Will Sony's Gamescom Appearance Save the Vita?

"Even if the company has stated that it’s fine with the Vita’s sales numbers, no one can deny it’s underperforming compared to the Nintendo 3DS. Despite better specs and a wide range of games, the 3DS has managed to outsell it. Whether or not the Vita has a price that is too expensive is still a mystery, but we should find out very soon if it’s the lack of a solid IP that’s keeping the PS Vita from selling. This convention revealed many different things about Sony, and most of them reflected positively on the company—which might be just what it needs to save the Vita from living in the shadow of its competitor." | Explosion.com

[timothylittle]

The 3DS started out with poor sales also, but look how well it's doing now!

[CommonSenseGamer]

Shows that things can turn around. I'm still not convinced that without a price drop Vita's fortunes will change enough. Tearaway is certainly a game which will make punters take notice but is it a system seller at the systems current asking price?

[PoSTedUP]

people are going to buy the vita this holiday, it might not do exceptional, but it will sell. i hope BO:declassified is a system seller regardless of its disappointing trailer. no doubt the quality will slightly hurt the reputation for the vita tho, it was its biggest game...

[sikbeta]

IF Sony wants to turn the damn Vita around, they better prepare some millions in cash to advertise the heck out of it and this time for real, can't believe they spent 50m in those lame @ss s#**y ads for Vita

When it comes to advertising, Sony just sucks at it, people who think that good conferences and new games can change the future of the system are so wrong, Apple is not big because their products are great, it's because their *promote* their products as "the best" and people eat that like candy, that's the only trick

[GribbleGrunger]

Agreed. People would buy a dog turd if you threw millions at the advertising

[FragGen]

@CSG: Is there some reason that you think Sony will never drop the price on it? That would be completely unprecedented in the history of technology. :) IF it's like the PSP or even the 3DS, it's okay to let it float as a premium priced product for a year or more. Why is it such an emergency that this thing put up big sales numbers just a few months within launch if they are committed to the product as a long term platform?

@sikbeta: Name one major technology product that was a success BECAUSE of advertising. I'd love to see you try because, honestly, I can't think of one. It's nice to make the product stay in people's minds and sway people on the fence but I've never ever seen a high tech product that was struggling go from failure to success because of advertising.

If you are going to drop $200-$250 on a handheld gaming console most consumers will do at least a little bit of market research. That's out of most people's impulse buy range.

At this point, Sony's best investment into the Vita would be:
1. Funding new in-house game development
2. Funding killer firmware development for new system features, etc.
3. Subsidizing ridiculous memory card prices.

[GribbleGrunger]

Evidently not. Clearly Sony will always charge the same for the Vita... and this close to the end of it's lifecycle! It's dangerous

[proskatercam]

Has some great looking upcoming games, so I have confidence.

[NastyLeftHook0]

this is like the 100th save title yet

[CommonSenseGamer]

That's life, get use to it.

[NastyLeftHook0]

this is the internet, not life. and i will not get used to it :)

[NeoTribe]

Vita articles is wut life is? To think all this time I've had it all wrong....

[Anon1974]

We might as well start calling this site D4V, Doom 4 Vita with all the articles we've seen regarding Vita's apparently imminent demise lately. It's ridiculous. As I pointed out yesterday, just do a search of the site for "Vita doom" or "Vita save" and see how many articles pop up. But, it was the same thing with the PSP, Blu-Ray, the PS3, 3d, etc..etc. When you don't have any news to report, this type of nonsense will get you the hits. And sites use flamebait like this because it works.

[Ben_Grimm]

Remember when the 3DS first dropped? No?

hmmmm...

[andrewsqual]

That's only because they released 2 Mario games within 2 weeks of each other. And now today marks the history of the game that is going to sell 3DS's for the next 5 years.

[chrisarsenalsavart]

remember how vita sold so well when gravity rush launched. Now imagine that from september there will be loads of great game coming out for the machine.
Lbp, assassin creed3, tekkenxstreetfighter, fifa13, madden13, Nfs, playstation all stars, Blackops, radnarok odissey, persona4....

la Vita bella
(Life is beautiful)

[xursz]

You forgot Persona 4! D:

[Protagonist]

My most anticipated game.

[ChunkyLover53]

I understand that this type of article will get hits, because people see the title and go all rage-tastic on it.

Its far too early to tell what the future holds for the Vita, but I'm sure Sony has a long term plan for the console, they aren't just going to stop supporting it. They would risk losing the loyalty of long time fans, kind of the way that Sega lost brand loyalty when they kept releasing add-on's and then dropped support for them.

So I think its a long term handheld and these articles looking for hits need to stop.

[searcam01]

Again? These articles need to stop. Vita does not need saving.

[Ben_Grimm]

The amount of games isn't the problem in my opinion for the Vita. The problem lies in the relavence of having a dedicated gaming system only for that amount.

But with Sony's first party cross play announcment it has become more attractive. But still to have the Vita more expensive than an actual PS3 is still a turn off to many.

Here's hoping for a good turn around.

[eferreira]

yes because 6 year old tech should be cheaper than a new handheld device.

[GribbleGrunger]

Unfortunately the fact that the PS3 is old tech and the Vita is new doesn't matter to the average Joe, so I have to agree. I could spend a paragraph or two disagreeing with you, but at the end of the day (regardless of the tech) most people just look at price... and HUGE advertising that makes them feel part of the collective

Bless their little fashionable souls

[Catoplepas]

You'd be forgiven for forgetting this site is called news for gamers.

They should should just rename it speculation for imbeciles and be done with it.

[triplev16]

The Vita will do fine, I've been playing mine quite a bit since February and the future looks bright. I don't understand why some of these journalists keep acting as if the Vita is on life support. Do they not want it to succeed? I mean, that can only mean less games for us. Oh wait, I forgot about the fact that the article needs hits. My bad...

[Soldierone]

I've come to the conclusion that the formula for "said console is dead" articles is

Sony + a month of no exclusive title release = SAID CONSOLE IS DEAD!!!!!!!

That or sales numbers and Sony isn't listed as number one in every territory.

[Krew_92]

Then when they announce new games, they say, is it enough?

It's a never ending cycle that shouldn't even be bothered with. Sadly though people are too stubborn, they get their nerves hit and start defending the Vita, thus garnering the site a hit.

It's all very complicated and it sucks to have to see these type of articles every day here on N4G.

They need to regulate the opinion piece articles a bit more steeply, because right now the current system of reports isn't really working.

[Soldierone]

Hopefully Assassins Creed is good enough to overshadow the crap Nihilistic is throwing out there.....

I want COD on the system as much as the next guy, but that game sucking is going to do a lot of harm......lets hope it doesn't suck as bad as we all think.

[triplev16]

Exactly, I hope these games do well and the Vita does well (as all major consoles should). There is a lot of potential with the Vita. Right now I see a lot of similarities between the PS3's release and the Vita's. If the Vita follows the same path as the PS3, than it's future is bright. If it goes under then it would definitely be a shame.

[moodgamer]

I must understand, why everyone its saying that VITA is doomed, its falling into darkness, its most done, its going away like PSPGO... Really? Economy is not very good, Psvita still does not have that many great software. Stop trolling. I dont have a Nintendo, but im very happy for the sales. As im happy for the Wii U, for 360 for PS3 or for PC. I and everyone here should just think in playing games.

[Wintersun616]

Another day, another "Save PS Vita" article.

The annual drought of games is about to come to an end and Vita sales will start increasing when the games start rolling in again soon.

[Firebird360]

Absolutely. I already wanted a vita, now I've pre ordered the assassins bundle. Gamescom reassured me that Sony is in it for the long hall for vita. I was weary after E3 that maybe Sony wasn't interested in supporting vita to the fullest. Things are looking great now, lots of the vita games are getting price drops now aswell as the cross Platform purchase for select games is going to be great!