Sell The PlayStation Vita Yourself, Sony

GR: As if PlayStation Vita sales figures weren't bleak enough, even Sony is beginning to show signs of distress. In a new promotion, Sony is offering a $20 PSN card and "tons of Sony Rewards points" to PSN users who can convince their friends to purchase a PlayStation Vita. Except, this doesn't come off the way Sony intended—it comes off as desperate.

[doctorstrange]

Anyone want to be my 'friend' whose in the mood for a vita?

[Y_5150]

huh?

[007Bond]

And here you guys want ports of grade A console games on vita when it doesn't even sell haha. Honestly nobody walk around with a handheld unless your 12 years old.

[sexbobomb91]

Right, the Vita is meant for 12year olds and UFC fighters: http://imgur.com/a/wUDnl .

[Baylex]

I have mine in my backpack, i take it with me in my car and when I ride my motorcycle i have it inside my jacket! And I'm 22... so the only kid with 12 years that dosen't take their handheld with him is you... because:
1- you're not 12 years old... maybe 11 or so..
2- you don't have a Vita.. maybe a 3DS and you keep it at home!!! God you're pathetic lol

[iamnsuperman]

It isn't like that. It is like the Sky box adverts which gave you Marks and Spenser vouchers every time you recommend a friend to join Sky.

It is a standard marketing tool used quite a lot by companies.

[jimbobwahey]

Yeah, I've always considered the whole "Refer a friend" and such marketing strategy to be commonplace. Seems odd to see people shocked and alarmed by things like this given the tremendous amount of successful companies that utilize these kind of promotions.

[iamnsuperman]

Like the Sky example. Sky is doing phenomenally well in the UK yet they did such an offer because it just brings in much more customers. It really makes me worry about the people on this site/submitted to this site

[Good_Guy_Jamal]

You have to admit it does seem rather desperate, all things considered (vita sales performance, first time a gaming company does this for hardware)
I want alot more than just 20 bucks for convincing someone to buy a VITA.

[admiralvic]

Just because you can spin something to be bad, doesn't mean it's actually bad. Plenty of sites give you bonuses for inviting a friend, several companies offer you a nice little extra (like Direct TV and the 100 bill credit) and even some contests give you extra entries for inviting others / tweeting / facebooking (basically the same thing). The is a common marketing tactic because it is common knowledge that people don't usually talk about good experiences, but will complain about bad. This marketing tactic offers you a reward for hyping the system, so people are MORE likely to speak highly of it, over simply saying nothing. Nothing desperate about it and even if you view it as "desperate", I still think any topic about it are even more desperate for hits.

[Kingofwiiu]

It's like sucking off people for crack..... /s lmao

[Wedge19]

This is sad. I'm a staunch Vita supporter, but really, like you said, Sony needs to sell their own products themselves. You shouldn't need to offer me an incentive to tell my friends about the Vita, your product should be so good, and SUPPORTED that it makes me want to pitch it to my friends myself. That, or well advertised enough that they already know about it without my input.

[acharlez]

It really is sad.

The Vita really is in trouble.

[-Alpha]

Look, that's true and all, and I can see why people are poking fun at it, but this is nothing new, and nothing most companies don't try to do, regardless of the success of their product. There is nothing wrong with the method, and you can't fault them for advertising.

[Wedge19]

I agree, and as pointed out in other comments, DirecTV and other companies do it too. The difference is in the execution. Other companies promotions are a successful product that they want you to tell your friends about. In this case, it's a last ditch effort to get customers to support the Vita.

Get support on the developer side of it, and people will come in droves, without needing to offer money. The Vita really is an amazing piece of tech, truly a marvel in handheld gaming. But I can't be expected to sell my friends and colleagues on something that I don't see the developer offering a lot of support on.

If this was better supported on Sony's end, I would be handing out flyers on street corners and convincing everybody I know to purchase one.

[ftwrthtx]

Someone's gotta sell it. The developers aren't helping.

[Belking]

You can't blame this on developers. It's sony's responsibility to ensure that the hardware has great software support. They really need to get out of this"if we make it people will buy it" way of thinking because it really doesn't work that way with everything.

[Hicken]

Care to look over the list of games for the Vita and say Sony isn't giving the damn thing great software support?

Uncharted, Unit 13, Sound Shapes, Gravity Rush, LBP, Sly Cooper, MLB The Show, Super Stardust, Wipeout, Hot Shots Golf, Escape Plan, PS All Stars are all great FIRST PARTY games, and a wide variety, to boot. That's an average of one first party game per month, and that excludes the smaller games like When Vikings Attack, Little Deviants, Treasures of Montezuma, and Hustle Kings.

Seems like Sony's giving out great support, to me. Maybe you should actually do research. Oh, but then, you'd just say it in full knowledge that you were telling lies.

... which is probably what you were doing, anyway.

Troll harder.

[-Mezzo-]

Sony is beginning to show signs of distress.
So i'll take it that the writer has never heard of a thing called, 'Affiliate Program', what Sony's doing is not different to an 'Affiliate Program' run by, say... Amazon, Ebay or Best Buy.

Everyone that sells stuff does this.
----------------

Sensationalism At It'S best.

[iamnsuperman]

I know right. I am still surprised by some people on the internet

[Good_Guy_Jamal]

People called microsoft desperate for giving microsoft points with every Gears and GTA V sold. Shouldn't be suprising that this move by Sony is evoking the same thoughts. Amazon, Best Buy and Ebay don't make a handheld game that is struggling at the moment though. Just as an after thought. . .

[tachy0n]

its not distress, i got the feeling like sony is waiting for something, PS4 perhaps?

[TrendyGamers]

I wonder how well the promo will do?

[insertcoin]

Stop telling me to do things, Sony. If the Vita is indeed awesome, you shouldn't need to pay me to tell my friends about it.

[dbjj12088]

This is an excellent feature. Sony fails at their job so now all the dedicated consumers who have a Vita already are supposed to do it for them?

[joeorc]

anyone notice a theme..
just look at this Picture their putting on the PSVita..

"Snake oil is intentionally promoted fraudulent or unproven Medicine. The expression is also applied metaphorically to any product with questionable or unverifiable quality or benefit. By extension, a snake oil salesman is someone who sells fraudulent goods or who is a fraud himself."

their not trolling, no surrr eee, Not trolling at all!

but..but Sony need's to promote it...so

I just wondering where is the uproar over Microsoft doing such the same type of thing's I take it all good and Dandy right?

where is this "snake oil picture on the xbox360"

Game On, Be Social,
Stay Entertained, Stay Gold!

If you are an Xbox LIVE Rewards Gold Member, you get access to exclusive site features, like MyStats and Refer-A-Friend, and it's even easier to earn free Microsoft Points and sweet rewards. You might even earn VIP status just for doing what you love on Xbox LIVE!Game On, Be Social,
Stay Entertained, Stay Gold!

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/l...

ooh there it is hypocrisy at its finest

[Foolsjoker]

This is the, 'we can't figure out how to sell this thing, so you do it for us' campaign.

[joeorc]

yea very IRONIC
"This is the, 'we can't figure out how to sell this thing, so you do it for us' campaign."

sorta sounds like this:

Game On, Be Social,
Stay Entertained, Stay Gold!

If you are an Xbox LIVE Rewards Gold Member, you get access to exclusive site features, like MyStats and Refer-A-Friend, and it's even easier to earn free Microsoft Points and sweet rewards. You might even earn VIP status just for doing what you love on Xbox LIVE!Game On, Be Social,
Stay Entertained, Stay Gold!

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/l...

so you could very well say the same for Microsoft:

This is the, 'we can't figure out how to sell more xbox live subscriptions thing, so you do it for us' campaign.

but that's ok right?

[Good_Guy_Jamal]

Comparing a $1 billion revenue a year service with 25 million users that is thriving so much they had enough balls to up the price to a struggling handheld device.
Does it make it all better for you?

[joeorc]

@Good_Guy_Jamal
"Comparing a $1 billion revenue a year service with 25 million users that is thriving so much they had enough balls to up the price to a struggling handheld device.
Does it make it all better for you?"

Hey, that's some great thinking you got there!

Just because some think its so great what a company makes on it's product right?

hey sale's are a good thing you can play as a gamer right?

do you get real excited for the new Exclusive game being released for the xbox360?:

WE SALE SO MANY XBOX LIVE SUBSCRIPTION'S ULTRA EDITION!

Im just Glad there is a great number of achievement's for that game!

Its so much better than the new Sony Game :

"Sony is all Fail's Exclusive game"
with it's Fail's trophy support..

[Megaton]

Ballmer knows what Sony needs for the Vita.

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

If they don't care, why should consumers?

[2pacalypsenow]

Direct Tv does the same giving you $100 for every new costumer you get them this isn't new or desperate its a smart move . And sony is giving people $20 dollars for it!! and they slam sony for it?? Bet if it was Microsft doing it and giving you 200 MSP it would be title "Smarted Move of the year for Xbox"

[majiebeast]

Where was this outrage when Blizzard did the same thing for World of warcraft?

[metroidfusion2]

Ha ha lol

[tack129]

So it's ok for other companies, including Microsoft and their Xbox live service, to do the same thing with their products and services but it's not ok for Sony to do it for any of theirs?

[Good_Guy_Jamal]

$250 struggling console vs $40 - $60 already striving service.
One has very little in the way of 3rd party support and isn't being very well marketed by its maker and the other is an essential service for online gaming on that system and is marketed so much its borderline invasive.
So no, it's not okay. Not until they get their act together on their end and start making it an attractive enough product.

[profgerbik]

Well said.

For instance Microsoft has practically been giving the Xbox 360 away for free.. They have that stupid Bing commercial, then they have buy a Xbox 360 and be tied to a contract on top of paying more for Live than you normally would for two years as if it isn't already expensive enough.

@Good_Guy_Jamal.. You sound like a twat, first of all the PS Vita, has Playstation Plus a $17-$50 service that is better than Xbox Live by miles, Microsoft isn't handing out free games every month for being such loyal customers or even offering any service like that.

So no the PS Vita isn't just a $250 device with nothing else to offer when it also has a service that easily rivals Xbox Live. So it's ok for you to pay about $200 dollars for a console and pay $60 a year without getting anything in return for it other than to play online.. or some crappy discounts.. That sounds much more logical.

[sak500]

They should bundle it with bravia like they did with ps3.

[GreenRanger_]

For anyone who is confused by some of the comments here, the title of this submission was "Tell Your Friends About The Vita And Get PSN Money" (or something like that), but it was taken down and changed for some reason.

[doctorstrange]

That's still up http://n4g.com/news/1161388...

[GreenRanger_]

Oops, my mistake.
How embarrassing.

[Shadow Man]

they need to hire Microsofts advertising team so they can get some sales going.

[profgerbik]

Yep nothing like advertising nothing but Kinect or I guess if they had Microsoft's advertising team they would be advertising nothing but PS move.

The only time I ever see anything from Microsoft is Windows 8 crap anything related to Xbox they are either giving them away practically or advertising Kinect.

[megamanX2]

lol too bad that what happens when you go up against nintendo, and now even sony knows how inferior their system is. Here's a tip dont make another one, because by the time they do nobody wont be buying handhelds anymore.

[plmkoh]

Such an important campaign that 99.9% of the people here have only first heard about it because of this N4G article post.

McDonalds must be in real 'desparate' too, because they're giving away free Cheeseburgers over here.

[Sp1d3ynut]

I've never seen a TV ad for Vita....EVER. Hell, I've seen 10x more TV ads for V-Tech and LeapFrog devices than I have ANY Sony device. Sony just fails at marketing...always have, likely always will.

[Blackcanary]

All the adds I see for vita are on the Internet... JustinTv have tons of vita adds when ever u watch something.

[Sp1d3ynut]

Please tell me you don't think that's a good marketing strategy.

[Blackcanary]

Off course i don't but its better than nothing.

[Kingthrash360]

Sounds like a promotion to me. Many many company's do this. If The vita is the first system, then I thank them for at least paying me for it.
If and when they are ready to slash the price they will and their sales will raise. Same as all systems that cuts prices

[boybato]

I do not see anything wrong with it... It's no secret that the Vita is struggling(sales wise, third party software support) therefor I appreciate that such a promotion even exist.

[Belking]

"It's no secret that the Vita is struggling(sales wise, third party software support) "

yea, but some here sure are in denial about it.

[Jason143]

all they had to do ws release monster hunter. not that hard.

[Psychonaut]

I enjoy my PSVita. I hope Grasshopper Studio's black knight will be put up there. Definitly Suda51s' Ghost n' Ghouls variant.

[KongRudi]

Been looking at the Sony Rewards website..
And I agree, there is a huge problem with this stuff.
Mainly that these kind of promotions beeing in United States of America.

I hope Sony Japan get's less desperate, and moves this stuff to Europe instead. It looks fantastic.
I'm kind of jealous..

[Karpetburnz]

Is it a bad thing that Sony is promoting the Vita this way? many companies do this.