How the PlayStation Vita Made Me Eat My Own Words

Joel Taveras August 27, 2013 1:00 PM EST

Where do I begin? A little over a year ago, I went to great lengths to explain why — at the time — the Nexus 7 tablet from Asus and Google was a safer bet than the PlayStation Vita (no seriously, let me finish, this gets good). So much so, that I went out of my way to write an editorial on how I was trading in Sony’s handheld for the new piece of Android tech.

What have I done?

Let me preface by saying that the Nexus 7 turned out to be a great purchase, one that I don’t regret. I’ve enjoyed it so much that this summer I’ve already upgraded to the newer model. But in retrospect, was it worth to trade in the PlayStation Vita in its infancy? No, not so much. Sure, I do get to kick around some addicting casual titles here and there, but now my gaming thirst is yearning for something more, an itch that the Nexus 7 just can’t scratch. Not yet at least.

So how did this newfound love for the PlaySation Vita come about? Well it happened three times, all around Gamescom.

First when Shuhei Yoshida, President of Sony’s Worldwide Studios, took to twitter to troll point out the intricacies of remote play and how it’s finally going to be done right when the Vita is paired with the PlayStation 4. Sony achieved this feat by taking an “add on” feature out of the hands of developers, who just like with the PS3, would seldom go out of their way to add remote play functionality for the handheld in their respective games. And instead, Sony built it in as a core feature at the system level on the PlayStation 4. Instantly catapulting the Vita as the must own peripheral for any self respecting PS4 buyer.

The second time the Vita recently gave me butterflies in my stomach was during Sony’s Gamescom press conference. More specifically when Shahid Kamal Ahmad, Senior Business Development Manager at PlayStation, took the stage and relentlessly unleashed one indie title after another re-instilling faith that the platform is not only very much alive — but if anything — it’s arguably evolving into something better than it was.

The third and final nail in the coffin was the price cut. Sony announced that the Vita’s MSRP for all SKUs (3G, Wifi, pack-in game bundles, it didn’t matter) would all be receiving a new sticker price of $199. On top of that, the Vita proprietary memory cards received a desperately needed price cut as well. Although the memory price cuts weren’t as steep as many had hoped for, any savings is a good savings and the new lowered MSRP will certainly bring down prices even more so for online vendors, namely Amazon.

Sony just nailed a hat trick. The Vita had my curiosity. But now it has my full attention. And once again, just like I did in the beginning, I’m doubling down on Vita.

A big part of growing up is admitting when you’re wrong. The PlayStation Vita combined with a price cut, amazing indie support, and the proposition of a PlayStation 4 in my pocket have managed to make me eat my own words. My colleagues on the site (and especially the readers) told me that I was crazy a year ago and that I’d regret it. And they were all right (you can rub it in my face now guys).

With all that out of the way now I just need to know: what should I pick up along with a new Vita?