Kazza
Member
In these type of discussions, people often say "stupid Sega/Xbox/Sony etc", but decisions which look dumb in retrospect often had solid reasonings behind them at the time they were made. I think the first two are a little more easy to understand in the context of the time:
1. The PSP used proprietary memory, and that still sold incredibly well, so I guess Sony thought "why not the Vita?". Also, Sony's console business was only one part of the company, so it's not surprising that they would try to support their own memory product in this way
2. Wasn't including a DVD drive a big part of the PS2's success? By using the expensive blueray format, I guess Sony were just pulling the same trick that worked for them last time. This of course affected the price (although the Cell processor probably had a big part in it - I'm surprised he didn't mention it). The E3 and bad launch line up is a bit more difficult to forgive.
1. The PSP used proprietary memory, and that still sold incredibly well, so I guess Sony thought "why not the Vita?". Also, Sony's console business was only one part of the company, so it's not surprising that they would try to support their own memory product in this way
2. Wasn't including a DVD drive a big part of the PS2's success? By using the expensive blueray format, I guess Sony were just pulling the same trick that worked for them last time. This of course affected the price (although the Cell processor probably had a big part in it - I'm surprised he didn't mention it). The E3 and bad launch line up is a bit more difficult to forgive.
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Nikana
Go Go Neo Rangers!
Genuinely the reason I didn't buy one at launch. I gave it a chance eventually but the asking price with a memory card and a game was near $400 after tax for me. Just too much for a portable.
Kazza
Member
Do you think the Vita could sell ok if re-released today as a budget handheld? (maybe slightly upgraded hardware, and with regular SD cards). Maybe a $125 model would sell ok. 2nd hand ones seem to be holding their price quite well on ebay, which shows there is still some demand. I think it would still have enough power to run most modern indie games.
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iHaunter
Member
Perhaps, but I don't think the cost could be that low. The benefit would be to play PS4/PS5 games on the go. They don't have the same luxury as the Switch where the graphics tend be toned down. That's why I don't think they could price is that low.
Kazza
Member
IT'd be interesting to see research on what percentage of Switch owners actually use it outside the home, and how many just use it as a tablet in the home. If the later is greater, then the Vita could act as a streaming device for PS5 games at home, so it wouldn't matter who used the TV. I'm not sure how cheap they could manufacture get the original Vita CPU etc now. If the unit could come in at below $125, ten I think it could sell (not Switch numbers, but enough to be worthwhile)
diffusionx
Gold Member
PSP used memory stick, which was technically proprietary in that it was a Sony format, but it was used in many other devices like cameras, the prices were comparable to other formats like CF/SD, and the same third parties that made other formats like CF made memory stick. It wasn't a big deal. On the other hand, Vita used memory cards that ONLY worked for Vita, and ONLY made by Sony. They were also a LOT more expensive than other formats at the time. I think the entire Vita thing was a mistake actually, not just the memory card thing.
The Blu-Ray reasoning did make sense.. for a company that had tons of patents and formats it was used to selling. Unfortunately their focus on BR made them unable to see where things were headed, and within a few years streaming started blowing up. The fact that BR won over HD-DVD was ultimately irrelevant, BR never really went anywhere and I read an article today that said it never outsold DVD, in any single year, up to 2018.
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Lionel Richie
Member
Falcom is still out there...
K1Expwy
Member
The Vita needed exclusives more than anything else (and I'm definitely not a fan of those proprietary cards). It not only had 3DS as competition, it had incredibly popular mobile games to compete with, especially in JP/Asia where it sold "well" or at least better than anywhere else. Vita needed to declare that it was the place for certain popular IPs (Monster Hunter) that you weren't going to find on Nintendo, or on the device already in your pocket. Vita had plenty of decent games, along with the PSP library, but it lacked an identity at a time when tons of dodgy emulation handhelds were commonplace
DaleinCalgary
Member
My biggest mistake: reading this outdated crap.
Trimesh
Banned
If you install custom firmware there is an adapter that fits into the game card slot and takes micro SD - it was still a dumb move though.
iHaunter
Member
Might be possible, if Sony Play or whatever it's called wasn't so bad and worked on Vita.
nush
Member
The only reason I don't own a Vita, maybe 2-3 times I've almost hit the button on a great deal only for the largest memory cards to not be available or the deal isn't so great when you add in the cost of the memory card. I definitely wasn't juggling or paying for a bunch of smaller cards. I'd already been through the constant upgrades for the 360HD.
Red Rackham's Revenge
Member
The launch might not have been great but I'm still thankful they included Blu Ray. Blu Ray might never have taken off in the mainstream otherwise.
DunDunDunpachi
Banned
I'd like to add "PS4 Dualshock battery life and build quality" as an unsolicited Number 4. These controllers are gonna age like milk. I've already gone through three since buying my PS4 in 2015. Meanwhile, my PS3 controllers -- both of them from late 2010 -- work without issue.
And I have a few 1000 hours of PS4 gaming using my arcade sticks (instead of the PS4 Dualshock), yet even with some of the wear and tear alleviated by using sticks, they still broke down.
And I have a few 1000 hours of PS4 gaming using my arcade sticks (instead of the PS4 Dualshock), yet even with some of the wear and tear alleviated by using sticks, they still broke down.
Zekra Dezivad
Member
Launch PS3 was the best console Sony ever made.
One of the cheapest blu ray player on market (my father bought a Nec or a Philips, I don't remember, for 999 in the same timeframe lol), built in wifi, hdmi, up to 7 wireless controller, hardware backwards compability, SACD player, 60GB hard drive, 4 USBs, memory card reader, internet browser, USB peripherals support... it was an amazing machine! Also the materials felt really premium and its media playing capabilities were very good. Honestly I think it deserved its 599 price tag more than the 399 price tag of PS4 and PS4 Pro. And by my tastes Resistance and Motorstorm are still better games than Shadowfall and Knack.
Maybe the only thing I never used was the other os feature. I was more pissed when they took away 2 of the usbs lol.
People like cheap things, but to me it's better spend 100/200 bucks more but having more features and quality.
PS3 wasn't a mistake, it was a good hardware for its price. It's early line up was a mistake though. Too many underwhelming, poor selling games like Lair, Heavenly Sword, Genji 2, Haze. I can see why they decided to invest more of first party afterwards, rather that continuing in pulling money to second party exclusives.
One of the cheapest blu ray player on market (my father bought a Nec or a Philips, I don't remember, for 999 in the same timeframe lol), built in wifi, hdmi, up to 7 wireless controller, hardware backwards compability, SACD player, 60GB hard drive, 4 USBs, memory card reader, internet browser, USB peripherals support... it was an amazing machine! Also the materials felt really premium and its media playing capabilities were very good. Honestly I think it deserved its 599 price tag more than the 399 price tag of PS4 and PS4 Pro. And by my tastes Resistance and Motorstorm are still better games than Shadowfall and Knack.
Maybe the only thing I never used was the other os feature. I was more pissed when they took away 2 of the usbs lol.
People like cheap things, but to me it's better spend 100/200 bucks more but having more features and quality.
PS3 wasn't a mistake, it was a good hardware for its price. It's early line up was a mistake though. Too many underwhelming, poor selling games like Lair, Heavenly Sword, Genji 2, Haze. I can see why they decided to invest more of first party afterwards, rather that continuing in pulling money to second party exclusives.
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Mahavastu
Member
A large problem of the Vita was, that you needed to rewrite the software from scratch and the games did not sell good enough to justify the investment in AAA games.
Sony would need to make sure, that porting games from PS5 is quite easy, same APIs, fast enough CPU/GPU/SDD and so on.
$125 sounds very cheap. Just look what a smartphone you get (would have quite similar hardware) for $125 without subsidies. Only trash, and the new Vita would have to be "pretty fast" to be usefull as a game console...
Physiognomonics
Member
1/ That was before the start of the digital era.
2/ I agree with you. They thought they could do the same with PS3, but again, didn't see digital era coming strong (netflix and such).
Red Rackham's Revenge
Member
I just noticed your comment. I have to disagree.
It's a good thing we're not dependent on the shitty bit rates that streaming services offer. DVD is still popular to a large amount of people that don't care at all about quality and you'll always have people like that that hold progress back. But how is it irrelevant when it's still the only way we can enjoy film and TV at home without too much compression?
Streaming quality just doesn't compare to physical media. You might not care, but it wasn't irrelevant. I hope this next gen will do the same thing to 4K media and we start to see a lot more releases because streaming quality is not anywhere near there yet.
The Cartographer
Member
4) Thinking the Sixaxis was a good idea
Maxwell Jacob Friedman
leads to fear. Fear leads to xbox.
Not going to lie but kind of the same, all i would play was cod with my friends, with psn down i played morr single player games and chilled at his house more to play. We found lots of amazing single player games because of it though it sucked