Sony stated during the PlayStation 4 reveal that the troubled PS Vita handheld will feature prominently is the company's PS4 plans, although no concrete plans have yet been divulged.
Today, Sony president Shuhei Yoshida confirmed that all PS4 games will be required to offer "Remote Play" on the PS Vita -- that is, allow for PS4 games to be played on the Vita via a live video stream.
The Remote Play feature has been around for a while now, although the ability to stream games from the PlayStation 3 to the PSP or PS Vita has been severely limited.
Following a report on Eurogamer, Yoshida confirmed on Twitter, "Yes, it's true unless the game requires specific hardware like the [PS4 Eye] camera. It will be great to play PS4 games on PS Vita."
Am I just forgetting, but doesn't the Vita have only 1 trigger button per side (left right), versus the 2 on the PS4 controller? Does that then mean the extra button will be simulated by the back-touch screen?
Actually there's more to it, since the Vita's thumbsticks don't have depressable buttons like the DualShock. That's a total of 4 inputs that will have to be simulated by the touchscreen.
That aside, I don't think that developers will have a problem with getting it to work well. Given the PS4's built-in hardware for streaming and the relatively straightforward (if a bit kludgy) simulation of those buttons with the front and rear touchscreens this could be a huge boon to Vita users, since they would have both their library of Vita games but also their PS4 collection with them at all times (assuming they have the bandwidth for it).
Besides, people have already turned the Vita into a PC controller and remote desktop gaming device using PlayStation Mobile with touchscreen controls replacing the missing buttons. Haven't tried them myself but you can find videos of it on YouTube pretty easily.
anyone using the left thumbstick as a button (or right thumbstick in lefty mode) should be flogged by now anyhow... so still only three inputs to worry about.
For example, the left thumbstick 'button' is constantly being used to duck or crouch... which when things get heated users are constantly triggering an inadvertent click as they panic to move their character. Using this input for anything is just dumb IMO.
Unless the PS4/PSP Vita Remote Play is 1000x better than the PS3/PSP Remote Play... I don't see this as a game changer. It would need to be the Wii U basically. It's not fun interacting with a laggy 90's mpeg video on your PSP.
I doubt many people will pay an additional $/€250 just to play their games on a Vita, after they just paid $/€500+ for their PS4.
That aside, I don't think that developers will have a problem with getting it to work well. Given the PS4's built-in hardware for streaming and the relatively straightforward (if a bit kludgy) simulation of those buttons with the front and rear touchscreens this could be a huge boon to Vita users, since they would have both their library of Vita games but also their PS4 collection with them at all times (assuming they have the bandwidth for it).
Besides, people have already turned the Vita into a PC controller and remote desktop gaming device using PlayStation Mobile with touchscreen controls replacing the missing buttons. Haven't tried them myself but you can find videos of it on YouTube pretty easily.
For example, the left thumbstick 'button' is constantly being used to duck or crouch... which when things get heated users are constantly triggering an inadvertent click as they panic to move their character. Using this input for anything is just dumb IMO.