New Vita may be on the way, along with reasonably priced memory (finally)

By Anthony John Agnello February 12, 2013

Dead or Alive 5+ Vita

The game industry is in a hubbub about the impending announcement of Sony’s next PlayStation, and expectations are that Sony will announce the new console at a New York press event on Feb. 20. Many of the studios that have worked with Sony on signature PlayStation 3 games are starting to tease their PlayStation 4 games. Maybe it will be called Orbis, maybe it will block used games, maybe it will have some kind of snazzy new controller; most everything about the machine is unknown. What is known is this: Sony already has a relatively new game console on store shelves and it is floundering. If Sony doesn’t change something soon, the PlayStation Vita will die an early death. Its first year on shelves has resulted in dire sales numbers. Perhaps a new PS Vita model, rumored to be included in the Feb. 20 presentation, can change the device’s fate.

The rumored new PS Vita model will not address the biggest complaint leveled against the device: High price. The new Vita will be able to connect to 4G LTE wireless networks and cost $299, just like the existing 3G model supported by AT&T in the US. The Wi-Fi-only model of Vita will remain on the market for $250. The 4G functionality won’t be a major selling point for the console anymore than the 3G has, as only a handful of games like Street Fighter X Tekken are playable over the network. Based on a patent published on Thursday (via NeoGAF), the new model may allow TV output from the Vita via an HDMI cable port. It may also ship alongside an overhauled firmware for the console, offering new organizational tools.

The new model may not earn benefit current PS Vita owners, but changes to the Vita business plan may. The biggest of which is that Sony will reduce the price of the PS Vita’s unique memory cards. The astronomically high price of memory cards—a 32GB card is a whopping $100, where the exact same SD card, just minus the proprietary locks sells for as low as $25 or less—demonstrates the real cost of a Vita, since many games like Uncharted: Golden Abyss require a memory card for play.

Reducing the price of memory cards may not be enough for Sony to resuscitate the PS Vita. Anything short of a drastic price cut on the console will struggle to enhance its audience.

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If you want to try Battlefield 2042 for free on PC, your time is running out. You have just over a day to download and play it on Steam before it goes back to being a full-price release.
Battlefield 2042's free access period on Steam began on March 13, about two weeks after the start of Season 4: Eleventh Hour. If you go to its store page on Steam, you can download and play it for free until 12 p.m. ET on March 16. The game is also discounted on Steam during this time, so you can pick Battlefield 2042 up for $18 instead of $60.
If you don't want to buy the game directly but still want to continue playing after this free trial period, you have some options. Battlefield 2042 is included in multiple subscription services at the moment. It is one of March 2023's monthly PlayStation Plus titles for both PS4 and PS5 subscribers. Meanwhile, it's available as part of the EA Play game library, which Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S all have access to.
If you use the same EA account on those platforms, you'll be able to carry over all of your account progression and items and not lose any progress. As such, this free access period on Steam is a great time to check out Battlefield 2042 if you've been on the fence about picking it up.
Battlefield 2042 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Its free Steam demo ends on March 16.

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How to connect your Nintendo Switch to a TV

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For those who are new to the system, every purchase of the Nintendo Switch not only includes the Switch itself but also a Switch dock. This dock will be key in putting your system together for the TV. The first thing you're going to want to do is take out the dock and all the cords. Make sure that you have the dock, an HDMI cord, and a power cord for the system. If all three are present, you're good to start!

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The PlayStation 5 has been out for some time now, and its reception has been mostly positive. It includes lots of quality-of-life improvements over its predecessor, the PlayStation 4, such as faster load times, a solid-state drive (SSD) instead of a regular hard disk drive (HDD), and an improved controller in the form of the new DualSense. However, a console is only as good as the games available on it, and thankfully, the PS5 has you covered on that front as well.

While the machine already has a worthy library of great PS5 games, there are even more to look forward to, with some releasing as soon as this month, while others are still years away. In the video game world, it's not uncommon to be aware of games that are still several years out from release. It's also normal for a new game to be revealed and launched within just a couple of months. In this comprehensive list, we'll go through the major PS5 releases scheduled for 2023 and speculate on future games.