PSVITA LiveArea, Near, Party, Friendslist & Profile, Trophies, Messaging and X-Play

[Shin-Ra]

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LiveArea

Each game on PS Vita will have its own LiveArea Screen, which is split into two zones. In the Info Zone you can find out about the latest downloadable content for the game you're playing, and see tournament events that are taking place. In the Communication Zone, see how your PlayStation Network friends are getting on through automatic status updates. You'll be able to see if they've earned a new trophy and leave comments for them, too. The LiveArea Screen is the best way to see what your friends are up to and let them know how well you're doing in your favourite PS Vita game.

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Near

Stay connected to all of your PlayStation Network friends and make new ones by sharing information about your location using Near. Press the Update button and find new people based on where you are, challenge them to games or play cooperatively and enjoy a completely unique gaming experience on PS Vita. You can even send and receive new levels, unlocks and in-game items to enhance the way you play - everywhere you go will hold new surprises.

You can view your friends' game preferences, see how many trophies they've earned and compare your stats to see who the better player is. Near will be pre-installed on your PS Vita.

additional images from January 2011 PlayStation Meeting presentation:

[Show spoiler]

additional images from February 2011 GDC session:

[Show spoiler]

Do I need a 3G network connection to enjoy Near?

You can enjoy Near using Wi-Fi, but to get the most out of Near, a 3G connection is preferable. You will be able to obtain more information and encounter new players in real time by using a 3G connection.

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Party

Fancy a chat while you're gaming? Speak with your friends anytime you like with Party. The voice and text chat application will also be pre-installed and allows you to talk to up to eight party members, no matter what you're doing. Tell them about the game you're playing, what you're looking at online or hatch plans in multiplayer matches.

Your friends can even invite their own friends to join in the fun, so you'll meet more new people who love PS Vita as much as you do. Join an existing Party and see what everyone else is up to, or create your own and see who fancies a chat. Make sure you save your favourite Parties so you can head back there at any time.

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Friends List and Profile

In your profile you can share information about yourself. Choose an avatar that represents you best, add your friends and let the world see your gaming and trophy stats.

Your Friends List will allow you to search for and add new friends, and accept requests sent to you.

Click on a friend's profile to see what game they are playing on either PS Vita or PlayStation 3. You can join their game, take a look at what you've played together recently or compare your trophy collections. You can also see your friend's recent activity, check out if they've been to any Parties and view their Near profile.

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Trophies

PS Vita games will support trophies so you can show your friends what you've achieved in all of the great games on PS Vita and on PS3. Click on one of your friends' profiles to see how they've been getting on, and compare all of your trophies to see who the better player is. Has your friend got more trophies than you? Keep playing until you have the most.

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PSN Message

Another great way to contact your PlayStation Network friends is through PSN Message. Send them an update, game invite or even a picture you've taken with your PS Vita to let them know what's going on.

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PlayStation Store



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Cross-Play
(cross-platform multiplayer and saves)

MULTIPLAYER GAMING

Video example: WipEout 2048 (PSVITA) <—> WipEout HD (PS3)

YouTube - &#x202a;PlayStation Vita Wipeout 2048 Crossplay With PS3 (PS Vita)&#x202c;&rlm;

more games supporting this feature

• Dragon's Crown
• Dungeon Defenders
• Hustle Kings

CLOUD SAVES

Saves are uploaded to the PSN cloud and then downloaded on the other PlayStation, seamlessly in-game.

Video example: Ruin (PSVITA) <—> Ruin (PS3)

http://www.viddler.com/explore/engadget/videos/2860/

more games supporting this feature

• Dragon's Crown
• Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee
• Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath

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More Social Networking Tools

The amazing social networking features of PS Vita can help you stay in touch with your friends and up to date with all the latest gossip. Find out what's going on all over the world, wherever you are, with these social network apps. They've been developed specifically for PS Vita and will be available to download for free from PlayStation Store.



Facebook allows you to create your own personal profile, connect with friends, colleagues and family, and ultimately stay in touch with your contacts. Share your photos, create social events and Like your favourite companies, artists and brands to see what they're up to. Just earned a platinum trophy in your favourite game? Update your status and let your friends know about your achievements on PS Vita.

This app has been designed especially for PS Vita, so your pictures, videos and profile will look stunning on the system's 5 inch OLED screen.

Stay connected and in touch with Facebook, and be sure to Like the Official PlayStation Facebook page and keep up to date with your favourite games at facebook.com/SonyPlaystation.





Instantly update your followers with news, pictures and information using Twitter. As well as sending your own Tweets, you can follow your friends, idols, celebrities, industry experts and organisations to find out what's happening all over the world. You can even take a screen grab of the game you're playing on your PS Vita and share it, so everyone can see you pushing the Little Deviants around or getting a hole-in-one in Everybody's Golf.

Download Twitter for immediate news, opinions and updates, and make sure that you follow PlayStation on Twitter at twitter.com/PlayStationEU.





Let your friends know where you are and find out where they're hanging out with Foursquare. Check in at venues all over the world to earn points and badges, and leave tips, reviews and recommendations for your friends to read. Check in at a location more than anyone else and you can even become its mayor.

You're always in the know with Foursquare - don't miss a trick.





Get together with friends and family all over the world with Skype. Give them a call on your PS Vita and catch up with either text or voice chat, no matter where they are.



These social network applications use either 3G or Wi-Fi technology. If you have the 3G model, you'll be able to stay connected all the time, wherever you are.

[Septimus Prime]

I think Near will be fairly useless, thanks to AT&T. I, at least, will not be getting a 3G Vita because of them, and I suspect that I won't be alone in this decision, so I won't ever be able to discover what's "near" me unless people happen to come by while I happen to have Wi-Fi on.

[Shin-Ra]

PSVita, like the WiFi-only iPod touch uses Skyhook which, depending where you are exactly, can detect location with only a WiFi connection.

Wi-Fi Positioning, GPS and Cell Tower

Wi-Fi positioning performs best where GPS is weakest, in urban areas and indoors. Click here for details on Wi-Fi data collection methodology and coverage.

GPS provides highly accurate location results in "open sky" environments, like rural areas and on highways. But in urban areas and indoors, tall buildings and ceilings block GPS' view of satellites, resulting in serious performance deficiencies in time to first fix, accuracy and availability. GPS or A-GPS alone cannot provide fast and accurate location results in all environments.

Cell tower triangulation provides generalized location results with only 200 - 1000 meter accuracy. It serves as a coverage fallback when neither GPS nor Wi-Fi is available. Skyhook maintains a worldwide database of cell tower locations, which increases our Core Engine coverage area and helps improve GPS satellite acquisition time.

Coverage

To pinpoint location, Skyhook's Core Engine uses a massive reference network comprised of the known locations of over 250 million Wi-Fi access points and cellular towers. To develop this database, Skyhook has deployed drivers to survey every single street, highway, and alley in tens of thousands of cities and towns worldwide, scanning for Wi-Fi access points and cell towers plotting their precise geographic locations. Skyhook's extensive coverage area includes most major metro areas in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

Submit a Wi-Fi Access Point

To help Skyhook further improve its Wi-Fi coverage, you can submit an access point to the Wi-Fi reference database.

Check Coverage in Your Area

Type in your address and click Find It.

[Septimus Prime]

While that's true, because most people don't live around wide are WiFi like 802.11a, we won't really have WiFi access on the go. I guess we can tether to our phones, but our carriers don't really like that, either.

[Shin-Ra]

Unless you're using a feature that sends or receives network data live, it should be able to record your movements and let you sync that with PSN once you get back home.

[Marine Mike]

I just placed my pre-order and looking to sell my PSP GO.

[AranhaHunter]

Another way PS3-PSVita can connect, and Rhodes touched on this in his interview with gamespot IIRC, is through common DLC. Like LBP costumes will be available on LBP Vita at no extra cost and so will mods and tracks for MNR.

To be honest though, this is the least exciting connectivity feature. It seems a little broken (LBP doesn't even get the levels built by the community for example); and it should still be cross plat play, that would make it much more exciting than being able to use costumes or tracks separately IMO.

[PA_Kid]

Originally Posted by Septimus Prime

While that's true, because most people don't live around wide are WiFi like 802.11a, we won't really have WiFi access on the go. I guess we can tether to our phones, but our carriers don't really like that, either.

Speak for yourself. I was debating a mifi hotspot, but now that grandfathered Verizon unlimited data plan users can get unlimited 4G tethering for just $30 additional - my future 4G phone (probably a Bionic) will be running my Vita (and S1 and laptop) too. I was delightfully shocked when it all unfolded this way.

[Septimus Prime]

Originally Posted by PA_Kid

Speak for yourself. I was debating a mifi hotspot, but now that grandfathered Verizon unlimited data plan users can get unlimited 4G tethering for just $30 additional - my future 4G phone (probably a Bionic) will be running my Vita (and S1 and laptop) too. I was delightfully shocked when it all unfolded this way.

I was speaking for myself, thankyouverymuch.

But yes, I'm a Verizon user myself, who is grandfathered into the unlimited plan. Tethering is a solution, but it's an expensive one (and considering how much battery tethering OR 4G alone uses, tethering via 4G would just drink battery juice, I'd imagine). I also don't really want to pay extra for tethering.

[PA_Kid]

Originally Posted by Septimus Prime

I was speaking for myself, thankyouverymuch.

I hope you realize that was meant in jest. (I'm assuming you do, just figured I'd say it just in case).

But yes, I'm a Verizon user myself, who is grandfathered into the unlimited plan. Tethering is a solution, but it's an expensive one (and considering how much battery tethering OR 4G alone uses, tethering via 4G would just drink battery juice, I'd imagine). I also don't really want to pay extra for tethering.

I get where you are going on battery, but not on cost. Since no one has decided to to family plan-ish data plans yet, even if the Vita was 3G on Verizon and not AT&T, you'd still only have 2 options - 1) go with a verizon mifi @ 50 a month or 2) go with a Vita data plan @ 20-30 a month (both with data limits).

So Option 1 (tether):
$30 unlimited smartphone data + $30 unlimited tethering = $60 for unlimited data on any wifi device you own

Option 2 (mifi):
$30 unlimited smartphone data (I'm assuming you aren't dumping your phone) + $50 MiFi with 5GB cap = $80 for unlimited smartphone data and 5GB for any other wifi device you own

Option 3 (vita 3G):
$30 unlimited smartphone data (again assuming phone stays) + $20-30 Vita data plan with some cap = $50-60 for unlimited smartphone data and limited data for your Vita

You originally mentioned Near would fail because it's AT&T, but even if it's on Verizon, the 4G Mobile Hotspot is still a much better solution from a cost and speed perspective. (At least that's my take. And of course it's a much worse scenario for non-grandfathered verizon users.)


On a slightly different note, someone who works at AT&T mentioned something interesting to me. They mentioned how AT&T and Sony may have made a deal because AT&T has a tendency to do limited free data for things like the Kindle. Their thought is that when it's announced the Vita 3G might be free for the store, firmware, and Near - but charge for everything else (like online play, surfing, etc...). Store downloads might take a lot of bandwidth, but someone is also purchasing something so making it free may spur digital download sales. Just a though, but it doesn't seem like an unreasonable one.

[Shin-Ra]

Major update in the OP!

[Mobe1969]

I hope they allow you to at least turn off those god awful trophy notifications. I'd like to turn off trophies altogether honestly. On the PS3 as well.

[garlad]

Regarding Twitter and Facebook, do we know much about the apps other than what is in the first post? Will we receive notifications from Twitter (mentions, DMs etc) and Facebook (likes, comments etc) to the Vita when we’re not in the apps themselves?

[Shin-Ra]

Vita has a notification button/menu but I don't know if those apps specifically push notifications to it.




A new Flickr app was announced at SCEE's recent press event.

Social Essentials Shown

We learned that Flickr is joining Twitter, Facebook and FourSquare in Social Essentials, PS Vita’s gateway into the most popular social media channels, and they were available to test at the London event. We’ll be showing you exactly how to Like, Tweet, Tag and all the rest here on PlayStation.Blog soon.

[Shin-Ra]

This was posted in the Master Thread but it's easier to find again here.

Twitter on PlayStation Vita - YouTube

The lilac system-wide keyboard still looks repulsive to me but the dictionary word suggestion will come in very handy for names like "PlayStation Vita" and game titles assuming it remembers words and word sequences like the PS3 software keyboard.

[garlad]

I wonder how the Twitter app will cope when there are links to other websites mentioned in tweets? Will it allow the browser and the Twitter app to be open simultaneously? Will pictures show automatically when a tweet is highlighted (TwitPic, yFrog links etc)

[Shin-Ra]

I'm not sure what you mean by open simultaneously because you can't show two apps on screen at once but like iPhone it remembers your position, closes and quick switches apps.

The twitter app seems fully featured enough that it'd show pictures in-line with tweets, even the twitter mobile web browser interface does that. How embedded videos are represented, I do not know.

[garlad]

Yeah that’s pretty much what I meant. So, just like the mobile app, it will switch to the browser, then back to Twitter. Cool, good news.

[Shin-Ra]

There's a more up-to-date look at the 'near' app here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bahf5...be&hd=1&t=8m9s

The graph paper effect is still there, it's just the overexposed camera footage hiding the fine details.




The stat freaks are gonna love this. January pics below.




By the way, I checked out the new Official Japanese Play-Community Site and an activity feed's already been recorded of when we started playing new games and when we obtained platinum trophies on PS3 but that feed's going to start recording more things on PS Vita.

https://commu.jp.playstation.com/my/activity/ (you need to sign in with your PSN account and agree to the ToS the first time on)



The time and date-stamps on the earliest games listed like PixelJunk Eden are wrong.

[garlad]

I’m not sure about this yet.. I’d imagine it will work better with a 3G connection?

Is it a tool to mainly meet new gamers in your vicinity and to arrange online gaming with people in your area?