The ability for Sony's upcoming Vita to function as a PS3 controller was revealed by Sony Europe R&D manager Phil Rogers at Develop Conference 2011. The Vita/PS3 compatibility is very similar to the way the GBA and Nintendo GameCube could be used in tandem, but Rogers went on to give a few examples of how Sony’s technology is different from any predecessors and how he thinks this technology could be used in new ways…
Rogers said that PS3s will be able to stream images to the Vita’s display. This could mean that PS3 owners will no longer be required to purchase bulky large-screen HDTVs.
"You can run software on both devices and use the network to sync the game states. And that's pretty good, because you then have the processing power of PS3 doing that work, Vita [doing] fancy graphics — however you want to do it. You're not sacrificing the PS3's CPU to be able to have a rich experience on Vita," explained Rogers.
While there are no particularly obvious uses for having a Vita process graphics and a PS3 synching the game states on both devices, Rogers said that this is still "a fairly new idea" and explained that it’d be okay with him if developers went ahead and let Sony know if they thought of anything.
One more little Vita feature is that using PSN, games can be saved on a PS3 and then resumed on the Vita — as long as that game is cross-platform compatible.
This ability does seem useful, as owners of both systems could unlock extra features or abilities for a game on PS3 by progressing through the Vita version — or vise versa.
However, convincing people these features are worth owning both systems may prove to be difficult because of the cost, and at the same time, deter developers from heavily relying on the Vita’s PS3 augmenting abilities.
Aug 2, 2011
