Top right hand corner
Sony Confirms Skype on PSVita
Since Microsoft bought Skype a few months ago, people were wondering (myself included) that there was a possibility the communication service would not be available on Sony’s new handheld, the Playstation Vita, like it’s predecessor the PSP had. This was especially sad considering the great front and back cameras the PSVita sports would be great for video chat. It seems though that there is a possibility of the service coming to the handheld now because in a presentation for Brazilian gamers, Sony showed the Skype logo right up there beside the Vita. (the top right hand corner of the picture to the right).
Skype did say that they were going to continue working on other platforms, and to give Sony some credit I’m sure their contract for the Skype on PSVita was wrapped up a LONG time ago, and Skype has been tweeking it’s software for it to work on the PSVita.
This is great news for Skype users (like myself) oddly enough Skype was one of the first reasons why I bought my original PSP, (the 3000 series) in the first place because it’s so cheap to keep in touch.
So I’ll say it once again Skype on PSVita looks like it’s a go, unless someone at Sony made a really really stupid mistake.
Story originally found on GameGeneration via Joystiq.
June 22nd, 2011 on 9:19 am
This is good news…and bad, in a way. It means the Vita is all it’s cracked up to be, but not quite all we’d hoped.
One of the ideas LordKat floated on his podcast was that, as that AT&T is getting exclusive rights to cover the 3G network for the Vita, what if the Vita were also a new version of the Xperia and was a real phone? It’s obvious that Sony is subsidizing the Vita, but if AT&T subsidized it as well, we really might’ve seen 3G versions for free (or at least dirt cheap) with a contract.
Personally, I think that 3G on the Vita is one of the worst ideas ever. Online gaming will burn through any data caps you have and including it is basically an excuse for AT&T to charge you data-plan overages…but I digress.
In any case, why would they renew Skype if they were making this into a phone? Obviously Skype would still be useful, but nowhere near AS useful.
June 22nd, 2011 on 1:03 pm
I personally don’t want a phone/game device, because usually I love to play my games as much as I can during the day, and any phone’s battery is gone after a few hours, hell my Itouch would lose a charge after a bus trip playing angry birds, I think it’ll be a while until we see a true device that does gaming and a phone feature well. Mind you, Skype, considering you can pay 3 dollars a month and get unlimited calling in North America to any phone or cell, is an amazing deal, and depending on the data plans that the 3G version comes with, this might be a decent alternative. Myself though, I’m not really looking for a playstation phone. At least not until they fix the battery problem, and I’m thinking that’s a way off.