thaddius' Console Roast 2014 Edition - Round 12

[Foxi4]

Gotta read the details.

As it says, it's not a physical copy of borderlands 2... that means that:

• I gotta create a whole new separate email to create another stupid PSN account (inconvenient at best)
• that 8 gigs of storage is automatically gone, because even regular borderlands GOTY edition used up about that much storage as it was.
• Vita disables the internal storage when using the memory card, so it's never going to be n+1GB
• A 32gig card still is more than $70 online, which means it'll still be $300 after taxes for the damned thing
• It also means more money to $ony, which has already treated me like crap in the past

A Vita's only useful to me if I could hack it at this point. At least then I'd have the nerve to actually try some of the games available. It was the same way with me with the PSP... I didn't even care about any of the PSP's games until after I had one and got my early buzz from the homebrew there was on it.

Excuses, excuses. You're easily getting a value equivalent to grabbing a 3DS XL bundle - those too only offer vouchers for games, not physical cartridges, except nowadays the charger isn't even bundled, so you have to get it separately (which is the only instance of contemporary portable tech not bundled with its charger that I know of to date, d*ck move, Nintendo).

 

[thaddius]

What about Tearaway? Soul Sacrifice? KillZone: Mercenary? Gravity Rush?

Personally I did not enjoy Soul Sacrifice or Gravity Rush. I thought Killzone was OK and I have yet to play Tearaway. I really liked Uncharted though. Unit 13 was... not really my kind of game. And I loved the other Katamari games - haven't played the Vita one yet though.

I spend 90% of my time playing Spelunky on my Vita (no joke). It's great that I can play indie games like Spelunky, Terraria, Hotline Miami, Limbo, ad infentum on the go. And it's nice to have ports like MGS 2&3, PSOne games like Castlevania: SOTN and Chrono Cross, and PSP games like the GTAs on one portable platform. Ports and backwards compatibility are nice and all, I just wish I got more out the exclusives.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

• that 8 gigs of storage is automatically gone, because even regular borderlands GOTY edition used up about that much storage as it was.

Nope, Borderlands 2 only takes up ~4GB with all of the DLC. Downloaded it yesterday, that was the total size. That would still leave you enough room for a second AAA digital title, or a good handful of indie games.

 

[Foxi4]

Nope, Borderlands 2 only takes up ~4GB with all of the DLC. Downloaded it yesterday, that was the total size. That would still leave you enough room for a second AAA digital title, or a good handful of indie games.

It's still not going to be a good deal because *insert reason*, or maybe I'm just too tired to try getting the message through. Facts of the matter are that all you need to pay for a ready-to-play system is $199, it's been like this for a while since this isn't the first bundle like this. Any and all complaints about the PSVita being overpriced are null and void when 3DS XL bundles come at the exact same price... except they come without a damned charger which is completely idiotic and I'm dumbstruck as to why people haven't complained about this more vocally. To me it comes across as an incomplete set, but hey - that's just me.

 

[codezer0]

It's still not going to be a good deal because *insert reason*, or maybe I'm just too tired to try getting the message through. Facts of the matter are that all you need to pay for a ready-to-play system is $199, it's been like this for a while since this isn't the first bundle like this. Any and all complaints about the PSVita being overpriced are null and void when 3DS XL bundles come at the exact same price... except they come without a damned charger which is completely idiotic and I'm dumbstruck as to why people haven't complained about this more vocally. To me it comes across as an incomplete set, but hey - that's just me.

It does what now? In that case I suppose I should be glad I bought my 3DS XL when I did. I can't believe that nintendo would do that. But then again I'm not surprised... this is Iwata we're talking about here. The guy has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that he is incapable of running a business.

As for the Vita, I still stand by my reasoning that it isn't worth $200 for only one game I care enough about. The absolute lack of ability to homebrew like the PSP is also a turn off to me, personally. I only bought the 3DS XL when I did because of the Gateway 3DS, and I'd wanted a bigger screen size.

 

[Foxi4]

It does what now? In that case I suppose I should be glad I bought my 3DS XL when I did. I can't believe that nintendo would do that. But then again I'm not surprised... this is Iwata we're talking about here. The guy has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that he is incapable of running a business.

As for the Vita, I still stand by my reasoning that it isn't worth $200 for only one game I care enough about. The absolute lack of ability to homebrew like the PSP is also a turn off to me, personally. I only bought the 3DS XL when I did because of the Gateway 3DS, and I'd wanted a bigger screen size.

Bullseye, it was totally Iwata's idea. I quote:

Iwata - According to the original specifications, if you were playing while charging, you were surpassing the capacity of the existing AC adapter. For that reason, there was a time that, you thought you might have to prepare a special version.
Koshiishi - Yeah. But later on, through cooperation with the manufacturer, we were able to get by with the existing adapter. We also discussed cost and whether we needed to include the charging cradle. And you suggested not including the AC adapter.
Iwata - That's right.
Koshiishi - We worried over it, but during that time, all the groups within the company naturally shared a desire to separate what was absolutely necessary and what wasn't. In the end, we decided that it was best to sell the AC adapter and the charging cradle separately.
Iwata - About the AC adapter, this is the fourth of this type since the Nintendo DSi13 system, so I think many people have the previous AC adapters. That being the case, we thought we should make it easier, even if just a little, to buy the system. However, you have to have the stores notify shoppers that this product doesn't come with an AC adapter, so if you don't already have one, you have to buy it separately. This project required the sales division to be thorough on that point as well.
Koshiishi - That's right. I was relieved that everyone on the staff understood that we were saying to the players, "We won't make you pay for something you don't need."

First of all, they either lying straight to your face or their original design had a much higher energy consumption - the original 3DS charger is perfectly capable of charging a 3DS XL, even during intensive gameplay. They're not even "cutting corners" here, I don't know what "original specifications" they're talking about. Secondly, Nintendo damn well knows that their fans will double-dip and they already have chargers - they just assume that you will give them more money because they made a hardware revision. Thirdly, they are creating a false front of the system being cheap wheras in fact they're selling an incomplete set to cut costs.

The AC adapter is only bundled in select regions, North America, China and Korea got lucky, Europe, Australia and Japan not so much.

To me this is rip-off country regardless of whether or not I have a charger and how much the total costs will be simply because I expect my electronics to work out of the box. Sure Iwata, sure Koshiishi, I totally don't need the charger for a system I just bought.

 

[codezer0]

Now that is some serious *expletive*.

 

[chavosaur]

SEND IN THE VITA BROS, ALL THE VITA BROS.
MAKE THE WORLD KNOW THE WONDERS OF THE DANGANRONPA MACHINE ;O;

 

[KingVamp]

The AC adapter is only bundled in select regions, North America, China and Korea got lucky, Europe, Australia and Japan not so much.

I was confused until I read this.

Sure Iwata, sure Koshiishi, I totally don't need the charger for a system I just bought.

Price aside, there most likely chargers at the same store and/or the person would be coming from the past system. So, you aren't just left hanging.


That said, it would be nice if it came with it... in your case.

 

[Vipera]

The 3DS XL doesn't have an AC adapter included, and the price-cut was a joke. Though, Sony managed to get in competition by having proprietary and expensive memory cards for the PS Vita. I'm not counting the other two consoles because they are crap and the Neo Geo X has my vote that I will explain later.

Thing is, it looked like they were trying to reach a new low level where people would still tolerate their BS. Not including an AC adapter because they expected that everyone had a DSi/3DS laying around is just arrogant, and expecting people to buy ANOTHER set of proprietary Sony cards is just stupid. But hey, people did that anyway, and were happy. I'd say, if PS Vita had a normal micro SD slot I'd have bought it. For now, though, it's in the "PS Phone" section of my brain. And that, together with the Go, had the worst price cut in the world, stuff like makes Nintendo look like a novice.

Now, about the Neo Geo X:

Ashens makes a fair point. The system is a joke: a very bad handheld that can become an awful home console. They had one job :/

 

[Foxi4]

Price aside, there most likely chargers at the same store and/or the person would be coming from the past system. So, you aren't just left hanging.

The charger is an intrinsic part of the set without which you cannot even turn the device on, let alone use it. Memory cards I can understand, that's storage, but an AC adapter? It doesn't matter if it costs peanuts or not - I need it to turn the system on, it blows my mind that they'd think this is a good idea. It's artificially lowering the price of the product, I'd sooner expect them not to include the SD card because A) It's storage B) It's not proprietary so chances are that more people will have them, unlike the proprietary charger and C) It's not necessary for the operation of the system. If they want to go green, they should use a commonly used plug, like microUSB - everybody and their dog has those cables laying around.

 

[Veho]

Price aside, there most likely chargers at the same store and/or the person would be coming from the past system. So, you aren't just left hanging.

If they really, genuinely didn't want to leave the buyer hanging, they would have used a standard mini/micro USB port for charging, instead of their proprietary stuff. This was to force people to spend extra money and still have the console appear to cost less.

Just like Sony Vita's memory cards.

 

[KingVamp]

The charger is an intrinsic part of the set without which you cannot even turn the device on, let alone use it. Memory cards I can understand, that's storage, but an AC adapter? It doesn't matter if it costs peanuts or not - I need it to turn the system on, it blows my mind that they'd think this is a good idea. It's artificially lowering the price of the product, I'd sooner expect them not to include the SD card because A) It's storage B) It's not proprietary so chances are that more people will have them, unlike the proprietary charger and C) It's not necessary for the operation of the system.

You can still buy the charger if you needed it. In fact, you don't even have to get their charger. The charger is probably cheaper than the SD cards and that's why they decided to drop that. It's like,

"Well, we have all these used chargers out there,we have chargers in packets and there's 3rd party, there's no need for overproduction".

While I'm not saying it was a good decision, there's reasoning behind it.

If they want to go green, they should use a commonly used plug, like microUSB - everybody and their dog has those cables laying around.

Perhaps for their next handheld.

If they really, genuinely didn't want to leave the buyer hanging, they would have used a standard mini/micro USB port for charging, instead of their proprietary stuff. This was to force people to spend extra money and still have the console appear to cost less.

Just like Sony Vita's memory cards.

Was the mini/micro USB even that common and wide spread when the DSI came out? Besides, they were coming from a time when they needed to and used to producing their own charger.

It's not like it cost a lot like Vita memory cards do, anyway.

 

[emigre]

Vampy, why are trying to justify Ninty's decision to sell a handheld system without a charger? They're selling a system without the means to use it. I resented paying £170 for my 3DS XL and than having to buy a charger on top of that. Just as I resented buy proprietary memory for my Vita.

 

[KingVamp]

Vampy, why are trying to justify Ninty's decision to sell a handheld system without a charger? They're selling a system without the means to use it. I resented paying £170 for my 3DS XL and than having to buy a charger on top of that. Just as I resented buy proprietary memory for my Vita.

Well, mainly because they are making a big deal out of it.

Surely they should have since it's so hard to grab a charger at the same place they are getting the 3DS XL and it cost so much more (in the same vein as Vita's proprietary memory) while separated.

Seriously tho, maybe they should have, just in case someone didn't have one, didn't have easy access to one (can't really imagine that) or just for having an extra charger.

While I'm actually indecisive about their decision, I don't see it as that big of a deal. It would be one thing if the chargers were sparse,hard to come by and/or cost more than with the console, but that isn't the case.

 

[Foxi4]

I would rather buy a system without a tiny 2GB (3DS) or 4GB (XL) SD card and be able to use it than have to buy a charger. I'm not defending Sony's practice of overpricing memory cards (although I understand the intention), I'm merely saying that Nintendo is no better in this regard. As I said, I don't know of a single device with a proprietary rechargeable battery that wouldn't be bundled with a charger - it's as if Android devices would suddenly stop being bundled with chargers because the plug is the same on all Android devices - would that be acceptable? No, because the device I just paid for cannot function without it. This is not a case of "batteries not included" - those are universal, the charger is not. You can't assume that your customer already owns your proprietary hardware, by doing so you alienate everybody who doesn't.

 

[Pleng]

It was inevitable. Someone would eventually put Android onto a portable gaming device. So after a dearth of Chinese companies tried their hand at it with generic Android handhelds (something that I’m not bothering to include in this round), someone actually thought about doing it properly.

Who thought about doing it properly? I'm confused.

The form factor of the Shield is a joke. While I know the Chinese tab/console and phone/console hybrids are far from perfect, their form factors at least make some kind of sense!

 

[Oxybelis]

Neo Geo X should not be here. It does not compete with Vita and DS.
Shield samewhat does, like other 1000s of other android consoles (JXD and so on) so it takes my vote.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Who thought about doing it properly? I'm confused.

The form factor of the Shield is a joke. While I know the Chinese tab/console and phone/console hybrids are far from perfect, their form factors at least make some kind of sense!

wut.

It's almost literally a 360 controller with a screen thrown on the top. The biggest difference is the d-pad and the left analog stick are switched, otherwise it's practically the same form factor as a 360 controller.

For reference, a wireless 360 controller is
6.05in wide
2.4in high
4.13in long

Whereas the Shield is
6.2in wide
2.2in high
5in long

The biggest difference is the length of the device, which is understandable since the Shield has a whole handheld packed inside as well as, y'know, a screen. So I guess if you have some sort of burning passionate hate for the 360 controller then yeah I guess the form factor is "a joke"

 

[Foxi4]

wut.

It's almost literally a 360 controller with a screen thrown on the top. The biggest difference is the d-pad and the left analog stick are switched, otherwise it's practically the same form factor as a 360 controller.

For reference, a wireless 360 controller is
6.05in wide
2.4in high
4.13in long

Whereas the Shield is
6.2in wide
2.2in high
5in long

The biggest difference is the length of the device, which is understandable since the Shield has a whole handheld packed inside as well as, y'know, a screen. So I guess if you have some sort of burning passionate hate for the 360 controller then yeah I guess the form factor is "a joke"

This is another instance of understanding portability as "I can put it in my pocket". Fair play, that's one way to do things, I personally prefer a comfortable grip. That being said, the Shield could use a slimming diet.