Support NeoGAF

[get2sammyb]

Such a shame that a handheld with so much packed in will probably fail. I think Sony will either have to go the Nintendo route of making underpowered hardware that has little risk of losing money or else bow out of the video game business.

A couple more of these fails and I think we'll see just a Nintendo and Microsoft video game market.

Rubbish. The PS3 is doing fine. There will be a PlayStation 4.

Let's get some perspective: if the PS Vita is still struggling worldwide in 36 months time, then there might not be another PlayStation handheld platform. But there's a long road yet.

I refuse to believe that teething troubles like this are insurmountable. Like you said in your own post, the platform itself is stacked with potential, so there has to be a solution.

It's certainly not the fault of the hardware that the system's got off to a stuttering start.

"Everyone"?

I ventured into those threads and it was a vast, vast majority.

 

[djplaeskool]

Still if the 3DS gets MH4 first how does MH4G help Vita catch the 3DS?

The Vita was NEVER going to catch the 3DS.
It's a matter of having a healthy userbase for sustained platform presence.

 

[kswiston]

It's about to meet the projected shipment for this fiscal year, how is it flopping?

I think the point that he was trying to make, is that this game would have been at 2-3M by now on PSP. However, you need to start transitioning your fanbase over at some point. S-E did that with the Dragon Quest remakes on DS, and Capcom is doing it with a less important G entry for Monster Hunter this generation.

 

[Jomjom]

All this PS Vita doom talk reminds me of how the 3DS was doomed as well. We all need to realize that the Vita is a long term proposition and not a short term one. Its not like Sony is going to sit out and do nothing about it. They will try hard to make it a succes. Its much too early to say that the Vita will fail. Sony still has a certain advantage over Nintendo and that is the young male demographic that finds Nintendo systems to be kiddy. Nintendo is trying hard to capture that demographic but they need a steady flow of games that satisfy this demographic over a long period of time before they will succeed.

Remember the 3DS chalkboard? Now look at the PSV chalkboard earlier in this thread. There's nothing on it. Nothing is coming to save the PSV unless there is some miracle announcement coming - and it would be a miracle, because Sony has absolutely no money to go out and buy exclusives.

isnt it just a matter of time till the vita will get MH4G.

With these disappointing sales, it just became less likely.

 

[liger05]

Brutal Sales drop off. I like the look of the vita and even though I bought the 3ds on day 1 I ain't getting the vita. The memory card prices are a joke!!

 

[-Pyromaniac-]

The worst part about the Vita numbers isn't that they are bad now really, it's that they have nothing coming any time soon at all that will bring them up to the levels needed.

 

[Acosta]

I'm pretty bored of how volatile the narrative is in the last times. First 3DS was going to be eaten alive by phones and Nintendo to become a hole in the ground. Now it´s Vita and Sony turn. The sales are weak, the scenario is not looking good, but come on. However, I'm worried for Sony, I think it's situation it´s really, really bad (not like Nintendo no matter what analysts say).

I found this feature. It has already been discussed in GAF here but it´s a really depressing scenario.

BTW, Monster Hunter has not surpassed 1m yet. I wonder how Capcom feels about serving as jumping pool so Nintendo can sell more Mario Karts.

 

[test_account]

yes, they're super absorbent.

Hehe. I forgot about the term "sweating bullets", so i didnt connect it to being bullets. The sweat still looks a bit like threads though =)

 

[duckroll]

BTW, Monster Hunter has not surpassed 1m yet. I wonder how Capcom feels about serving as jumping pool so Nintendo can sell more Mario Karts.

I think Capcom feels fine right now about building up a stronger userbase on the 3DS for MH4. If they get the same sales for MH4, then they'll probably feel pretty differently.

 

[Jomjom]

Rubbish. The PS3 is doing fine. There will be a PlayStation 4.

Let's get some perspective: if the PS Vita is still struggling worldwide in 36 months time, then there might not be another PlayStation handheld platform. But there's a long road yet.

I refuse to believe that teething troubles like this are insurmountable. Like you said in your own post, the platform itself is stacked with potential, so there has to be a solution.

It's certainly not the fault of the hardware that the system's got off to a stuttering start.

I did say "a couple more fails like this", referring to future releases. Let's imagine a scenario where PS4 bombs as well, which is not impossible. Could you see Sony doing another console after that if both PSV and PS4 bomb?

 

[muu]

Releasing all their titles in one salvo bit them in the ass big time. They have almost a month without a new release, and unless they can give kids with otoshidama a real good reason to get their system there's going to be nothing worth looking at for these potential customers.

 

[waicol]

Really ?
Come on, it was pretty clear that the system would pick up once they correct their price mistake and they release their first party system seller.

But Nintendo doesn't count!, even on something that depends solely on what Nintendo does about it.

 

[Kyon]

It's about to meet the projected shipment for this fiscal year, how is it flopping?

Hmm I was comparing to what the PSP numbers would've done. Now i realize thats not a fair comparison, but the PSP is still doing well.

EDIT: SAMMY?! OMFG HEY GWORL!

 

[demosthenes]

The Vita was NEVER going to catch the 3DS.
It's a matter of having a healthy userbase for sustained platform presence.

This is what's going to happen unless Sony really starts to shell money out for 3rd party exclusives and just takes everything from Nintendo.

 

[cw_sasuke]

BTW, Monster Hunter has not surpassed 1m yet. I wonder how Capcom feels about serving as jumping pool so Nintendo can sell more Mario Karts.

Its the fastest-selling game on a Nintendo plattform and about to outperform their expectations for this fiscal year.... i think they`ll survive it.

 

[-WindYoshi-]

It makes sense now. All those years ago, the Nintendo DS used the PSP as some sort of prey that it ate in order to create some sort of fuel that it uses to Nintendominate. Same is happening now with the 3DS and the Vita only maybe worse.

 

[ksamedi]

This is uh kind of exactly what they did with the PSP. They struck gold with MH in Japan and it basically floundered in mediocrity (at best) after a nice launch everywhere else.

The PSP is, in my opinion, a huge succes in Japan. It doesn´t have many million sellers but it does have many 200k+ sellers which made money for publishers. Sony's business model has always been like this BTW. They start of with high prices and slow sales but eventually build up a large catalog of games especially for the Mature gaming market. The only exception I can think of is the PS2, which started out very strong right out of the gate despite its high price tag.

 

[electroplankton]

Sorry but... where's Frontier Gate? It was supposed to be released this week, wasn't it?

 

[Smiles and Cries]

What people don't seem to understand is Nintendo was never going to allow 3DS to bomb in Japan.

Sony I think is very willing to allow Vita to stink up the place in Japan as long as its doing very well in Western Regions (see PSP)

The Vita was NEVER going to catch the 3DS.
It's a matter of having a healthy userbase for sustained platform presence.

Wut? Vita was going to crush em!!! CRUSH EM!

anyway Vita still needs about 3 Million Hardware sold in Japan before MHG4 hits the system to have something that can be called healthy happen

 

[ksamedi]

I think Capcom feels fine right now about building up a stronger userbase on the 3DS for MH4. If they get the same sales for MH4, then they'll probably feel pretty differently.

Maybe you can enlighten me about this, but the MH player doesn't strike me of the kind of player that likes Nintendo systems in general. Would you agree that it will take a lot more then MH to capture a large portion of this demographic?

 

[Celine]

BTW, Monster Hunter has not surpassed 1m yet. I wonder how Capcom feels about serving as jumping pool so Nintendo can sell more Mario Karts.

It's very likely the game will meet Capcom expectation of 1.2 M shipped by next March.
Also I don't really think MK need another game to help his sales lol.

 

[Acosta]

Its the fastest-selling game on a Nintendo plattform and about to outperform their expectations for this fiscal year.... i think they`ll survive it.

Oh, come on, I'm just being facetious.

But as duckroll says, it will be funny if Capcom repeat these numbers with MH4 competing hand to hand with a new Mario Kart and a new Pokemon ;P

 

[BurntPork]

I definitely agree with this. It really wasn't that long ago that everyone was proclaiming the Nintendo 3DS as dead and nobody could possibly see a solution.

When did I become everyone?

 

[Alrus]

Sorry but... where's Frontier Gate? It was supposed to be released this week, wasn't it?

I completely forgot about it. Guess it bombed.

 

[Takao]

This is what's going to happen unless Sony really starts to shell money out for 3rd party exclusives and just takes everything from Nintendo.

Take what exactly?

- Dynasty/Samurai Warriors is on 3DS
- Monster Hunter is on 3DS
- Gundam's on 3DS
- Super Robot Wars is on 3DS
- Dragon Quest is on 3DS
- Resident Evil is on 3DS
- Ace Combat is on 3DS
- Kingdom Hearts is on 3DS
- Miku is on 3DS
- Tales is on 3DS
- KojiPro doesn't want to make handheld native games anymore
- Square Enix won't be releasing anything on Vita until 2017, if the platform hasn't already been killed off by then
- Level-5's on 3DS, and has 2 rinky dink projects on Vita

There's literally nothing to take outside of middling things like Yakuza, God Eater and Phantasy Star.

 

[Pancakes R Us]

If marketed properly, I think FIFA on PS Vita is going to be a big early driver for hardware in Europe. I expect Uncharted will do well too.

I can see Uncharted doing well, being the flagship launch game, but I really don't think Fifa will do anything significant.

 

[mugurumakensei]

Maybe you can enlighten me about this, but the MH player doesn't strike me of the kind of player that likes Nintendo systems in general. Would you agree that it will take a lot more then MH to capture a large portion of this demographic?

what? The only point of reference is psp, ps3, ps2, and wii for established userbases. So far psp > wii > ps2 > ps3. You know what this tells us. It tells us nothing except japan likes portable MH more.

Edit: also. MH TriG is on track to easily outsell Tri. So before MH4, it will be PSP > 3DS > WII > PS2 > PS3.

 

[-WindYoshi-]

Take what exactly?

- Dynasty/Samurai Warriors is on 3DS
- Monster Hunter is on 3DS
- Gundam's on 3DS
- Super Robot Wars is on 3DS
- Dragon Quest is on 3DS
- Resident Evil is on 3DS
- Ace Combat is on 3DS
- Kingdom Hearts is on 3DS
- Miku is on 3DS
- Tales is on 3DS
- KojiPro doesn't want to make handheld native games anymore
- Square Enix won't be releasing anything on Vita until 2017, if the platform hasn't already been killed off by then
- Level-5's on 3DS, and has 2 rinky dink projects on Vita

There's literally nothing to take outside of middling things like Yakuza, God Eater and Phantasy Star.

- and this my friends is why they always say "competition is good". Backed into a corner like this, Sony would have no choice but to innovate and in that process, we may just see a few new really, really awesome IPs.

 

[Cipherr]

Maybe you can enlighten me about this, but the MH player doesn't strike me of the kind of player that likes Nintendo systems in general. Would you agree that it will take a lot more then MH to capture a large portion of this demographic?

LOL!

 

[darkside31337]

I can see Uncharted doing well, being the flagship launch game, but I really don't think Fifa will do anything significant.

In Europe? I could see FIFA outselling most of the Vita games combined at launch over in Europe. Their entire advertising for the Vita in Europe should just be footage of people playing the game on a Vita.

 

[BurntPork]

- and this my friends is why they always say "competition is good". Backed into a corner like this, Sony would have no choice but to innovate and in that process, we may just see a few new really, really awesome IPs.

That's assuming that they don't sit back and do nothing yet again.

 

[Takao]

- and this my friends is why they always say "competition is good". Backed into a corner like this, Sony would have no choice but to innovate and in that process, we may just see a few new really, really awesome IPs.

Sony's first party hasn't been successful in Japan since the PS1 in launching new IPs, and even then they killed most of those. Gravity Daze will be an amazing game, but that's going to bomba spectacularly because no one gives a shit, and SCEJ can't change that.

 

[Version 3.0]

So seems like 3DS is having better overal sales in December than DS did in 2005.

Does that make it Japan's best-selling console ever in December (or any given month)?

Not from the data I have. This looks to be a #2 performance, though.

DS in 2005:

11/28/2005 176,958
12/5/2005 299,328
12/12/2005 408,770
12/19/2005 597,628
12/26/2005 390,181


3DS in 2011:

11/28/2011 205,962
12/5/2011 350,321
12/12/2011 367,691
12/19/2011 482,200
12/26/2011 ?

 

[get2sammyb]

I can see Uncharted doing well, being the flagship launch game, but I really don't think Fifa will do anything significant.

In Europe? Oh it will -- if marketed properly anyway.

 

[Sammy Samusu]

Hmm I was comparing to what the PSP numbers would've done.

EDIT: SAMMY?! OMFG HEY GWORL!

Right, but that's a bad comparision, all Monster Hunter fans already have a PSP, and like mentioned a few posts above, Capcom is transitioning the fanbase and getting the 3DS ready for Monster Hunter 4.

And the only thing that is flopping is Criminal. Let's not.

 

[Piercedveil]

Those 3DS numbers.. oh my goodness. for Vita's numbers so far.

 

[djplaeskool]

I can see Uncharted doing well, being the flagship launch game, but I really don't think Fifa will do anything significant.

FIFA could be gigantic.
Heck, the game was released in September and it's still hanging around in the Top 10 on the PAL charts.

 

[Neo C.]

BTW, Monster Hunter has not surpassed 1m yet. I wonder how Capcom feels about serving as jumping pool so Nintendo can sell more Mario Karts.

It's ok, Capcom is also banking on Nintendo's help in publishing MH in the west. A sweet deal for Capcom.

btw, I don't think a MH would help Vita as much as it helped the PSP. Sony needs a new generation defining game, inhouse produced if possible.

 

[Busaiku]

Oh yeah, looks like Level 5 finally stopped their slide into oblivion with the latest Inazuma Eleven games.
I'm honestly surprised the latest Strikers game actually debuted higher than the first game which was released only 5 months prior.

It is the holiday and all, so I do wonder if they can maintain those legs.

 

[-WindYoshi-]

That's assuming that they don't sit back and do nothing yet again.

Well, there's always that.

Sony's first party hasn't been successful in Japan since the PS1 in launching new IPs, and even then they killed most of those. Gravity Daze will be an amazing game, but that's going to bomba spectacularly because no one gives a shit.

True, but these new hit games don't have to come from Sony themselves, it could simply be Sony being on the hunt for awesome new game ideas from third parties that would seem to have mass appeal, and of course buying exclusivity out on the ideas in the mean time. There's always another Dragon Quest or Monster Hunter equivalent waiting to be born somewhere.

 

[Smiles and Cries]

3DS is sad because Vita is getting all the attention in this thread.

Hey what if New Love Plus bombs? Is 3DS doomed again?

 

[ksamedi]

what? The only point of reference is psp, ps3, ps2, and wii for established userbases. So far psp > wii > ps2 > ps3. You know what this tells us. It tells us nothing except japan likes portable MH more.

Edit: also. MH TriG is on track to easily outsell Tri. So before MH4, it will be PSP > 3DS > WII > PS2 > PS3.

I wasn't looking at it from a pure point of reference perspective. More anecdotal. Like for exapmle, would putting up a Gears of War remake exlusively on the Wii make the system ready for an exlusive new Gears that will sell inline with previous titles? I think its not that easy to answer.

 

[Takao]

Oh yeah, looks like Level 5 finally stopped their slide into oblivion with the latest Inazuma Eleven games.
I'm honestly surprised the latest Strikers game actually debuted higher than the first game which was released only 5 months prior.

It is the holiday and all, so I do wonder if they can maintain those legs.

Inazuma Eleven Go is a bomba, first week sales accounted for an amazingly bad 35% of the initial shipment. Even if it gets to a decent LTD, like Ni No Kuni DS I wouldn't call it a success given most of those will be sold in the bomba bin.

 

[muu]

Maybe you can enlighten me about this, but the MH player doesn't strike me of the kind of player that likes Nintendo systems in general. Would you agree that it will take a lot more then MH to capture a large portion of this demographic?

I think you're mixing up MH fans with Sony fans. Having grown up with the PS brand there's bound to be resistance initially, but we've seen time and time again that brand images typically last only a single generation -- despite the GameCube being a faster system Nintendo is seen as the kids console because of Wiis domination for the last 5 years, Final Fantasy is synonymous with PS even though it was a huge title on NES and SNES for years before that whole Aeris thing, etc -- and as long as the switch is made early, I doubt most MH fans are going to have issue moving on as the series evolves. If the series plants itself firmly on the 3ds, come next handheld gen well probably be talking about these same things again, except with reason as to why mh might as well move on to PSPUltra instead of the 4ds.

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

I can see Uncharted doing well, being the flagship launch game, but I really don't think Fifa will do anything significant.

The problem with FIFA is that the game has already sold 10-12 million before the Vita even releases.

I wasn't looking at it from a pure point of reference perspective. More anecdotal. Like for exapmle, would putting up a Gears of War remake exlusively on the Wii make the system ready for an exlusive new Gears that will sell inline with previous titles? I think its not that easy to answer.

The problem with this analogy is that Gears of War is designed to play up the 360s online and graphical strengths. The only "downside" to playing MH on 3DS is/was the controls, and they released an add-on to address it.

Look at the fanbase retention that Sony maintained with the PS3 - aside from Final Fantasy and PES, there aren't any formerly PS2-exclusive franchises that were dramatically more popular on PS3 than 360 ww. Franchise fans will follow the franchise if Capcom gives the indication that the only way to play MH is to buy a 3DS.

 

[marc^o^]

i predicted a 180K worst case scenario for Vita. I've been trolled.

 

[Kyon]

Right, but that's a bad comparision, all Monster Hunter fans already have a PSP, and like mentioned a few posts above, Capcom is transitioning the fanbase and getting the 3DS ready for Monster Hunter 4.

And the only thing that is flopping is Criminal. Let's not.

My $2 weave has been snatched

Spoiler

i got my TriG bundle for Christmas, you importing?

 

[Kandinsky]

Next week is going to be interesting if Sony ships more WiFi models(which I hope to god they do), I mean it cant get lower then 70k right?... right?.

 

[muu]

FIFA could be gigantic.
Heck, the game was released in September and it's still hanging around in the Top 10 on the PAL charts.

Is there something specific that'll make people want it on vita though? The footage for the game does look great, but I'm having a hard time seeing people pony up for a new system just to play it on a portable if they already own a ps3.

 

[Relaxed Muscle]

Thats the first time I saw the FFXIII-2 sales, and they aren't pretty at all....

PSV is suffering the Nintendo massive attack with their 2 flagship titles and MH, I don't think vita will have software strong enough to counter the inerce until some months...