Nico Nico: Initial Impression

Nico Nico: Initial Impression

by Joshua Williams

Today something interesting arrived on PSN for the Playstation Vita. Nico Nico is described as a social video service and though it may be new to you and I, the service already has 27 million subscribers. Nico Nico is very much like Youtube but the majority of the content you find here is broadcasted live. While viewing a broadcast you have the ability to comment or communicate with the broadcaster and see or hear what other users are saying as well.

Users on the Vita do not currently have the ability to broadcast or upload but you are able to browse most of what the Japanese subscribers are up to. I hate to sound like a jerk but in one broadcast there was a gentleman singing the words to a Japanese anime intro. I messaged him: “With more feeling”. Shortly after he read the message and then proceeded to sing with more feeling. I found this to be hilarious, entertaining and intriguing to say the least.

CEO of Nico Nico, James Spahn announced recently that PS Vita users will be able to use the service to view a beta livestream of Sony’s E3 press conference. No doubt this footage will be available online and on PSN but the added community aspect of live feedback should prove to be worthwhile.

All in all this application is clean and very easy to navigate (no buttons, all touch interface.). As more features begin to become available I can see this becoming a big hit within the gaming community. If nothing else it also gives us all a glimpse of how a Youtube or similar video app may operate on the Vita. Nico Nico is free and available now on PSN.