Opinion: The PS Vita is Stuck in the Middle of Nowhere

GV writes: Last week’s Media Create sales in Japan should have opened the eyes of even the staunchest Vita supporter.

[spurgeonryan]

This weeks numbers were pretty bad as well.

[Moonman]

I usually don't comment on Vita's performance but 4K in a November week the first holiday Vita is available? Earlier reports in October that Dreamcast sold better in the same time period in Japan? This is kinda like a train wreck.

[NYC_Gamer]

Why do people expect?PSV doesn't have enough support/content.

[-Mika-]

And it will continue to not have enough support because you and other core gamers continue to not purchase the system. Not buying the system is not going to make it get any support. What you're doing is not helping. Keep that in mind.

Also the vita does have a-lot of content. In my honest opinion, the vita and the 3ds are in the same boat when it comes to games and content.

Do you really want to be stuck with the 3ds for the next 5-6 years? Like the hardware and the UI is so outdated. The vita has so much potential and it upsets me that people are not buying it. Like you letting a great system die.

[Trunkz]

"Also the vita does have a-lot of content. In my honest opinion, the vita and the 3ds are in the same boat when it comes to games and content."

Who are you trying to fool?

Sony lately always has better hardware then Nintendo but look who's out on top each time? If they had the same content then why is the Vita doing so bad in sales?

I swear every Vita fan enjoy sniffing their own farts.

[Meep]

"And it will continue to not have enough support because you and other core gamers continue to not purchase the system. Not buying the system is not going to make it get any support. What you're doing is not helping. Keep that in mind."

lolwut? That thought process...ok fine let me buy products that I believe are sub-par and not worth the money, so they can get my support...

Before People start helping the PS Vita, the PS Vita has to help itself.

[Blastoise]

To be fair, they should be persuading potential customers to buy the hardware, with software.

Why would I buy a Vita for potential future games?

The 3DS is selling like hot cakes in Japan because Animal Crossing Jump Out has just come out, the PSP is selling better because it's still getting new games too.

It's games are gradually increasing, but it just needs more.

Just get more RPG's, Strategy, puzzle, Horror games on it. And I'll be glad to buy one.
It needs more unique titles like Gravity Rush

I don't want another Assassins creed when I don't even like the console versions -_-'

[uncharted56]

And we wont get it because there is not enough content or any content that may make me get the system. Sony is doing the same thing as Nintendo. Where are the AAA games that may make want to buy the system. There are none. If you don't give the customer any reason to get the system they simply wont get it.

[Baylex]

Yeah and don't forget that people with the psp are stuck with them because of those stupid UMD's...
The very first DS game that came out to the first DS, like nintendogs or something is still compatible with the 3DS!!!
This is something that's fuc ki ng the vita!!
If the vita was compatible with UMD's (I know it's ridiculous) then Sony were selling alot more vitas...
But no... Sony wanted to be creative like nintendo... and invented those stupid plastic discs... It's all their fault..
Now all those kids that had old DS's are upgrading to the 3DS without losing all their old games!!

Now here is the reality!! People only wanted some incentive to buy the console, wich is a price drop.
It's not about new games or AAA games.. that would come with time...
The first thing to think is "were are going my old games? that cost me a lot of money and time to finish them??"..."Wait, WHAT??? I will never be able to play them on the new console?? Fuck that I'll stick with the old one!!"

[ABizzel1]

The Vita is the best handheld ever, from a pure hardware perspective, but there are multiple problems with the Vita that Sony needs to address, but the biggest one is....

1. Content. The Vita has some really good games, but people don't buy consoles for some good games. They buy them for a library of good games. The Vita has an ok library of great games, but if you take away the multiplatform and "inferior" console ports than the library is bleek. The Vita needs games and it needs them bad. We know games are coming, but we need them here, and until then Sony needs to do whatever they can to get more developer support onto the Vita with full development cycles and not ports with less than 6 months of development time. Even if the Vita sales huge numbers this holiday and gets a ton of developer support because of it, we won't be able to see any of those games until holiday 2013 at the earliest, which is a huge problem.

But not all is lost. PS+ has just launched for the Vita, and it's Day 1 launch is mindblowingly good. Uncharted, Gravity Ruch, Wipeout, Jet Set Radio, Final Fantasy Tatics, and Tales from Space will all be free, and not cost a penny more if you already have PS+ for your PS3. This is a huge boon for the Vita and PS+, but it also shows how dire things are for the Vita. However, to increase sales of the Vita, Sony needs to continue this trend. Sony needs to promote the most downloaded or talked about games from the PS1 era, PS Minis, and PSP on PSN for the Vita, and/or add them to PS+. It's an easy way to give PS Vita a library of games to play especially those who missed out on a lot of what the PSP had to offer. Keep Vita software far away from PS+ until at least 6 months after launch, you don't want to cut into sales for the systems software. Every month add 6 new games to PS+ for Vita, and there will be no complaints about never having anything to play. Most of all LET PEOPLE KNOW there will be 6 new games added to PS+ for Vita each month, so they're not second guessing if they should jump in or not. A second guess is a possible sale lost. Also give people a 10% off discount for buying games from PSN instead of retail, and then give gamers another 10% for having PS+ and buying games (those savings will get more people to buy directly from you, thus more money in your pocket, plus more memory cards sold). Gamers would go digital if it meant they paid $48.60 for a new game instead of $59.99.
(All of this should be done by March aka next fiscal year)

PSMobile and PSN games need to be tailored for Vita. PSN games should all be CrossPlay and CrossBuy (Xplay & Xbuy) from now on. If it comes to the PS3 it needs to have a Vita version as well that let's you play with and against PS3 players or pick up where you let off from the PS3. The only exception is fi the game is a retail PS3 title, or if the Vita isn't capable of running the game. PSMobile needs to get as many games, apps, and features from tablets as it can to make the Vita more tablet like (aka it's true competition in the market). Android HD Marketplace is the best place to start. It's full of great games, and they should be easily ported to the Vita, even if they don't offer standard controls. It gives the Vita tons of other uses besides gaming, and give it great phone games like NOVA 2, Infinity Blade, Angry Birds (....), Peggle, and more. Most importantly THESE GAMES CANNOT COST MORE than they do on phones and tablets, or else they will buy the game on the other device.
(All of this should be announced by E3 2013 and implemented over the remainder of the year.)

Finally make PS2 titles playable on the Vita if possible. Make HD Collection playable on the Vita if possible. Last but not least, get REMOTE PLAY WORKING ON THE VITA, lag free if possible.

[profgerbik]

Again Mika, well said.

[Blacktric]

"Why do people expect?PSV doesn't have enough support/content."

And that justifies everything in a second right? Then, why don't they just AT LEAST attempt to do better by securing more IP's and creating new ones for the system? And please, please don't give me the; "3DS also did bad at first" bullshit. 3DS sales never EVER went down below 20k even before the price cut and especially not this fast. From this point on, Sony needs something surprising and unexpected if they want to get better sales as quick as possible.

"Not buying the system is not going to make it get any support. "

Expecting people to dish out 250 dollars on a system that's barely have anything worth getting sure is not over the board...

/s

[ritsuka666]

No killer app for Japan= no sales. Graphics hoar games like Uncharted aren't enough. Unless you're an American game journalist.

[NYC_Gamer]

It's the 3rd party Japanese studios fault.I'm sure Sony would love Monster Hunter and all the rest on PSV..It's the Japanese studios who would rather support 3DS with tons of software...

[tiffac008]

Its not only that but Sony is still supporting the PSP in the Land of the Rising Sun. So the 3rd party developers have no incentive to abandon the older device for the newer ones.

What makes it even worse, the new PSP games may not even be compatible with the Vita and even if they are no one knows about it because its not advertised for both system.

Look at what Ninty did with the DS, they stopped supporting it the moment the 3DS came out and after the rough patch, the 3DS took off with flying colors because all the 3rd party developers are working on the 3DS and not its predecessor.

[rpd123]

You spelled "whore" wrong.

And you can't just make developers support the Vita. For them to have incentive to support it, there needs to be a large install base, and for there to be a large install base there needs to be developer support. It's a vicious cycle which is why the Vita is kind of stuck.

[Nutsack]

PSVita is just about now getting a sales boost by the PS+ PSVita instant game collection.

I see PS3 users that are PS+ subscriber too jumping in at this very moment, as they see the free content for PSVita on their subscription without any extra costs for PS+. If they don't buy a PSVita they feel they're missing out on the content.

Even though the price still has to drop below 200, to get closer to the 3DS pricelevel and Sony needs to get Monster Hunter, Final Fantasy etc on board for Japan, Black Friday and Christmas sales will look a lot better with this PS+ support for PSVita.

And those saying 3DS does so much better in games, it does not. All it does is rehashing the same old 1st party Nintendo IP's that the Wii did too. And the 3DS hardware is rubbish compared to the powerful PSVita.

EDIT

@ Gordon

Go read on the Playstation Blogs with the PS+ introduction instant game collection for the PSVita, people on the spot saying they bought or are buying one because of this. People on N4G forums too, on other websites same.

You'll see the sales go up in upcoming sales reports. Oh and pricedrops are incoming. Sony is testing in small countries like overhere, a PSVita Wifi down from 250 to about 190, a PSV 3G down from 299 to about 215, a PSV + game and 4GB memcard for 225. Check the picture attached

[Gordon_Shumway]

Could you post a link to this "sales boost"? I couldn't find anything about it.

[FunAndGun]

The addition of Plus to Vita has gotten me to purchase a Vita on Black Friday.

So far the Toys R Us deal seems to be the best I have found.

"Sony Vita Call of Duty Bundle with free 10-in-1 PS Vita Essential Pack $199.99"

[crinale]

Sony has invested A LOT into PSP. They still have to make more money from it, before they are finally done with it.
Sony also knows the schedule of (rather small) Japanese third party devs who are still working on PSP projects. I think Sony isn't really going to start pushing Vita until Q2 of 2013, at the earliest.

They even told Kenji Inafune (working on Soul Sacrifice) to continue polishing the game, when he reported to SCEJ that he actually could release the game in this Winter.

[crazysammy]

Was anyone else just thankful the article title started with opinion? I love that an opinion is not being pushed as fact. (Not saying it's not supported with facts, but rather that most people share their opinion like its fact)

[Gordon_Shumway]

Stick a fork in this thing, it's done. Especially after the Black Flops disaster, there's nothing on the horizon to get people to buy it.

[rpd123]

Killzone says hello.

[nevin1]

-Nintendo proved that price drops helps. The 3DS took off after that massive price drop.

- Memory card prices are stupid

- 3rd party is not taking the vita seriously. I mean wasnt COD Vita announced in Jan 2011? So why is there stories that the game was in developed in 5 months?

- To many restrictions

- And in my opinion, Vita is not a good name. PSP2 would of been better considering PSP is still selling.

[ger2396]

Flop? It's only been out a couple of days. Let's wait till after the holidays to determine if it's a flop. Sales wise mean.

[abzdine]

I think it's a great piece of hardware with great games but the prices of the machine and games are definitely an issue.

Sony have waited too long before reducing the price and i think 3DS is already winning the handheld battle in terms of sales numbers. A 50€ price drop would help a lot, and promoting the PS+ on TV with the instant game collection will also help.

[CommonSenseGamer]

Its not about if Vita sells more than the 3DS, its about whether Sony can create a big enough market for the Vita to make it profitable for both Sony and developers.

[DrDeath]

3DS is well. pretty hurtin. i wouldnt be caught dead playing that anywhere. embarrassing its a gameboy. thats what it is guys. a gameboy that has barely grown up and is weak. is said it kill me. its weak and cant power any decent games. fun games? ya so it still sells. but powerful games actually worth playing? NOPE. Nothing touches Uncharted, CoD, Assasins Creed 3, Wipeout 2048, NFS: Most wanted. Everybody open your eyes the vita has games. but it wont continue to come up with better ones if no one buys it.

[abzdine]

there are no games that attract japanese gamers on Vita, i think that's a shame.
3DS has MH and DQ, the two biggest system sellers in Japan.
And that FFXHD still doesn't wanna come out. it's an HD remaster dammit !

[boybato]

your comment reminded me of this fun/fake vid.

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

too bad it ain't gonna happen not unless the support for the vita picks up.

[Zodiac]

Software, software, and more software.

Dragon Quest 10 releases for the Wii. What happens? Wii sales go up to 40k.

Persona and Miku hit Vita. What happens? Vita sales go waaaaay up.

People WANT these machines, any machine you can give them, but you need to give them a reason to buy them!

No offense to any other PSP owners, but if you were not a fan of Japanese games or RPGs, then the PSP was probably not your most used console. Sony realized this and it trying to hit consumers in the US with CoD, AC, and some Japanese games. It's a healthy mix.

Japan is being completely dominated by the 3DS, so no developers want to use resources on AAA Vita games in Japan. You need to build up the install base somehow.

How do you do that? It may be a cheap way of doing it, but exclusive HD bundles of Final Fantasy, Grandia, older Monster Hunter titles, Persona 3, and some Anime titles.

HD bundles could create a stronger Install base without having to use absurd amounts of money.

[NicSage]

Here is a thought, Kids & Parents. Parents want a handheld that kids can play on, vita is not that. I know because I own a Vita & i'm a parent.

If my kids are going to play video games it will be educational games, the DS/3ds offers this, sesame street, dora, team umizoomi. These are shows with games that offer what I want my kids to be playing & learning while they do it.

My vita, i've let my son play on it he is 4 1/2 he knows how to play PvZ, Sound Shapes. That is all I let him play, not much of it because in the end he learns nothing education that is important to early childhood development. Strategy is great but he can learn that later, he needs his numbers, letters, shapes, colors.

I"m not saying I use video games to teach him these things but I am saying if he is to play a game it needs to be educational.

Lots of parents buy Nintendo products because they are for the whole family the vita is not for the whole family.

Huge market that has been missed from Sony the direction take with the vita.

I love my vita.

[miyamoto]

well said.

what sane parent would let a toddler play with a device with a quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore processor (3 of the 4 cores are usable for applications and a quad-core GPU SGX543MP4+ only to bang them on the wall and drop it like a toy?

we hope that makes sense to the M$ & Nintendo sales fanboys, like Kaos, if they have the sense to understand at all

[strifeblade]

wow, so many hater on ds/3ds here. Im really surprised/ then again im not this is n4g.

Okay lets see the vita does not have very much 3rd party support for exclusive vita games. plenty of watered down ports of ps3 counterparts. No backwards compatibility with umd. 249.99 pricepoint is high considering you can pick up an xbox or ps3 for that price. i gotta give vita cred for gravity rush, uncharted and assassins creed, unit 13, and to a much lesser extent blops declassified/ ressisstance. besides those games what vita exclusives are there that are good? No one wants to play watered down ports unless for some reason they cant play the console counterpart if they always travel.

Why arent studios developing TRIPLE AAA exclusive vita titles? Simply because it costs a lot of money when we are
talkin about ps3 level graphics, what dev wants to put millions into a game with a vita install base of a little over 3 million users worldwide? not very smart, most devs will release on ps3 because of 60 million+ user base and maybe port it over to vita if its dirt cheap.

3ds has a 22 million user base- 7x that of vita, games are cheaper to develop for therefore much wider profit margins. 3ds has dual screens/3d- it encourages 3ds exclusives simply because consoles dont have dual screens and 3d. 3ds has countless exclusives, remakes, and ports to a lesser extent. 3ds is fully backwards compatible, allowing people who missed out on ds games to play them. it allows people with old an ds to easily sell and upgrade to the 3ds knowing fullwell they can play ds games still. 3ds was grossly over priced at 249.99 when it came out but once the price cut hit to 169.99 and ocarina of time remake released, sales shot up. and sales continue to rise with 3ds xl at 199.99.

now you know why the vita does not sell. this is a repeat of the psp/ds gen.

[Moonman]

Actually now around 25 million for 3DS. It's kicking ass.

[g-nome]

Who gives a crap about peoples opinions , I love my Vita.

[MasterCornholio]

Sony is giving the Vita a ton of support but the problem with Sony is that they don't produce any franchises that are as popular as Monster Hunter, Mario, Animal Crossing etc. Once they get some franchises like those than the Vita will start to sell a lot better.

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