Friday Opinion: Why Sony shouldn't cut the price of the PS Vita

Almost every chart or sales-based post on the Vita ends with calls for a price cut. Similarly, forums are full of poster's demands for a slash in costs before they'll buy. Trouble is, there isn't much point in Sony doing that now. And for one simple reason.

If someone buys a cheap PS Vita right now, there are only 20-30 games for them to choose from. Say people get their two or three favourite titles (FIFA and Uncharted judging by chart history) from that lot and what next? All of a sudden a lot of PS Vitas are collecting dust in drawers (as happened in the early years of the PSP) while gamers wait for the new releases to pile up...

[Rockefellow]

Decent subjective points there. Until a system launches for under $99 U.S. and comes with 3 free games, I don't see an end to this "needs a price cut" B.S.

[ksense]

call me crazy but i think they probably expected low sales in japan from the beginning for the first year (maybe not as low as below 10000 but yea...). they figured psp is doing really well and software that comes out for psp also sells well in japan so they concentrated more in US and Europe. holiday 2012 is what is going to make or break the vita. maybe it will be like the ps3 and the system will end up doing great a few years from now. i highly doubt there will eb a price cut though. maybe a memory card will be bundled but that's about it.

[Hicken]

That's an interesting thought. Honestly, I think it's one more people should consider, at the very least.

The PSP has sold extremely well worldwide, and has an extensive library to support it(despite the hacking). It's not that difficult to imagine that Sony would expect the Vita to start off slowly, especially given that their systems seem to have such a track record in the first place. Add in current economic conditions and the craze that is mobile devices- not necessarily for gaming, but simply for possession- and the Vita's sales aren't all that surprising.

But if Sony stays the course and supports it like they do all their systems, it will eventually catch on and be just fine.

[WrAiTh Sp3cTr3]

The price of the actual hardware is fine imo, but the price of the memory sticks need to come down. I'm just waiting for a couple of games that interest me before I make the leap. They need to start showing Killzone, but I guess I'll just have to wait 'til E3...

[LiamIRL82]

Unfortunately Sony will be forced to lower the price to kickstart sales. I would buy a Vita tomorrow if it came with a free 16gb memory card.

[Patriots_Pride]

I dont support hacking but if the hacking community ever hack the VITA sales would go up 150%

[smashcrashbash]

I hate to break it to everyone but as you know Sony is a giant corporation. They have their own strategy in motion and long term,short term and even contingency plans in place. You advising Sony what to do and saying what they will do or be forced to do is not going to change what they will do. So all these things that you write are a waste of words and time.

Everyone pushed and prodded and jeered and poked and advised with all there might with the PS3 and they still continued along and sold 63 million plus units despite STILL being the most expensive system.No console has ever been the most expensive and survived as long as the PS3 did. So what ever they do, it won't be because of the million of articles people are writing.Sorry.

[LiamIRL82]

Yes but the Vita is competing with the iPhone, Galaxy S line & of course the 3DS. The handheld market is very different from the console market.

[DigitalAnalog]

The only competition Vita has right now (despite what the media wants you to believe) is the 3DS. If you would look a bit closely, the 3DS is selling at a faster rate than its predecessor WITHOUT the smartphone competition. This should be clear as daylight to prove that both the handheld AND smartphone are completely different markets. And the 3DS CATERS to both hardcore AND casual titles. You would think with all the Angry birds and 0.99 apps we would see a lack of interest with a 3DS that imposes a supposed "gimmick" and barely any ONLINE AND APP functionality.

The problem with Vita is that it LACKS killer titles. Aside from Uncharted, what else is released right now that defines SONY's platform? Notice when Zelda, Mario are released on the 3DS it just-so-happens to have a sales boost?

[smashcrashbash]

The PS3 was competing against the PC, the Wii and the 360 as well as the PS2. How is that any different? All markets have competitors and Sony knows that. My point is that all the 'advice' people keep giving in the end Sony will do what ever they feel is best for better or for worse as shown with the PS3. If Sony had listened to what everyone had said they would have buried the PS3 and we wouldn't have had some of the great games we have now.

[FriedGoat]

@DigitalAnalogue
No killer apps? I lost interest with my 3DS in weeks, it took ages for any real games to come out and even then they were average. Mario an mariokart are both shorter and inferior to their older DS counterparts. I've had more fun with the 5 games I own on vita than I have with the whole lifespan of the 3ds so far.

[dark-hollow]

"Everyone pushed and prodded and jeered and poked and advised with all there might with the PS3 and they still continued along and sold 63 million plus units"

but when they did exactly what we wanted the ps3 really shined off! both in sales in quality.

the main complains earlier of the ps3 were the hefty price tag and the humble software library at first, but boom, price tag, tens upon tens of great first party software, and thats how they got to 63 million sold and going.

[bacrec1]

Games sell hardware. Doesn't matter if its NES or PS4, no games no buy.

[yesmynameissumo]

After DC Universe, I'm going to play my Vita until I play PixelJunk 4AM. It's a perfect handheld system.

This comment will be marked for trolling.

[Gigawatt25]

No need for a price cut. People need to quit being cheap asses. It's an amazing piece of hardware for the price but needs games. The only thing that needs a price cut is the memory cards.

[one2thr]

Wish I could've agreed with you twice :(

[dragon82]

Price is fine. It just needs more games. I swear everyone forgets that the PSP also launched at $249. I know because I bought on launch dayjust like I did with the Vita. I even payed more for the Vita as I bought the First Edition 3G Bundle.

[Drainage]

ill buy one for 180 at the most. thats including a 4gb mem card

[ninjahunter]

One free game, a 8gb memory card and a wifi vita for $250. Thats what would push me to make the purchase.

[tweet75]

$180 would just give a good competition for nintendo. Add a series of great software in later half of 2012 and psvita will be a winner.

[xursz]

180? Get outta here, it'll be 3 years before it hits anywhere close to that. If I'm not mistaken, Nintendo's DSi sells for $150 on Amazon... Maybe you should just buy one of those instead.

[MasterCornholio]

If the manufacturing costs were as low as the 3DS they could do that. But sadly the Vitas tech is more expensive than the 3DSs so I don't see a massive price drop happening anytime soon.

XperiaRay

[SandWitch]

The only thing in this article that I disagree with is "there are only 20-30 games" to choos from. It's actually nearly 50 games available in US at the moment. It's not so hard to count them, just check games list at Metacritic.

[123_321]

This probably sounds silly, but i think Sony should change the official color of the Vita from black to white.
Also, more games = more sales.

[Patriots_Pride]

What your problem with black?

[123_321]

I don't have a problem with black, all my stuff is black LOL.

[Ima9er4Life]

Worth every fuckn penny

[gtxgamer2]

Its memory card prices!! no one wants to pay for a 16gb&up for 50-100$