The Playstation Vita is still relevant

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that the Vita is not performing well in the marketplace. The prevailing public opinion seems to be that “there aren’t any games for it,” and that “it is too expensive.” Are these claims true? The purpose of this article is to examine the Vita, and to determine its strengths (and weaknesses) and how Sony could shore up sales of the Vita.

[JonahNL]

What kind of bugs me is that the Vita is getting no hate at all, it seems, despite its commercial failure. In the meantime is struggling with the Wii U just as hard, yet that platform is being put in a negative light again and again.

I'm hoping for Sony they can give the Vita a boost with the release of the PlayStation 4.

[boybato]

My friend the Vita had its fair share of hate articles around its 7th-8th month from release. Matter of fact, at this moment the statement "the Vita ha no gaems" had been changed to "the Vita has no system sellers". lol

[JonahNL]

Honestly, I haven't seen those. I probably missed those then. I don't keep a close eye on the Sony articles here, with the exception of PS4 related ones.

[saladthieves]

Who ever said that the Vita was irrelevant?

I recently got the Samsung Galaxy S4 and I was upgrading from this: http://mobilesyrup.com/wp-c... and let me tell you, the difference in terms of power and everything between the two is gigantic!

However gaming on the phone's screen is a pain. Call me old school or something, but I just can't see myself gaming on a touch screen, or even try to consider them smartphones as in the category of portable gaming. I need to feel the physical buttons click down.

This where the PS Vita comes in handy, in terms of gaming on the go. I can't see smartphones becoming a substitution for a portable device such as the Nintendo 3DS or the Vita, regardless of however powerful them touchscreens become.

[Aery]

Maybe may help a bit :

http://www.neogaf.com/forum...

from a post :

Total number of rated games (Metacritic):
3DS - 195
PS VITA - 99
Ratio: 1.97

Total number of 75+ rated games
3DS - 51
PS VITA - 47
Ratio: 1.09

Total number of 50-64 rated games
3DS - 121
PS VITA - 45
Ratio: 2.69

Total number of 1-49 rated games
3DS - 23
PS VITA - 7
Ratio: 3.29
47% of Vita's games are 75+, while only 26% of 3DS's games are.

[nirwanda]

@aery
Numbers can be spun in many ways to suit anyone to look like an advantage, attach rates/sales/scores etc.
Just as an example:
Vita games over 90%=1
3DS games over 90%=5

[kwyjibo]

@Aery

What?! You don't buy a system because of "ratio". And the numbers you post show there are more good games on the 3DS.

[Qrphe]

>What kind of bugs me is that the Vita is getting no hate at all

I've been on both Nintendo and Sony articles and both consoles have gotten around the same expected amount of "hate" articles.

[elhebbo16]

@aery I might used this as a secret weapon if someone ever brings up vita has no good games, if you dont mind.

[chrismichaels04]

@ZidaneNL#1 - the Vita isn't getting as much hate as the WiiU right now because no matter how much anyone wants to bash the Vita, the simple fact is the Vita isn't the one getting publicly destroyed by big developers like the WiiU is. Development studios aren't going on record saying the Vita is "crap" like they are saying about the WiiU. And at the end of the day, developers are still making games for the Vita....unlike the WiiU which many big 3rd party studios have all said they are not currently working on any WiiU games or titles.

[Heisenburger]

Yeah. The world could use some more evenly spread hatred.

-_-

Nah, I do see your point though. :P

I would prefer it if people weren't so childish when it came to platforms.

It reminds me of the little groups back in grade school.

Then there are outsiders who just want to play games, discuss them, and not be harassed because they like a particular thing.

[GameCents]

So relevant you had to write an article about it.

[Alos88]

Because people only write articles about consoles if they aren't relevent?

[GameCents]

Because when something is relevant you don't have to keep reminding people.

[Skate-AK]

Haha. Shouldn't all articles be relevant?

[I_LOVE_MYSELF]

I'm sorry, I thought you was replying to someone else... ignore me.

[chrismichaels04]

The Vita is so relevant that an obviously bitter Sony hater with a 3DS avatar felt the need to come into a Vita discussion and make a negative comment about the Vita.

[tarbis]

No Gravity Daze and Soul Sacrifice in the list of AAA games? This article is fail.

[CommonSenseGamer]

OK, if its not the price and not the games then simply people are not interested. Certainly seems to be the case with casual gamers as they are labelled.

[BeZdaBest]

its really not so much hate articles..but that people come to nintendo articles to hate/bash the system

but like ive been saying on both fronts, both systems need time. vita has its fair arrangement of games..wiiu is getting up there...

for the vita i think that they really have to drop the price of the memory cards and wiiu needs some moar games..

[Wolfbiker]

Re acquiring a Vita today!

[r21]

Pretty good read. Im hoping this E3, Sony will announce price drops and new game reveals for the vita. They should also up the marketing for the vita more.

[sdozzo]

Yawn

[KentBlake]

I may get some bashing for this, but I think the basic reason the Vita doesn't get so many hate articles as the Wii U is only this one: it is a great SYSTEM, hardware wise. The console itself is amazing, and more great games for it will make it awesome.

Meanwhile, I don't think the Wii U is really that great when it comes to hardware. It's weaker than current-gen machines (or at least at the same level), and for a system that calls itself next-gen, it's just too little. Great games will certainly help it, but won't make it an amazing machine overnight. And in a few years, it will be so underpowered next to PS4/NexBox, that it will suffer the consequences of Nintendo being so disconnected from reality. I hope it can find its audience, though, but I don't think I'll be buying one. It will take A LOT of REALLY AMAZING games (not just more Mario and Zelda) to convince me this time.

[jrbeerman11]

I think many will agree with you there. One of the biggest problems with Wiiu is the specs, while that has never been questioned on the Vita.

I also feel like Wiiu is a bigger offender on the games front. I mean as a hardcore gamer that likes to have all systems, I still haven't been given a reason to buy one. How can a Nintendo console be released without one of their killer exclusives like 3d mario, mario kart, zelda, metroid, donkey kong, smash bros, etc? All we get is supermario bros u?

the only third party game that can move systems (at least for me) is monster hunter 3 ultimate (which is an expansion on 3 on wii), and I have a 3ds so i just got it for that. (although I really want to play online)

That being said, when smash bros, metroid, zelda, or 3d mario come out in any combination, the Wiiu will sell despite the power of console.

The vita? doesnt have anything on horizon that can compete with those franchises (i am excited for killzone). Hopefully they announce more games at E3 like they are hinting.

[joeorc]

Piracy does NOT hurt sales. It helps it. Does the PSP still sell to this day? YES. Has it had piracy all its life? YES. Has piracy hurt sames of the PSP? NO.

SO if they arn’t going to fix it themselves here are 2 points to help the hackers.
1, leave them alone, dont sue them.
2, leave the exploits open, dont patch the holes that make these exploits work.

There are 2 ways to go, the legal way or the not so legal way. Its up to them now.

this is the very freaking problem...when you pitch your idea for a game to be published you are asking the publisher to put x amount of $ into distribution of said game, but here is the thing where does that money they are investing coming from?

I would like people to read this:

http://jolt.law.harvard.edu...

you do not mainly get to make the choice if piracy is going to be a problem, its the people writing the checks are. and if they do not wish to invest you have to re pitch your idea to more VC's and you could end up with less money to make your software with. because they may say if more people are going to pirate than pay us , than you developer's can do without more money to make the d@mn software with.

so put that in your thinking cap, because if you do not think that happens, than i do not know what to tell you, because that indeed does happen and quite often. Piracy hurts everyone involved from the developer, to the publisher, to the people making out the check to the end user.

[rainslacker]

I assume you're responding to the article, otherwise I have no idea whether to agree or disagree with you. In one post you managed to argue both sides of the issue, and I'm not sure if you are in support of piracy or against it.

Guess all I can say is that piracy helps hardware sales, but not software sales. I think Sony is interested in increasing hardware sales, while at the same time increasing software sales. Allowing piracy is an ass backwards way of doing that, and they should do everything in their power to prevent it.

Otherwise, I do agree with the article. The Vita has taken the whole anti-piracy thing to the extreme. However, I don't really blame Sony after their experience with the PSP. We can thank the pirates for that I guess.

[joeorc]

100% oh i agree with you : for instance

" Allowing piracy is an ass backwards way of doing that, and they should do everything in their power to prevent it."

that is @ss backwards and i was indeed responding to the article. and i am against piracy.

[jcnba28]

Still relevant? I don't think so unless there's a miracle.

[Jek_Porkins]

I like the Vita's hardware,but with two new consoles coming out this year it's not something on my list to buy this year. I wonder what might have been if Sony just released the Vita, keeping it as powerful as it is, but cutting out a lot of the other stuff that I don't feel it needs, just needed to be a powerful handheld device with two thumb sticks. That is what made the PSP great, fun device that played games and no gimmicks. I bet they could have released something like that for under $200.

[Hicken]

What would you have cut out? And why should Sony go with what YOU feel it needs?

It IS a powerful handheld device with two thumbsticks. It's a great, fun device that plays games and has no gommicks. Well, these days, anything that isn't strictly gaming is a gimmick.

Though, somehow, I get the feeling that if all it did was game, you'd be among the first to complain about how it doesn't do anything ASIDE from games.

[Jek_Porkins]

I would have cut out the touch screen, and all that jazz, seems a bit like overkill to me personally. The way I hear it told, most PlayStation gamer's are "core" gamer's and core gamer's don't like gimmicks, I've heard a lot of bad things about Uncharted and the touch screen of Vita.

It's facing an uphill battle, but I'd eventually like one if they drop to the $150-$170 range.

[maniacmayhem]

@Hicken

"And why should Sony go with what YOU feel it needs? "

It was his OPINION Hicken, jeeeezuz. You seriously need to calm down and stop attacking anyone who has a different outlook on your beloved Vita.

[CEOSteveBallmer]

It still relevant, didnt you guys read what sony said? it has many announcements for the vita this E3. And the people that calls it irrelevant are guys who doesn't have anything to do but to hate and waste time. This people need to get a life.

[chikane]

yea it still is .

Is just i don't have 249$ to spend.

More like 179$ .... When sony tries that price then will talk.

[khowat]

I love how everyone, even me thought that the 3ds was smoked as soon as the vita would come out. I mean c'mon the vita had everything, even a few solid games, but now people are trying to explain the commercial failure, like an apathetic demographic, high price, too many ports, not enough system sellers. Those are all legitimate but at the end of the day it all comes down to that no console success is guaranteed, no matter how many games, no matter how good the graphics, it is always a fight to keep your console alive during the early stages no matter how good of a start you have

The ps vita is still relevant because a plethora of good games and a real incentive to buy can solve anything I'm hoping that sony will release some really interesting titles

The reason the wii u gets so much flak for its commercial failure is because it deserves it, they could have future-proofed the console, they could have made seem even the slightest different from the wii, they could've SET IT UP for success but they didn't, whereas the ps vita seemed to do everything right

plus there just a few too many active ps trolls on this website

[josephayal]

Sony dominated the handheld market for years