony tends to release these days. That said, my excitement also comes with disappointment as it does not appear that the game will support PlayStation VR2. (Digital Trends reached out to Sony to confirm that was the case but has not gotten a response at the time of publishing this story.)

Read more
Astro Bot will reference one of PlayStation’s oldest memes
Astro Bot and its PlayStation character cameos, which include Aloy and Nathan Drake on the right.

The Astro Bot series is known for showcasing PlayStation history, with some incredible deep cuts and cameos. For the upcoming Astro Bot, which was officially announced during Sony's latest State of Play this week, that apparently comes in the form of a nearly 20-year-old meme.

In an interview with EW, Team Asobi head Nicolas Doucet mentioned some of the characters that players will encounter spread throughout the game's 80 planets. This includes some obvious inclusions, like Nathan Drake from the Uncharted franchise and Aloy from the Horizon games, but snuck into one of the paragraphs is mention of an island in the shape of a giant crab.

Read more