The Playstation Vita is getting a feature called "Party" which lets you get into a group with friends and chat, regardless of what you're doing on your system. That's great news. However, Yoshida also explains why the PS3 still hasn't gotten this much-requested feature. While he doesn't flat-out deny that the feature will make its way to the system, with the Vita on the horizon and the PS4 to follow a year or two after it, I'd be extremely surprised to see Sony assign engineers to work on this, instead of other stuff.

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That seems ridiculous that the handheld can do cross game chat, but the console can't.

@Redbullet685: Well the RAM in the PS3 works in a weird way. It has 256MB of VRAM and 256MB of RAM that can be used for anything. The Vita has 128MB of VRAM and 512MB of conventional RAM. It doesn't really surprise me. If the PS3 really were capable of doing cross-game voice chat, we'd had seen it by now, really.

I heard some non-official uninformed speculation that Microsoft might have some kind of patent/IP control over cross game chat on home consoles. This kinda makes sense since Microsoft has never had a handheld. I doubt this is the case but it could be something along these lines.

It's funny, but not very many people have mics on PS3 unfortunately. I do though.

@solidejake: I do also, and so do my friends. One of my friends and I used to talk on the phone when playing games sometimes, even when we'd play different games. That was years ago, when I was younger. Now though, being able to chat with my friends via a bluetooth headset whenever I have my PS3 on would be really cool. I'm sure the PS4 will get it though.

Yeah, I definitely agree. Although back when I played 360, I barely ever used it, it would be great on PS3 seeing as all my matches are so quiet, I just end up shutting off my mic.

Sony has come out and said that the PS3 can't handle cross game chat because the one flaw where the 360 has more power is the limited RAM the PS3 has. It just can't handle everything and cross game chat, simple as that.

They demoed remote play with Killzone 3 on the Vita, so technically you could just remote play on the Vita and have cross game voice chat + multitasking with other apps for PS3 games. The Vita also has a built-in mic, so you'd be getting better online on the Vita by default.

the power of the console has nothing to do with voice chat that has to do with the servers , them selfs, if 360 is able to do this , ps3 sure can ,

remember " the cell"

also , vita is newer , so it better do somthing ps3 cant other wise its dead in the water sad that voice chat is the only thing i see vita having ps3 cant lol

i still say games games give me games , if vita cant offer nothing but uncharted gow then , it will fail , dont want fighting games either those are also good on 3ds so they are equal there so dont throw mvc 3 or what ever,

we need a game like gta driver saints row or its bust

gta @mariokart64fan said:

the power of the console has nothing to do with voice chat that has to do with the servers , them selfs, if 360 is able to do this , ps3 sure can ,

remember " the cell"

also , vita is newer , so it better do somthing ps3 cant other wise its dead in the water sad that voice chat is the only thing i see vita having ps3 cant lol

i still say games games give me games , if vita cant offer nothing but uncharted gow then , it will fail , dont want fighting games either those are also good on 3ds so they are equal there so dont throw mvc 3 or what ever,

we need a game like gta driver saints row or its bust

those exclusive gtas were killer apps on the psp. I still see dudes on the train playing those.

That's great news for the Vita. Too bad it apparently has a 3-5 hour battery life.

Just like the 3DS, I'm definitely going to wait until a new model, or at least an official battery fix, is released.

@Vestigial_Man said:

I heard some non-official uninformed speculation that Microsoft might have some kind of patent/IP control over cross game chat on home consoles. This kinda makes sense since Microsoft has never had a handheld. I doubt this is the case but it could be something along these lines.

I remember this too. But cannot remember where I saw it.

@copycatzen said:

@Vestigial_Man said:

I heard some non-official uninformed speculation that Microsoft might have some kind of patent/IP control over cross game chat on home consoles. This kinda makes sense since Microsoft has never had a handheld. I doubt this is the case but it could be something along these lines.

I remember this too. But cannot remember where I saw it.

Are you fucking kidding me no way in hell Microsoft could get a patent on cross game chat. Right?

@scarace360 said:

@copycatzen said:

@Vestigial_Man said:

I heard some non-official uninformed speculation that Microsoft might have some kind of patent/IP control over cross game chat on home consoles. This kinda makes sense since Microsoft has never had a handheld. I doubt this is the case but it could be something along these lines.

I remember this too. But cannot remember where I saw it.

Are you fucking kidding me no way in hell Microsoft could get a patent on cross game chat. Right?

If companies can still patent specific colours for things, Microsoft can sure as hell patent the method used to do that. I don't know if Microsoft has done this though and I hope they haven't.

@ShiftyMagician said:

@scarace360 said:

@copycatzen said:

@Vestigial_Man said:

I heard some non-official uninformed speculation that Microsoft might have some kind of patent/IP control over cross game chat on home consoles. This kinda makes sense since Microsoft has never had a handheld. I doubt this is the case but it could be something along these lines.

I remember this too. But cannot remember where I saw it.

Are you fucking kidding me no way in hell Microsoft could get a patent on cross game chat. Right?

If companies can still patent specific colours for things, Microsoft can sure as hell patent the method used to do that. I don't know if Microsoft has done this though and I hope they haven't.

i would like to patent the color yellow any time some one uses the color you owe me 7$

Microsoft has not patented cross game chat... c'mon guys. The PS3 simply can't handle cross game chat.