Sony Details PlayStation Vita Online Modes, Cross Game Voice Chat Confirmed

by Mike Bendel July 25, 2011 @ 4:36 pm


The online experience on PSP left much to be desired. Sony is making it a priority with PlayStation Vita — which boasts four specific modes that streamline the online experience. The first, dubbed Near, is a “location-based gifting system” akin to the 3DS’ SpotPass.

“What Near does is it allows users to discover each other, leave gifts for each other and essentially find out more about games. You can see where people are in relation to your location, their five most recently played games and also gifts that they’ve registered. This is fairly cool because it exposes users to games they might not have heard of and you can see how popular those games are and how people are rating them,” explained Rogers at a Develop panel.

As its name implies, Party is designed to connect groups of gamers together. It’s touted as a “platform-wide” component that allows you and three friends to form a party. It can be centered around a particular game or genre, for example. Your party is accessible anywhere on Vita. The feature also boasts cross-game voice chat.

LiveArea and Activity make up the remaining online modes. In Activity, players can share trophies stats and discuss progress in a Facebook wall-style interface. LiveArea is a space for publishers and developers to communicate with fans. It’s particularly useful for pushing out important updates and DLC notifications.

Sony is taking an open stance when it comes to implementation of these modes. Rogers says innovation is welcomed.

Thanks, Eurogamer.

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