Ways That Can Help The PS Vita Stay Alive

It’s been 13 months now since the PS Vita launched in early 2012. Despite the PS Vita having PS3-like graphics on a handheld system, the high price and lack of killer exclusive games failed to encourage people to buy the system. Not to mention many people now own powerful smartphones and tablets which pretty much do more things than what a PS Vita can do.

The PS Vita is a great little system and Sony (and other third party publishers) should not abandon the handheld so quickly. There’s no other handheld device on the market that can play PS3-like games. Even though it looks like support for the system has died, here are a few things that can help the system remain relevant for the remainder of 2013 and beyond.

[jujubee88]

-Worldwide Price Drop
-More Quality Exclusive Games
-PS4 Connectivity
-Some More Free Apps And Games

[Irishguy95]

+ Fix the memory card DRM. ****ing stupid.

The price drop is coming i'm sure anyway.

[ziggurcat]

what memory card DRM?

or are you just interested in stealing games?

[tubers]

EDIT: + Fix the 1 user account DRM.

(You can juggle with cards with differing regional content that way)

[BullyMangler]

All it needs is comfort, and GREAT games. Even though the vita got's separately sold comfort grips, that still cant fix the wrongly placed joysticks . shame .

[r21]

Wrongly placed joysticks? This is a PS product, the sticks will always be at the bottom and parallel to each other till forever. I will have to disagree with you bully.

[GrandTheftZamboni]

Didn't you get the memo: moving around with D-pad is so last gen.

[Max Power]

Lately, I have acquired several decent Vita games for free via PSN+, that is incentives for me to repurchase the Vita. Soon, once there is a price drop I will buy another Vita, my other was stolen out of my car last summer.

[Garethvk]

I think the PS 4 may be a big boost to the Vita but they need to do more with it.

[Th4Freak]

Can you or someone explain to me how is the PS4 going to boost PSV sales? Seriously this is a legit question not trolling or anything, i'm a PSV owner and hopefully a PS4 owner soon too and I just can't see how is the PS4 going to boost the PSV I mean what will the PS4 bring to the table to make users buy a PSV, what's the difference between the PS4 and the PS3 related to the PSV besides a more complete remote play?

[jrbeerman11]

More complete remote play? That assumes remote play ever worked for more than a handful of games. If it works with every game available than that is huge. The ps4 uses gakai which is supposed to mean more functionality with remote play as well as streaming games, hopefully meaning that we can play entire playstation library on both ps4 and psv.

Big if though.

[CommonSenseGamer]

I would buy a ps4 to play ps4 games. I would buy Vita for Vita exclusives and not playing downscaled 1080p ps4 games. I know there are some that don't get to game on their TV all the time but for me that's not an incentive for buying a vita.

Remote play is a nice to have but not a reason to have.

[Th4Freak]

Well I don't think that a PS4 user will pay $250 for a PSV just to use it as a controller or to keep playing in the bathroom and @CommonSenseGamer just proved my point.

In my opinion the only way the PS4 can boost PSV sales is to focus on the Cross Play which is an awesome idea but Sony just has not given the attention it needs and deserves, what worries me is that they haven't say a word about this feature in PS4 and they dropped it on PS3. I think that's a diamond in the rough but I can assure you that remote play and stream games to PSV won't boost PSV sales.

[Joe913]

So far they say every single Ps4 game will play on vita via remote play unlike a handfull of psn game on Ps3. I think they need a Metal Gear Solid for the vita.

[Th4Freak]

@Joe913 Yes but I dont think that anyone is going to play $250 for a PSV just to play PS4 in the bathroom, im just trying to be objective and analyze the premise that PS4 will boost PSV sales through the Remote Play feature.

As I said before the only way that PS4 could boost PSV sales is through Cross Play but Sony isn't giving it the attention that it needs.

[SpinalRemains138]

Because the gamer may want a full experience which only the Vita can provide.

If remote play or second screen can add a new aspect to games, then guaranteed there will be a group of players, albeit small, who will automatically want to experience it.

Personally, I think Vita sales will pickup. The Gaikai service of streaming old games on it will be really cool.

[PeaSFor]

i wonder what should we do to kill the doom and gloom articles?

[BullyMangler]

3

[LOGICWINS]

You can't. What you CAN do is ignore them.

[BullyMangler]

in the still of the night

[KingofGambling]

@ bullymangLer is that a song?

[admiralvic]

I know your question is rhetorical, but I still have to reply...

Buy the system in question, since these article are almost always about sales.

[tubers]

Buy more of the doomed products?

[PeaSFor]

already did on day one, being a Lumines fan....i just couldn't ignore Lumines Electronic Symphony.

[Xer0_SiN]

why would it NEED help staying alive? it already has susainability all by itself. the price drop is just the icing on the cake. you already have all these great games coming out this year, plus interconnectivity via ps4. it doesnt NEED help. it can do that all by its bad self.

[LOGICWINS]

The Vita doesn't give itself price drops, nor does it give itself great games or PS4 interconnectivity...thats Sony's doing. EVERY device needs help sustaining itself, at least until Skynet takes over and machines become self aware in 2022.

[Xer0_SiN]

LOL i had to agree with you. even if we agree to disagree. SKYNET! i aint scared of zombies, screw that. its the damn terminators. if they truly become self aware, were totally screwed. until then, the terminator lore is my utmost favorite. kinda sad they didnt continue with sarah connor chronicles. :(

EDIT: actually, i reread your comment. i do agree with what you said. but i think sony has a specific timeline its following for the vita. now like how people say it needs to happen. ie: price drop, no games etc. i think this is all part of the timeline sony set forth.

[LOGICWINS]

^^Sony said they have big plans for Vita later this year, but I hope the majority of those plans aren't PS4 related. I'm not planning on getting a PS4 for another 3-4 years, so I'm hoping Sony focuses on exclusive Vita games, cross buys, and PS Plus.

[GreenRanger]

The problem with the Vita is that Sony are using PS Plus, PS1 games, PSP games, Remote Play and a promise of PS4 connectivity to sell it and not Vita games - which is the reason i bought it.
I could care less about stuff like Remote Play and what the Vita can and can't do with the PS4.
I bought the Vita to play Vita games, so give me more of those.
And drop the price worldwide, so it can start selling a lot more.

[LOGICWINS]

"I bought the Vita to play Vita games, so give me more of those."

Exactly!

[Ravenor]

Maybe less ports of older games, I really like playing Ninja Gaiden anywhere I go. But I would really like to see more games built around the Vita.

[admiralvic]

"I bought the Vita to play Vita games, so give me more of those. "

I can think of about 17 Vita games (including cross buy, retail, digital) that were published by Sony directly. So even if you bump the total Vita game total to 200 games, Sony still has a little under 10% of the WHOLE library under their name. Needless to say, Sony can only publish so many titles for the system, which lead to them implementing all those features you "could care less" (the expression is "Couldn't care less" by the way).

Also the PS4 promises are just to show the system has a future and isn't forgotten. I am sure we will see some fantastic games or at least new ones at E3. Till then we have Soul Sac, which will ideally bring some good.

[TheRandomDrifter]

GreenRanger, that is one of the most intelligent responses I have ever read on this site. Well said. Give us more Vita games!

[antiai]

The price and give it a god of war game, nuff said.

[stuna1]

You know what would be a good game they could make a Vita version off? Imfamous!

[tubers]

You know what would be better games they could make a VITA version of?

Granturismo and Grand Theft Auto!

[RankFTW]

Gran Turismo would shift loads of consoles.

[jon1234]

all these how to save console articles... if the people writing them are so smart, why dont they create their own console to save...

[admiralvic]

To be fair, we've seen some pretty dumb moves from companies too. Between the Aliens fiasco, releasing Duke Nukem Forever (I don't actually mind this one, but plenty feel passionately about it being a bad move), giving nihilistic software Resistance Burning Skies and then giving them ANOTHER Vita FPS game to repeat the same failures (though Declassified wasn't AS bad as Resistance in terms of working). However my personal favorite was the delay of Rayman Legends, since virtually everyone (forum, website, blog) believed Rayman Origins got poor sales for releasing at the same time, yet Ubisoft thought it was wise to anger Nintendo fans and repeat it.

By the way, I assume you're being facetious, but I still think we've seen enough stupid moves in the past year to think some forum goers could be on par with some of these professionals.

[gear]

i feel if only skyrim was in vita then it will be a boost for the vita

[RankFTW]

trololol

[tiffac008]

Localized those PSP and PSV games that are only available in Japan but has a western audience.

[TheRandomDrifter]

Make it cheaper in which it is coming and bring out some games and I will get the system. Regardless what people say about the PSP, I was satisfied with the system...the PSPGo can go fuck itself though; that was a waste of money and I hope no one bought it.

[Pillsbury1]

They really need to drop the price of memory cards, Just ridiculous.

[JW1080]

As boring as it sounds. It be nice to add e-reader capabilities. It's always on my night stand. More apps are always welcome. Some more games that are exclusive to the system will certainly help. And Playstation Plus has already helped the system become more relevant. The PS4 making it even more relevant seems likely too. It's a great little gaming machine that deserves success.