Support NeoGAF

[DangerousDave]

That $20 just lets you boot games. In order to use things like PS+ or to hold things like patches for your games (COD patch is 1/8 the size of the smallest card) you need to get bigger cards. Point is, it is an extra cost that should be included with the system and is a turn off to consumers consider most games won't even boot without one.

The 3DS and even DS can boot games out of the box without the consumer paying more money.

But, still, this is not something that turn off consumers. Nobody goes to a shop with the intention of buying a Vita and then decide not to buy it because he realise that he has to buy a memory card.

The problem is that people is not going to the shop with the intention of buying a Vita because there isn't a exclusive game that interest them enought to pay the price of the console. As simple as this. You can see easily in MediaCreate results. When P4Golden launched, tons of people went to buy a Vita, and they doesn't care if they had to buy a memory card to run the game. When there aren't significative Vita game launch, people don't buy it, no matter the cost of the memory cards.

Do you really think that a price drop of 32 Gb memory cards to $10 would make hundreds of thousands of people to run to the nearest shop to buy a Vita?

 

[Ashes]

You're right. But I was thinking the other day about whether to buy the vita or not. And I thought to my self, I'll just wait for an revised iteration when it comes preloaded with 32 or 64 gb. It may be a while or it may not happen. But I'm using the wait and see approach.

 

[CaptainZombie]

Personally I think the Vita should be rebranded as the PSP2, which more people know the PSP name vs. Vita. You mention Vita in a conversation and people have no clue what it is, but you mention PSP and they know what product your talking about. Carrying a name from generation to generation is what helps with brand identity.

Then a price cut to $199 with a 4gb memory card packed in, a Sony developed game, and a 30 day free trial for PS+ would be a good starting point. Both MSFT and Sony don't understand that by giving away a free month of their service doesn't hurt because you can lock people in and it probably doesn't cost them much doing this.

While 2013 seems to be a little bleak in the software department from what we know of so far, for a handheld/console to only have been out for 9 months it has had a decent amount of software released albeit none of these are blockbusters. You already have Ubisoft saying they are happy with Liberation sales that they are ready to move forward with expanding that universe.

 

[Captain Tuttle]

I don't understand why that is troubling? Almost everyone has a phone, not close to everyone wants a console.

Samsung alone sold 94m smartphones last year, Apple about the same, Nokia 77m, RIM 51m, HTC 44m while Others sold 132m.

The PS3 and X360 didn't even crack 30m combined last year.

The PS2's best year was only 22m

Opportunity cost. If Sony can get a better return on their investments in the smartphone space as compared to the gaming space then that's something to worry about. I know that Kaz has called gaming the "third pillar" or whatever but things change all the time. How many times in the last 10 years has Sony announced a new restructuring initiative?

 

[thehypocrite]

Opportunity cost. If Sony can get a better return on their investments in the smartphone space as compared to the gaming space then that's something to worry about. I know that Kaz has called gaming the "third pillar" or whatever but things change all the time. How many times in the last 10 years has Sony announced a new restructuring initiative?

Wrong, Sony isn't a small company to be affected by opportunity cost.

 

[Captain Tuttle]

Wrong, Sony isn't a small company to be affected by opportunity cost.

What? No. Sony doesn't have limited resources. No company does.

Edit: I don't know what Sony's going to do. I'm sure they'll keep supporting the Vita as long as retailers keep giving it shelf space and I'm positive that the PS4 is coming and that it will get good third party and first party support.

 

[espionage]

Saw this in an article today. Interesting to see how low on the list the Vita ranks in terms of what kids want to buy next. The graph shows that kids are about as interested in buying a Vita as a Playstation Move? Kids are more interested in buying a PSP than a Vita? Wha?

 

[Shtof]

Personally I think the Vita should be rebranded as the PSP2, which more people know the PSP name vs. Vita. You mention Vita in a conversation and people have no clue what it is, but you mention PSP and they know what product your talking about. Carrying a name from generation to generation is what helps with brand identity.

Then a price cut to $199 with a 4gb memory card packed in, a Sony developed game, and a 30 day free trial for PS+ would be a good starting point. Both MSFT and Sony don't understand that by giving away a free month of their service doesn't hurt because you can lock people in and it probably doesn't cost them much doing this.

While 2013 seems to be a little bleak in the software department from what we know of so far, for a handheld/console to only have been out for 9 months it has had a decent amount of software released albeit none of these are blockbusters. You already have Ubisoft saying they are happy with Liberation sales that they are ready to move forward with expanding that universe.

Yeah, I agree pretty much about the name change. That'd be the only logical thing to do.

 

[Shtof]

Saw this in an article today. Interesting to see how low on the list the Vita ranks in terms of what kids want to buy next. The graph shows that kids are about as interested in buying a Vita as a Playstation Move? Kids are more interested in buying a PSP than a Vita? Wha?

Because kids don't know what a Vita is because it is a weird name. Sony should revamp their portables as phones and release a new revision every second year.

 

[ohlawd]

Saw this in an article today. Interesting to see how low on the list the Vita ranks in terms of what kids want to buy next. The graph shows that kids are about as interested in buying a Vita as a Playstation Move? Kids are more interested in buying a PSP than a Vita? Wha?

The PSP library is glorious. Good on the kids for knowing quality.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Because kids don't know what a Vita is because it is a weird name. Sony should revamp their portables as phones and release a new revision every second year.

You know... I don't think that's an awful idea.

I'm not sure how that would work for development and such, but if Sony created a platform that got updated every year or every two years on the hardware end, but never changed so dramatically that games stopped being backwards compatible, I'd be interested.

The smartphone system, but with actual gaming hardware (buttons!).

 

[nhlducks35]

You know... I don't think that's an awful idea.

I'm not sure how that would work for development and such, but if Sony created a platform that got updated every year or every two years on the hardware end, but never changed so dramatically that games stopped being backwards compatible, I'd be interested.

The smartphone system, but with actual gaming hardware (buttons!).

 

[Deleted member 17706]

I don't want it to be a phone, though.

Just a frequently updated badass portable gaming system.

 

[Munin]

I don't want it to be a phone, though.

Just a frequently updated badass portable gaming system.

People are barely buying any new handhelds at this point and you want them to release a new one every year?

But yeah, I don't understand why Sony abandoned the Xperia Play so quickly. A Vita phone would sell pretty well, I imagine.

 

[doniewhalberg]

Thought we'd have a bit of fun with the 4 year old today and ask him to make up a letter to Santa. Straight from left field, in between "remote control dino with red eyes" and " Ben 10 watch", he throws in Ipad. Enquiring why, he tells me all about how in class they teach them letters, shapes, numbers with some animal cartoony apps on Ipads. So, a 4 year old kid who wouldn't even know what to do with one, and he asks for an Ipad. Kids just want tablets and smartphones these days, from young to old, even if they wouldn't use it.

Graph made me share this little anecdote, take what you will/nothing from it haha I just thought it was worth sharing.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

People are barely buying any new handhelds at this point and you want them to release a new one every year?

But yeah, I don't understand why Sony abandoned the Xperia Play so quickly. A Vita phone would sell pretty well, I imagine.

Not necessarily even every year. Just at a regular pace so the hardware could continue to be relevant, provide performance boosts in older games, and introduce new improvements and functionality at a quicker pace than once every six years.

I think it would be more successful if it were not a phone. The Vita is an awesome device, but there's no way I'd want that screen size and that profile for a phone I carry around daily. Forcing consumers to choose from either an iPhone, the latest and greatest Android phone, or your video game phone, would quickly eliminate a large number of your possible audience.

Not including any of that phone stuff would help reduce costs by quite a bit as well.

 

[RedSwirl]

Overall, I think the Vita is still trying to deliver on the same promise as the PSP, and that system's plan never really panned out in the first place. Sony never really found the market for console-quality games on the handheld.

Frankly, the PSP got lucky with Monster Hunter, which defined a whole new Japanese gaming market, and even that didn't bring the platform software success in western territories.

Software-wise, to me it looks like Sony is going in with the same strategy, except now they let Nintendo nab Monster Hunter from them, and possibly that whole sector of the Japanese market with it. The only difference now is that because of the aging consoles, the Vita is in a position where it's technically almost as capable as the current full consoles, so it can get a lot of straight ports.

Sony needs to realize that the PSP came into its own when developers stopped trying to replicate console games on it and really just made more advanced successors to whatever they were making on the GBA. Sony could promote that kind of development in its own franchises, but that would require western studios to give a fuck about it.

If they'd actually convinced Naughty Dog's second team to make a Vita game or something I'd have been all over that. Same for Sucker Punch, Guerrilla, Santa Monica, Japan Studio, or whoever.

Can I just say that I think people are writing the vita off way too quickly, and honestly must be mentally ill if they think sony will kill it not even a year after its release.

Perhaps so. People make the "don't judge before Christmas" joke, but platforms have come back from a slump at later points than where the Vita is now. Hell, the PSP didn't really take off in any fashion until good games started coming out more than a year after its launch.

 

[Always-honest]

It was dead before it arrived. Times have changed, not even I buy handhelds anymore.

Basicly. The DS was my last one.

 

[AranhaHunter]

People are barely buying any new handhelds at this point and you want them to release a new one every year?

But yeah, I don't understand why Sony abandoned the Xperia Play so quickly. A Vita phone would sell pretty well, I imagine.

Or a vita tablet.

 

[RedSwirl]

Or a vita tablet.

The Vita should've been marketed as a 4" tablet with buttons. All Sony really has to do is somehow get enough software support for apps to actually make the Vita useful for tablet functionality. Making it fully an Android device wouldn't help because that wouldn't convince developers to tailor games towards its control scheme. Maybe if they found a way for it to boot back and forth between Android and the OS for its own full games.

 

[Duxxy3]

I always wondered something - how well do those analogs work?

 

[flippedb]

I always wondered something - how well do those analogs work?

I think they're basically touchpads.

 

[Takao]

People are barely buying any new handhelds at this point and you want them to release a new one every year?

But yeah, I don't understand why Sony abandoned the Xperia Play so quickly. A Vita phone would sell pretty well, I imagine.

If Xperia Play was successful do you think Sony would never talk about it ever again? Sony spent a lot of money on that thing, and I don't think it did well. They ran superbowl ads for it, and Sony didn't even do that for Vita.

 

[VARIA]

They should just kill the current price.

179.99 with a 16gb mem card would be a good start.

I really have no clue how they decided to go into the holidays without a price drop. Pride? Oh well, their loss.

 

[OldJadedGamer]

They should just kill the current price.

179.99 with a 16gb mem card would be a good start.

I really have no clue how they decided to go into the holidays without a price drop. Pride? Oh well, their loss.

I got the Black Friday deal on Vita for $180 with game and memory and after messing around with it feel that should be the base price for it.

 

[Father_Brain]

I really have no clue how they decided to go into the holidays without a price drop. Pride? Oh well, their loss.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overengineering

 

[RedSwirl]

Well the problem with a price drop is that I assume Sony is already taking enough of a loss on the system. Didn't they originally say that they wanted it to be profitable "within three years?"

 

[Pewp]

I always wondered something - how well do those analogs work?

Not very well.

 

[CosmicQueso]

I really have no clue how they decided to go into the holidays without a price drop. Pride? Oh well, their loss.

Yes, it's pride.

Thousands of people work in that division, including highly educated and experienced finance, planning and forecasting professionals. They tirelessly pore over projections at different price points considering their financial targets and various costs. They run scenario after scenario trying to figure out what price point and what quantity will provide the best possible return.

And then they throw all that because, pride.

Give me a break.