Sony expects worsening handheld business

The company said today it expects to record a combined total of just five million Vita and PSP sales during the period. That compares unfavourably to seven million Vita and PSP sales reported today for the business year ended April 2013, a figure that fell well short of the 16 million units Sony initially forecast last May.

[FrigidDARKNESS]

The vudeo game handheld business is dead taken over by tablets, android and Iphones with larger screens.

[MonkeyNinja]

Nintendo disagrees with you:

http://www.technobuffalo.co...

[SpideySpeakz]

Sony handhelds were obviously targeted towards a more mature audience than Nintendo handhelds. So the PS vita is actually competing with tablets, not Nintendo's handheld tech.

[FragGen]

Monster Hunter. Sony desperately needs to pay the devs to port it to Vita. It made the PSP relevant for a while and it being on the 3DS and not the Vita is a seriously bad piece of the Vita struggles puzzle.

[Blacktric]

"Sony handhelds were obviously targeted towards a more mature audience than Nintendo handhelds. So the PS vita is actually competing with tablets, not Nintendo's handheld tech."

If you genuinely believe this, then I feel bad for you. There are more than enough mature themed games on 3DS to warrant a purchase on top of other great games. Vita is doing bad because it lacks good stream of new releases that are actually worth buying. Sony needs to get their act together and start releasing more games like Soul Sacrifice instead of ports of PS3 games.

[MilkMan]

Trust me when I tell you that unless a different business model is adapted, the smart device era of gaming will die a quick death.

[joeorc]

"Trust me when I tell you that unless a different business model is adapted, the smart device era of gaming will die a quick death."

well you may be in for a shock, because that is not what is happening. You remember the dedicated PDA? the Dedicated PDA was absorbed into the smartphone Market, Slowly but surely the dedicated Game Handheld market share will cap to most likely around 150 Million most likely, with Nintendo having that lion's share for dedicated Handheld game console's Sony with the next highest and other's having less than Sony.

Smartphones and Tablets are not going away , because the best analogy of it is like the PC market is to the Game console. General computing devices like the Smartphone are general computing devices 1st while Game running applications are 2nd. the Game console is reverse of that. but both can be in the market at the same time, dedicated PDA's for instance are not gone completely, its just smartphones took over their function of use from a mass market standpoint.

[rainslacker]

I think he was speaking more along the lines in the way games are produced and sold for smart devices or tablets. For sure, those devices aren't going anywhere soon, and will likely absorb more of the PC market as they continue on and become more powerful.

However, the current models for selling games on these devices is flawed in many ways from a developer standpoint. While it's easy to get your game up on the stores, the ability to actually get your product seen is getting harder and harder every day. The business models required to actual make money off most games(F2P, MT) tend to require quite a bit of upkeep on the developer side, so smaller devs are left out. On top of that, there is a huge amount of crap software, and the quality control is almost non-existent. Basically, if the software won't crash the OS, then it passes.

Until these things are worked out, it means that the whole business model is based on a huge user base. There are so many users, there is a chance to hit it big with a title. However, a great majority of the games produced, do not make money. Certainly not enough to sustain most small development studios. On top of that, many of the big publishers now have mobile development, which only pushes out the little guy even more.

[MilkMan]

I should have been more explicit in my response.
tablets and smart devices are a part of our modern culture, however the gaming aspect of it is not even in its infancy but in experimental stages.

First, no casual game, no matter how popular or how much it makes can take the place of the OUYA, let alone your preferred home platform. Why?

According to analyst and based on my own personal consumption, the best software titles these devices offer, are nothing mmore than time-waters and are played minutes at a time DURING off time in the day. Meaning these times DO NOT interfere with allocated dedicated "game" time.

Dedicated gamers, schedule time for their activity. They go home, and and invest 1 to 6 hours worth of gaming daily.

So in terms of infringement, tapping away at your IPhone or Galaxy, means absolutely nothing to a publisher like say Activision, which knows they will have their fans playing their games, daily and consistently.

So the concept of people all of a sudden leaving their consoles in droves and having their WiiU's collect dust, is a myth.

About my earlier statement:
If you've played most app games, the better ones tend to be well made, addictive in their own right, just good games over all.
However, they have one major flaw and this is BIG.
In App Sales.

What does this mean? It means the game is designed from the ground up to be addictive, and fun to play and interesting, BUT everything you want to do to progress in this game (passed the initial tutorial levels) you must pay to move forward.

To say that the indie game DLC Quest wasn't off on how they (publishers/ developers) milk you for every dime. Id be lying.

To illustrate what I mean let me give you some real world examples.

Take Heroes of Destiny from Glu. Its a well made, on-rails dungeon romp, Think Diablo.

However to get better loot for your team requires real world money or special Glu coins which are nearly impossible to obtain on your own merit.

If you wish to train your character because they leveled up, requires real world time to do it. I'm in the 5 minute count down range myself.

This means you must stop and wait for your character to level up OR you can spend "real world" money to hurry the process up.
See where I am going with this?

Take Monopoly Hotel, a silly little time waster of a game. To do ANYTHING of significance once the tutorial is over, you need to buy Monopoly coins...for 1,300 of these coins they want $99 real dollars.

I don't know about anyone else, but as a gamer, the only time I would lay down money like this It's for a triple A game, it has to be a collector's edition AND I expect swag with it also.

If this smart device model continues, I cannot possibly fathom that it can sustain itself. No self respecting gamer, would pay these prices for nothing more than energy to be able to perform the most mundane of tasks.

Then again, there are folks who prostitute themselves for "mounts' on Worlds of Warcraft (goggle it up)

I hope this clarifies my position on my earlier statement.

[thechosenone]

If that were true then why is the 3DS doing so well these days? Sony needs to cut the price of both the Vita and their memory cards after that I'm sure they'll see a nice uptick in market share numbers. And less you all forget...

"Nintendo posts earnings, drops 3DS from $249 to $169 August 12th, current owners get 20 free games."

http://www.engadget.com/201...

[ufo8mycat]

3DS is for casuals and kids. Different market. Bigger market. Of course its going to sell more.

[phantomexe]

I don't believe that and i think people know what the difference is between the vita,3ds and an iphone. Games is the vitas problem but in time that will change. The 3ds will do better and better each year as people replace there ds. 3ds just needs to keep doing what it's doing.

[Chitown71291]

Well what I think what help Sony a heck of a lot, would be

1).A subsidized Vita for $49 (With AT&T to add it on should be no more than $10 a month with a shared data plan).

2). Better integration across all devices. PS4/PS3 and Vita should talk like lets say an iPhone and iMac . Through cloud or through bluetooth, everything should be seamless.

3). Original content. Have separate 1st party companies and have them focus on Indie titles STRICTLY for the Vita. Also no more ports or big known franchises thats already known on other Playstation Platforms, but content strictly for the Vita. (Tearaway looks to be a GREAT start to it)

4). "Create new experiences". Focus heavily on Virtual Reality stuff, as no one is really focusing on it right now and it could be Sonys niche into an untapped market.

[Chitown71291]

Oh and
5). Remote Play! Make it totally accessible to everything on the PS4. Literally every game and every video, every photo, anything, should be able to be mirrored on the Vita! ( I know they touched on it at the presentation , but Im just stating all that would make Vitas fortune turnaround)

[H4all]

what next article?
Tablet/Phone Gamer vs Handheld gamer?

handheld have more experience from the phone/tablet...
for sample... the controller/ the game title..

[Gr81]

Vita is looking like Sony's Game Gear.

[Kingthrash360]

how is that? wow such negative comments dont belong in the gaming community same goes for this article...why are writers and fanboya acting like profits? like they can see the future. ignoreing the facts like this world wide depression thats happening may contribute to, to people buying less.
that comment calling the vita a gamegear when the gamegear failed during a time when people were actually spending money. god I cant wait for the vita to drop its price just to see what you negative people come up with...that the real reason why the vita isnt selling I mean if you want a handheld and are torn between the vita and 3ds financially you pick thr 3ds because it's cheaper. or better yet a ds over 3ds or psp over vita or wii over wiiu or ps3 over wiiu ect. its all about the money the cheaper the better.

[knifefight]

The article is only talking about the sales projections that SONY made themselves.

Fact: SONY is predicting half the sales they predicted last year.

Again, one more time, that's SONY talking. If you have a problem, maybe you should talk to Sony about it.

[Gr81]

Does your comment even mean? How am I a fanboy because I am using factual numbers of Sony's handheld and comparing it to another failed handheld?

I've been very critical of Nintendo and Wii U as well. Hell Nintendo fans have been equally mad at me for my comments lol.

If anything I'm an equal opportunity kind of guy. To have Sony's expectations for the Vita be so low can only mean that this thing is floundering in the market. Pointing that out is trolling? Give me a break.

Perhaps you should expand your interests beyond gaming, as the world is much bigger than arguing over sales of videogame systems.

[Krew_92]

Funny because I enjoyed my Game Gear more than my Game Boy at the time...

[Gr81]

Yeah, your one of those 'hardcore' gamers I suppose. Because GameBoy became a staple which created the handheld market and every handheld since including the Vita is here as a result of the GameBoy. Game Gear, like Atari Lynxx, was beating the crap out of gameboy technically but the software and hardware sales of gameboy were just incredible.

Glad you enjoyed the 2 or 3 Game Gear games more than the GameBoy games. You are truly a great example of why N4G is out of touch with the mainstream gamer.

[NYC_Gamer]

I doubt Sony will continue in the handheld business if Vita doesn't become successful

[HyperBear]

I think if there's one problem with the Vita besides the somewhat initial high price and no quality games the Vita had at launch, it's the implementation of the proprietary memory cards.

I understand they did this for hacking/homebrew reasons, and to protect the developers from losing out on sales, but isn't that what made the original PSP so popular?? In this day and age, if they built a portable gaming machine with the intent of having digital distribution at the forefront of the Vita (with PSN, PS+, PS Store, Digital Downloads) and with only 4, 8, 16 and 32GB versions of memory cards (with the 32GB being $100), they should have designed a MicroSD card slot instead. it's just not economically feasible for the casual audience (even some of the hardcore audience, myself included, aren't buying Vita's) to spend that kind of money at this moment.

Great day for Sony.....Not-so much for the PlayStation side of things. The PS4 will change that!

[Th4Freak]

I agree with you except by the quality games, if you were a PSV owner you knew that most of the games have a excellent quality and lot of are console quality games, I can make you a list right now if you want.

[HyperBear]

By quality, I meant a constant/steady release of games (more specifically in the retail side of things, not digital). Plus, it's more of a personal preference for me too. While some or all of Vita's games might be awesome quality to you, there's honestly only 2 or 3 games I would play on it right now, so for me at this point in time, it is not worth it.

[Th4Freak]

So you're saying that if the games don't follow your schedule and aren't of your taste they're low quality? Seriously...

[KrisButtar]

Were you not around for the 1st year of the PSP and there memory cards?

Those 16GB memory cards were pretty fricking close to costing a $100, until others started making them after a year, then their prices dropped. Same thing will happen again with these Vita cards.

[Coach_McGuirk]

i've always wondered who is buying these handhelds anyway.

[maniacmayhem]

There is no denying that the mobile gaming market is dominated by smartphones and tablets. There is really little to no room for just a dedicated gaming handheld system. I doubt Nintendo or Sony will make a follow up to their handheld systems out now.

[MasterCornholio]

Lets just assume that dedicated gaming handhelds get replaced by smartphones and tablets.

Sony wont have any problems with this since they produce these devices themselves however Nintendo could be in trouble.

But now lets look at the facts. Dedicated handhelds will not go anywhere as long as you have the younger demographic to cater to. This is the reason why its more likely that Nintendo remains in the market then Sony.

[ApolloTheBoss]

Sony is making this seem a lot more difficult then it really is. All they need is a price drop for both the Vita itself and all the memory cards, a lot more games and more advertising and just watch the sales skyrocket.

[HyperBear]

I agree, but sometimes it isn't always that simple.

[Kurisu]

I don't think a price drop now would make a huge difference because next gen is right around the corner. People, me included, are saving their money for the next big home consoles, not the handheld platforms.

[ApolloTheBoss]

That's a good point, but it still wouldn't hurt for them to give the Vita more recognition as well, since Sony stated the PS4, unlike the PS3, will have a lot more compatibility/integration with the Vita, and with Shuhei also mentioning that the PS4 and Vita were developed at the same time, they'll be able to make almost every game cross-buy. That would give people more than enough incentive to buy a Vita, along with all the other suggestions I gave above. It would also be really helpful if Sony released some kind of PS4/Vita bundle but I can only hope for that one.

[CommonSenseGamer]

Hang on, I thought the PS4 was going to be Vita's saving grace according to fanboys. I guess Sony doesn't seem to think so.

[Outside_ofthe_Box]

Yeah, we know you want it fail, but that isn't want Sony is implying with this.

[CommonSenseGamer]

My comment towards wanting it to fail were purely from the point of view that it would stop all the fanboy crap. Especially when they made my not buying into the Vita personnel and claimed I was lying about having children. I was originally intending to get one but when it was released in NZ it was going to set me back over $600NZD with only a 16GB memory card! I ended up getting a tablet instead even though I'd had a PSP since 2007.

Since using the tablet I find the Vita has become less relevant to me, especially since it offers very little I can't already do on my PS3 and tablet. It has no killer exclusives that warrant its still high price tag For me, it doesn't support the media formats I prefer, it has extremely limited app support and the browser can't even begin to compare with what's available on my tablet.

[Hicken]

The Vita hasn't EVER been relevant to you. You have, from the start, desired that it be something it was never meant to be.

Rather than claiming you were lying, it was more about you not being consistent in your comments: you were contradicting yourself, so it's natural people would question you. Even now, you seem unaware of what the Vita actually IS, so lemme try explaining it to you one last time.

It does portability better than your PS3... which isn't portable at all. It also does apps better than your PS3. The web browser is also better. It does gaming far better than your tablet, better than ANY tablet, better than anything that isn't a home console. It's probably also smaller than your tablet, meaning it's more portable.

The price tag thing sucks, but you should blame NZ for that, not Sony. Also, where's the price of that tablet you bought instead?

Finally, the "killer app" excuse is weak, especially coming from someone who's expressed so little interest in even TRYING to like the damn thing or its games. Why should we expect you to see any of the dozens of great games on the Vita as "killer apps" when you think the device sucks so much?

And since they're giving no sales projections whatsoever on the PS4, how could they possibly include it as a factor in their estimates on Vita sales? Not to mention what could affect sales one way or another that won't be announced until E3; they could end production of the PSP, cut the price of the Vita, and who knows what else.

Like with LOGICWINS, your namesake is not your strong point.

[kenshiro100]

Learn how to read instead of jumping to conclusions. Thank you.

[sway_z]

We'll probably see the PS Vita as Sony's last dedicated portable console. As impressive as PS Vita is, and in spite of PS3/PS4 connectivity, there's no place for them in the (near-future) market place.

The Next Gen consoles acknowledge this fact, as PS4/Xbox Next will be multi-device ready/compatible. This makes dedicated portables pretty much redundant.

As for Nintendo, the 3DS currently sells well. But you get the feeling they will probably (stubbornly) release successors to the 3DS for years to come, even though the market is changing and sales will eventually stagnate with the hardcore.

For Sony, it's just as well we're going in the multi-device direction, because they don't do so well with portables.

[jakmckratos]

The only aspect of the "worsening" would be that they aren't supporting the vita with quality exclusive games. I've been favoring my 3DS sooooo much...Kid Icarus, Luigi's Mansion, Mario Kart, Kingdom Hearts, Mario Bros, Fire Emblem etc etc...

On my Vita I've like Gravity Rush and Uncharted(which was by far the weakest Uncharted..no supernatural twist wtf??) And the cross-play is okay but honestly the graphics suck...and not just because the display isnt as powerful it's because they are kinda cheaply done as a side by side port. I want HIGH QUALITY exclusive titles I can enjoy anywhere...Killzone and Tearaway seem to be the only remedy coming for the rest of the year. PS4 already has way more games I wanna play...

[givemeshelter]

The biggest enemy for the Vita is Mobile gaming from Tablets and Smartphones.
Those devices are canabilzing the Vita's sales as the price of the Vita is in that same ballpark and also it targets the same age demographics.
It's a tough situation for the Vita to be in these days.
The 3Ds survives and does well based on the initial launch price and Nintendo's reputation as the foremost in dedicated handheld gaming targeted mostly towards the age demographics of 16 and under.
The Vita's business model will have a tough time this generation with the massive push towards quick fix mobile gaming...

[mochachino]

Well everyone predicted a worsening handheld market well before Vita launched.

Vita shouldn't have launched at all.

[ufo8mycat]

People need to stop comparing the Vita to the 3DS. Yes they are both handhelds, but they are 2 different markets. VIta is more of a mature/core type audience, while the 3DS is more of a casual and kids type audience.

Of course the 3DS is going to sell more. Casual audience is a much bigger market. Bigger market = more sales

[phantomexe]

no the 3ds isn't just for kids. Nintendo knows the handheld market well. I own a vita and after seeing some of these 3DS games i want one. Nintendo backs up there releases on handheld well and the 3rd party games seem to keep going there. I'm not knocking the vita its a good handheld but i'm reminded why i didn't get a psp. Great system just never got the games it deserved at the start. Never the less the vita and 3DS are competing for the same market.

[Automatic79]

Vita is an excellent device just needs more solid titles to pick up steam. As far as 3DS being a casual and kids system is a complete lie. 3DS has titles that cater to all audiences that is the difference. While Vita is aiming for the Mature and Ipad market. IPAD users don't want a vita. Mature gamers just don't see enough games on the system to really justify the purchase of the vita especially with the PS4 around the corner with a lot more support.

[gano]

this is hard.
longer battery, and its always on.
i dont like that.

[erikthegman]

the vita's biggest enemy is Sony