PS Vita Can Be Used As A PS3 Controller

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When the PS Vita launches next year, it’ll be able to do a lot of things. One of the things it’ll be able to do that hasn’t been talked about in much depth yet is Remote Play. As the Tokyo Game Show a few weeks ago, Sony showed off the PS Vita playing Killzone 3 through Remote Play with the PlayStation 3, though Sony came clean today and said that there really wasn’t anything remote about it – the PS Vita was wired to the PS3 throughout the course of the demonstration.

However, Shuhei Yoshida told Famitsu (as reported by Andriasang) that the reason the PS Vita was wired to the PS3 was out of fear of interference during the presentation, and that we’ll be able to play PS3 games on our Vitas wirelessly at the same speed. So, cool!

Being able to play PS3 games on your PS Vita via Remote Play definitely is a nifty little feature, but Yoshida said that there’s more to Remote Play than just… well, playing remotely. He also said that evetually the PS Vita will serve as a PS3 controller, thus opening up an entire realm of gameplay options that aren’t available when using regular controllers.

Wait a minute – this sounds vaguely familiar. If you’re thinking the same thing, that’s because there’s a lot of parallels to be drawn between PS Vita’s Remote Play and Nintendo’s Wii U. Essentially, the PS Vita will eventually act in the same ways as the Wii U’s touchscreen controller, meaning that Nintendo’s main talking point with the Wii U will now be directly competing against the PS Vita and PS3.

Should Nintendo be worried though? Not quite yet, I’d say. After all, a touchscreen controller will be included in the cost of the Wii U console, whereas consumers are going to shell out a hefty amount of money before they have a handheld that can also act as a PlayStation 3 controller.

Still, this is a pretty interesting development in the format wars that are sure to rekindle once the Wii U is launched. What do you think? Does Nintendo have a reason to worry, or will the Wii U flourish? Head down to the comments section and tell us your thoughts!