The PlayStation Vita has delivered on its promise as a portable powerhouse, as noted in our review two weeks ago. Yet one area that was only lightly touched upon was its social apps.
The reason? A limited numbers of Vitas in the wild at the time made it difficult to accurate assess Sony’s lone offering, plus other apps had yet to be released. Even though a few apps are still forthcoming, now might be a good time to see how Vita fares as a socially enabled device.
As mentioned, the Vita comes preloaded with a Sony app, called Near. Utilizing the system's location-based capabilities, it broadcasts your whereabouts to other Vita owners, and also keeps track of those who have passed within your general vicinity. It’s similar to the Street Pass system that is found on Nintendo's 3DS.
When someone is playing a particular title, not only is this information made public, but various add-ons and special features specific to that game, called "Game Goods," are also distributed to nearby users. This is to encourage others to obtain a copy of that game, if they don't have one already, to enjoy the freebie.
Many Vita games also contain challenges that foster competitive or cooperative play among similar users. The best part of Near is how, instead of launching each individual title to view all related info, everything is viewable in a handy, all-in-one package.
Unfortunately, Vita's implementation of the PSN trophy system is not nearly as cohesive. Trophies, which are in-game achievements that were introduced on the PS3, are present on the Vita as well. And all trophies become associated with one's PlayStation Network identity, but trophies from console and portable games are separated and do not mix.
One can view PS3 trophies alongside Vita trophies on the handheld (again, they do not intermingle), yet the vice-versa does not apply. No reason has been given for this. Many are hoping for a unified system later down the road.
Aside from Sony's social app are a number of others from third parties. LiveTweet is the official Twitter client, and is similar to LiveTweet for smartphones. It's quite intuitive and feature-rich, though a few bits and pieces have been left behind, like the ability to shorten links (which is somewhat tied to the system's inability to copy and paste text), or display YouTube videos (which is also tied to the Vita browser's inability to support either Flash or HTML5).
There's a Flickr app, which lets you upload pictures taken with the handheld, as well as interact with photos from friends and contacts. The interface is slick and eye-catching, but stumbles when it comes to usability. It's slow and sluggish. Coupled with the fact that the picture quality of Vita images are poor to begin with, it’s nothing more than a novel idea.
Yet it's not nearly as bad as the Facebook app. Released onto the PlayStation Network a few days ago, it appeared almost identical to the clients found on smartphones. But due to stability issues, it was pulled over the weekend. Those who managed to download a copy before it became unavailable are not able to connect to Facebook's servers anymore. An updated version is coming soon, though no release date has been given.
Also on the way are apps for Skype and Foursquare. It's reasonable to believe that they will also be fully featured applications that operate in the same exact manner as their mobile and desktop equivalents.
While the Vita will may replace your iPhone and Android handset when it comes to gaming, the same cannot be said for its social apps. At least it handles interactions with other Vita owners in a logical, easy-to-grasp manner, more so for PS3 users. The ability to tweet somewhat effectively is a bonus.
Matthew Hawkins is an NYC-based game journalist who has also written for EGM, GameSetWatch, Gamasutra, Giant Robot, and numerous others. He also self-publishes his own game culture zine, is part of Attract Mode, and co-hosts The Fangamer Podcast. You can keep tabs on him via Twitter, or his personal home-base, FORT90.com.
