If you picked up a PS Vita during a Black Friday sale than we hope you’re enjoying your brand new handheld. The system is a great value at $180 to $200, but a lot of consumers aren’t willing to pay the normal $250 asking price.
It is no secret that the PS Vita needs a price drop badly, and it seems like it may get one in 2013. But if Sony wants to go even further in reversing the Vita’s fortunes they could release the first major PS Vita redesign in 2013.
Combine this with a lower price and I’m sure the PS Vita will stop being the butt of jokes in gaming communities across the web. Compelling software can only do so much if your product is too expensive.
One way to reduce costs on the Vita is to redesign it with new materials. Here are just a few things we’d like to see in a redesign PS Vita. We’re calling it the PS Vita 2000.
Slide out controls
This was something I really enjoyed about the PSP Go. The slim, small form factor fit into your hands pretty well. It also cut down as size because the controls could be kept underneath the screen. I’m not sure how Sony would fit the Vita’s analog sticks under the screen without making them much smaller but I’m sure they can figure something out.
Smaller screen
Another change that will reduce size and costs is giving the PS Vita 2000 a smaller screen. The 5-inch OLED screen is amazing and I’m sure many of you will not want to part with it. But it may be in Sony’s best interests to reduce the screen size to 3.8 inches (the same as the PSP Go) or 4.3 (the same as the PSP)
They wouldn’t change the resolution of course, just make the screen smaller.
Ship it with at least a small amount of internal storage
We’re not asking for 16GB here. 2GB for game saves would be fine. You wouldn’t want to download full games onto this internal memory, it would just be a work around for those Vita games that require a memory card to play. This way the game will recognize the system’s internal memory as a memory card and bypass that issue altogether. If the internal storage isn’t very large it still encourages players to purchase Sony’s expensive memory card format which is to their benefit.
Move the front speakers
I don’t know about you guys but my thumbs end up covering the front speakers often. Put them somewhere else Sony!
Better battery life
Reducing the screen size could give the Vita a boost in terms of battery life. If the redesigned handheld uses the slide out controls we spoke about earlier perhaps that would allow Sony to stuff a slightly bigger battery than we might expect given that most people accept that slider-style electronics are usually bulkier than others.
Mini-HDMI out
This one probably isn’t as likely but we’d love to be able to hook our Vitas up to our HDTV’s with ease through a mini-HDMI cable.
Those are just a few of the things we’d like to see in the eventual PS Vita redesign. We’re sure that some of these suggestions will make into the next iteration of Sony’s current handheld while others might be pipe dreams.
What would you like to see in the PS Vita 2000? Let us know in the comments section below!
PS Vita 2000: What should change when the Vita gets redesigned,
