50°

Sony’s Mishandling of Vita Shows They Don’t Understand the Handheld Market

Two and a half years later, Vita is not producing the numbers Sony had hoped, and support for the system is shriveling up. What happened? Looking at remarks from some of the top executives of the PlayStation brand, it becomes apparent that Sony doesn’t understand the handheld market.

Dudebro903596d ago

Their problem always has been they try to take a console experience and smash into a portable system. There are people that enjoy that, but that market is much smaller compare to the 3ds and Nintendo market.

iamnsuperman3596d ago (Edited 3596d ago )

And the Vita is at an instant disadvantage where Nintendo has established pick up and play titles such as Pokemon or a Mario game. I think their direction was wrong (not enough people want that the full console experience on a handheld). What people want is pick up and play games (something Nintendo has nailed and established a long time ago)

miyamoto3596d ago (Edited 3596d ago )

You hit the nail in the head!
Well said!

That's why the title of the article is very wrong.

Sony knows & understands full well Nintendo's market and success.

But like the original PlayStation Sony targeted the older gamers, the 19 and up, the hardcore gamers, with PSP & PS Vita. Not Nintendo's "we aren't targeting children enough" market.

Anyone can tell by the games and exclusives on Nintendo handhelds & the PlayStation handhelds. Nintendo's games are geared towards the young gamers while Sony's games are geared toward the hardcore.

PSP & PS Vita never was competing for Nintendo's market. Infact Nintendo designed the 3DS to steal PSP's market share by cutting a deal with Nintendo to make Monster Hunter, PSP's most sold game, exclusive to 3DS.

PSP really tried to bring the hardcore console gamers to portable gaming. 82 million PSP units sold is proof of that. Those were the times when what worked in Japan also sold gangbusters outside Japan. Also what worked on consoles don't work with handhelds anymore.

PS Vita used the same PSP mandate & goal and really tried to bring the hardcore console gamers yet again to portable gaming.
A noble endeavor indeed. This shows how committed Sony is to its captured market since 1994- the hardcore adult market.

But this time around success eluded the PS Vita.

Times has changed . The gaming landscape has changed.
Nintendo defined handheld gaming as "Handheld Gaming for Kids & the Casual" not for hardcore gamers. Mobile Gaming even made that definition even more truer today.

I told Mr. Shuhei Yoshida, President of Sony Worldwide Studios on Twitter numerous times, to have a perfect balance of
1) AAA from their best studios like Naughty Dog, Sucker Punch, etc. & big 3rd party devs like Activision &
2) popular games for kids & casuals.

But I understand you can't flip switch just like that.
At least now they are trying my suggestion I just hope its not too late and can turn around the PS Vita like they did the PS3.

voodoochild3463596d ago

You really need to stop with this bs about "hardcore" gamers. There's nothing "hardcore" about the majority of games out today. The term hardcore is something insecure people such as yourself use to feel like you are doing something other than playing games. Also sorry to be the one to tell you that the majority of the people who buy "hardcore" games are casuals.

ThatOneRiggaNob3596d ago

Lol if they understood the handheld market they would've known Nintendo got that on lockdown and just kept to consoles.

WeAreLegion3596d ago

But Nintendo had the console market locked down before Sony came onto the scene.

Artista 3596d ago (Edited 3596d ago )

They took the same approach as they would to their home console.

Sony put out a more 'powerful' hardware than the 3DS, Just putting out sleek hardware isn't good enough. Games, games and games, you've gotta back it up with software.

I feel like they accepted defeat so easily, declaring it a companion device. An expensive one, that is.

DrRobotnik3596d ago (Edited 3596d ago )

They didn't learn from Sega's mistakes. Being the most powerful might be true in the console universe. But in the handheld market, it really is all about the games. Game Gear far out performed the original Game Boy...but when that Pokemon came out, that was the nail in Game gear's coffin. And then the coffin was thrown into a volcano.

SquidBuck3596d ago

You can say the same thing about Nintendo and the console market.

Show all comments (10)
150°

Sony Patents To Prevent You From In-Game Harassment By Reading Your Emotions

A new patent recently published by Sony wants to gather biometric data of gamers to track whether one is being harassed using AI tools.

Profchaos1d 5h ago (Edited 1d 5h ago )

I hope this is one of those patents that never comes to fruition.

I already dislike the fact you can pay a significant amount for a online service buy associated games and content on said service and get banned from that service over potentially a misunderstanding the bans are already handed out for flimsy reasons

I'd rather see money invested in a ban that simply removes the offensive players ability to communicate with unknown players allow them to continue party chats with friends but not with Joe blow on cod.

exputers1d 1h ago

Agreed. Blizzard recently banned a college Overwatch 2 player who's dependent for saying "shit." Pretty harsh.

Profchaos10h ago(Edited 10h ago)

How rediculas really. You can't say a word that's allowed in most PG films and prime time TV but the game is based around killing the enemy team using guns, explosives etc.

It's just backwards.

just_looken12h ago

What your talking about is called block list

In 2006 a spaceship dropped of the playstation 3/xbox 360 i say that that generation was the last great gen with game functions/tech that has yet to comeback

Anyhow the playstation 3 if you block listed a id they could not talk to you in chatroom with either text or voice. But that was pre mind fucked 2018 when people were more human than sheep.

But hey gta 6 is coming out billion dollar budget without a single player custom character creator and without singeplayer coop off/online something saints row 1-3 had on the xbox 360.

z2g21h ago

Take my social security and bank account numbers too! Here’s a picture of my wife and our address.

phoenixwing21h ago

Cmon where's the pictures of your children. Don't hold out on them.

H921h ago

At this rate I feel Sony will eventually sell a room to play games in it where they can monitor your every breath

jambola17h ago

I genuinely get a bit worried sometimes when a friend says something that could be offensive In a party
Because I have no trouble believing some bans would happen when in a private party for saying something wrong

SegaSaturn66920h ago

I want them to censor erotic content by measuring my groin temperature so i dont get too distracted while playing black ops 2.

Popsicle20h ago

Terrible idea. Not only do I not consent to providing my biometric data, the potential for mishandling biometric data is almost a certainty. Positive stress and negative stress can produce similar changes in biometrics. Interpreting the precise emotion a person is feeling is not only invasive but could be easily misconstrued. I hope this never comes to fruition.

Show all comments (14)
130°

Sony Could Increase Your Game's Difficulty If It Sees You Complain About It

Sony has recently published a new patent that wants to dynamically handle the games' difficulty and gameplay based on the player's emotions.

jznrpg1d 13h ago

This is something I might use. Sometimes I play some good games but they don’t have difficulty option and are a little too easy.

Profchaos1d 13h ago

Souls games will be like that players struggling make it harder

PassNextquestion1d 12h ago (Edited 1d 12h ago )

I think if used correctly it could work well

jambola1d 8h ago

cool idea
cool idea for horror games especially
the way it's explained here sounds like it could never be forced hopefully, so that's ok with me

Show all comments (8)
280°

Sony Taps Bungie's Head of Revenue to Lead Live-Service Games

Sony has recruited Bungie's head of revenue Jaremy Rich to head up its live-service gaming division, Rich has announced on social media.

Read Full Story >>
techraptor.net
ChasterMies21d ago

Please do not put Destiny’s monetization into Sony’s first party games. The monetization is what’s driving players away from Destiny.

just_looken21d ago

The new temp boss is the sony cfo bean counter so i can see this being a thing get every penny.

Cacabunga21d ago

PlayStation officially losing it.. fans will never support gaas games

just_looken21d ago

@car

The new boss did a interview in japan he wants to tap into the mobile market like nintendio so he give 0 fucks about gamers/fans

https://www.pushsquare.com/...

Redemption-6421d ago

@Cacabunga
You only speak for you and those who think like you, but most fans will support what they want. Playstation and PC fans are literally supporting Helldivers 2 and that is a gaas. Maybe you wouldn't, but many more would if they like it.

Huey_My_D_Long21d ago

@Redemption-64
Look, Im not making any judgement calls about this guy, but I will say that Helldivers 2 GaaS model is unique to Helldivers, and legit the only other game I can think of thats similiar was the Avengers game except HD2 pass is still better.
The fact that you can earn in game currency in a way that doesnt make you feel like you have to grind forever, as well you being able work on that pass that you bought...on your own time without a time limit...that right there is fucking huge to me, and I can't name any game other than avengers that avoided trapping players with FOMO logic...I think GaaS on HD2 shouldn't be compared to the rest of the industry...it should be copied.

Einhander197221d ago

Cacabunga

Helldivers 2...

Redemption-64

In Europe it's a 60 40 split favoring PC.
In the US its a 60 40 split favoring PS5.

So PlayStation owners supported the game just fine, it's not getting carried by PC or anything like that.

FinalFantasyFanatic21d ago

@just_looken,
I'm perfectly fine with the way Nintendo entered the mobile market, I never touched their mobile games, meanwhile, the console/handheld stayed the way it is. As for being a bean counter, he's probably going to reel in these massive budgets that Sony's studios have had lately, I haven't played Spiderman 2, but I cannot see how they almost tripled the budget for that game.

@Redemption-64,
That's an exception to the rule, I'm expecting a lot of these GAAS games from Sony to fail, to be fair, they only need a few to succeed, but I would have preferred that they put more of their resources into other types of games.

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 21d ago
DivineHand12521d ago

True their monetization is driving players away and at the same time, their decision to chop out content and convoluted systems is keeping new players away from the game.

Joe91321d ago

I don't think that will happen based on how things worked out at Naughty Dog now that we know what we do, seems they had the option to fully commit to live service games or stay making single player experences so they gave up on their live service game. We are not sure how things came about with Bend making a live service game but I hope that was not a forced situation. Sony doesnt seem like they are forcing studios to switch up but we will see, Sony's bread and butter is single player games it is how they dominated the console market.

Obscure_Observer21d ago

Yeah, I though Sony learned something from all their failures in the LS segment under Bungie´s disastrous leadership and supervision which led to games been cancelled, studios closed and all the people laid off.

Looks like Bungie still plays a major role in Sony´s LS initiative and Sony is not backtracking on their GaaS plans.

S2Killinit21d ago (Edited 21d ago )

Are we forgetting that Destiny is also a highly successful franchise? I feel like that definitely deserves mention here.

Besides, there is no reason why a person cant learn from past experiences.

Joe91320d ago

I agree, people act as if Destiny flopped when it came out lol it took 9 to 10 years for the numbers to fall yet people are still playing it add the success of Helldivers 2 no wonder Sony is going forward down this path.

S2Killinit20d ago

Personally, I see no problem with Sony also having service games as long as they make good ones, and more importantly they deliver the AAA story driven games that they are known for. So yeah, I agree 100% with you.

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 20d ago
Christopher21d ago

I mean, this person made some pretty bad decisions at Bungie. I hope they've learned from them because I definitely don't see those type of ideas as good for PlaySation in general.

CrimsonWing6921d ago (Edited 21d ago )

Honestly, what’s to learn from? How to make people happily continuously dump money into a single game over its life-time? Buy season passes continuously for several years with a smile on our faces?

GaaS is a design decision that is everything wrong with this industry. The fact that Helldivers 2 did so well and people defend the monetization because it was $40 and is a fun game, scares the sh*t out of me to see that the door is open and all shift will probably be to replicate that in future games. We already know the ROI for traditional game dev cost isn’t doing it for them.

I thought with Jimbo leaving we’d see a change for the better… I’m not so sure now.

S2Killinit20d ago

Service games are being offered by everyone. Sony cannot afford to only create single player AAA games. No one can. They already said they will be doing both.

Abnor_Mal21d ago (Edited 21d ago )

Ps5 gamers in 2023 seemed to play more live service types of games, so regardless to how people feel about them, numbers don’t lie and Sony is going where the money is. I mean look at the excitement around Helldivers2, people are showing that they want live service games.

Christopher21d ago

They play long-time existing live service games like CoD, Fortnite, Apex Legends, Destiny 2, and the like. Mass majority of new live service games are considered failures and aren't moving gamers away from older games.

just_looken21d ago

Yep the huge issue with live service is they need paid players along with a reason to play them.

You forgot mobile market that also taps into that player base as well as the eve online style games there is only a certain amount of krakens/whales blind supporters compared to the amount of live service games we have its not sustainable math wise.

700 restaurants making food for every seat for 1000-3000 eaters just does not work out

Einhander197221d ago (Edited 21d ago )

Christopher

I am not a big live service fan and literally own zero of the games you listed, but that is not true, unless you call games that aren't the top games to be failures.

There are tons of live service games that are profitable.

Games don't have to be the biggest game ever they just need to make more than they cost.

I challenge you to show professionally prepared data that shows that more live service games fail than make enough to keep going.

Because all the data that I have seen shows that live service is less of a gamble than making a big AAA budget game which needs to survive off retail sales.

FinalFantasyFanatic21d ago

I sometimes wonder if we're at saturation point, where it's hard for a new game to join those ranks unless it's particularly exceptional, people only have so much time and money to devote to these types of games.

romulus2321d ago

Correction, they have no issue playing good live service games

shinoff218321d ago

Lol it's not even a quarter of the ps5s sold. Helldivers may have been a hit but let's not say most are enjoying it because truth is most(the real most ) don't care about it.

S2Killinit20d ago (Edited 20d ago )

I play what is fun. If a live service game is good I’ll play it as long as its not a money scheme which Helldivers is not.

And Im a single player gamer.

mastershredder21d ago

How do you kill a franchise that already been killed?
Destiny’s grind, cash-in-on-playbass-cha-Ching, and pop-culture-insertion mainstream-me-too bs totally killed any rep Bungie had. Sony/Bungie, if you are doing this to ward-off players, it’s already working.

crazyCoconuts21d ago

Headline truncated:
"... off a cliff"

Show all comments (43)