A mature discussion about the Vita?

[Denogawa]

Possible to have a mature discussion here, without fanboy ranting? I think so. Basically, second week Vita sales have dropped like a stone in Japan, from 324,000 to 72,000. Now of course, Sony has been having a rough trot since the release of the PS3, and it's very early days. However, with Monster Hunter no longer a Vita exclusive, I fear for this system - at least in Japan.

And before anyone says "we're not in Japan", THINK about all the great games that come from there. Developer support is paramount. JAPANESE developer support. I'm personally still excited about the Vita for all the top end games that can only be done on such a powerful system. I just fear this may be a bigger bomb than many feared. Over to you.

[Benza]

[Denogawa]

The PSP! outsold the Vita last week. And the 3ds has sold over 800,000 the last TWO weeks (double the Vita's two week sales) Don't forget, the Vita is a NEW system - it should be doing big numbers out of the gate simply due to its newness factor.

And I meant Japanese developer support is important to having quality Japanese games.

[Jarrod]

@Benza: 3DS is doing excellent now, globally, thanks to MHTriG, SM3DL and Mario Kart. Whether or not sales maintain momentum remains to be seen, but I don't expect it will. Christmas rush is always big.

Vita is a weird situation. At the moment it, cost wise, falls between the 3DS and smartphones, which is not a good position to be in. It's a weird psychological grey area of neither being the cheapest nor top-of-the-line. Software is also kind of a problem. Launching with Uncharted will be good for the west, but not for Japan. Not sure what Sony was thinking there.

It can always make a come back though. It, like the 3DS, needs those 'must have' killer titles that people will flock to. For Japan I figure some of the big JRPGs will do it. For the west, I don't know, but sales still being at zero means Sony is doomed.
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[Benza]

[WarAdept]

I would love to get it but I'm worried about the state of handhelds currently. The old Gameboy and it's iterations included games which actually could be played on public transports and in very short bursts such as walking across a block or waiting for the pedestrian lights to turn green. But with the hardware becoming more powerful, games now require a sit down to be played properly. I'm sure as hell not bringing MH3D with me unless its a good 30 min-1hr commute.

The PSP didn't interest me at all, despite how much you could customise and jailbreak the damn thing. My brother got one ages back, and he only has 3 games for it, all of which were smaller variants of console games. (Naruto and the like).

I own a 3DS currently and while I've currently poured about 150 hours into Tales of the Abyss, it's definetely something I can't bring along with me unless I just fight random battles on the world map. Thankfully, Pokemon Black still lets me play in short bursts.

Now Sony have made some really bad decisions with the PSP (advertising and whatnot, and less said about the PSP Go, the better), but I personally think both Nintendo and Sony are in big trouble with smartphones on the rise.

[DancesInUnderwear]

[Cyph]

It is still early days; let the system build up a software library and have some aaa games. Then there would be more reason for people to buy them and sales will pick up

[Scrav]

I was hoping that Vita would be far more popular. Given that the 3DS is region locked, I was interested in picking up the Vita instead, providing it was getting enough support.

[chickenplucka]

The Vita has been targeted at a Western Market - look at the launch lineup!! Sony's strategy has been to move far away from the Japanese audience.

Fighting games have never been popular on handhelds, yet it is launching with Blazblu and UMvC3 as Japanese centric games.
Ridge Racer hasn't been relevant in years.
Katamari is an obscure taste title and has been over represented on all consoles (and the iphone).
The best selling game has been Hot Shots Golf, which is a sequel to my personal favourite PSP game, but it's still not going to be a huge system seller.

I'm legitimately surprised they didn't launch first in the states, though that may just be due to manufacturing stock issues.
It'll do well in western countries, mainly due to Uncharted and FIFA, though I'm personally looking forward to yet another version of Lumines and Hot Shots Golf.
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[Crank]

Do we really need another thread for this? There's already a 14 page thread for the Vita and in the appropriate section.

[Shadow Wave]

I just hope Sony don't try and win the market by remaking a particular game like FF or something that CONSOLE gamers want only to have it on a portable console.

yes, im greasing off Nintendo right now! lol
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[LeonJ]

I'm really not sure there is a market for the Vita. Almost console/PC priced games on a handheld really isn't selling me. It's in a weird space where they have pushed the 'full console' experience to the next level on a portable level. Does the consumer want this though?

I know I probably don't and am sitting on the fence about this product.
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[Appel]

I personally got over the handheld market years ago with the introduction of smart phones. While traveling, I only want games that I can pick-up and play and then put down again 2 minutes later.

And I refuse to play handholds at home when I have my setup and consoles.

We used to have a DS in the toilet, but with the amount of time it took to load up and play, your legs would go numb by the next save point.
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[StorminNorman]

I kind of want a Vita more than I want a 3DS.

That said, I still think it's a useless thing. Not having mobile phone functionality is a huge deal breaker for me, because I'd prefer not to have to carry around two expensive electronic devices that I can game on (iPhone and Vita).

On the other hand, I do like that Sony are *requiring* all games for the Vita to be made available as digital downloads (retail packages are optional this time around).

Apparently the reason for the proprietary memory cards (instead of cheaper, standard cards like SD) is because the new cards are locked down out the wazoo with DRM. You can't even use devkit memory cards on retail Vita units, apparently. Word is that Sony have gone all out on the security (memory cards are locked to PSN accounts *and* the system itself, all kinds of other things) this time.

That said, you can apparently run homebrew PSP software on a Vita, so if there is a security hole in it somewhere, it'll most likely be through the PSP emulator sandbox.

I think one of the reasons for the sales drop is that the Vita has massive hardware/stability issues at the moment. I have a friend who's Vita hard locked (not even the hard reset button combination would work), and the only solution is to let it drain the battery completely before rebooting. There's apparently a debug/test menu you can get to with a certain button combination, but it may have been removed in more recent software updates.
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[Benza]

The only DS games I even play anymore are prof layton games and Pheonix Wright ones, Nintendo kind of lost the plot with hand held games as well. I remember trying to play Spirit Tracks on the train to work and it's fucking impossible to do those stupid blowing into the mic song bits. That was a fucking brilliant idea there Nintendo.

Honestly I think the PSP would probably make the transition better then the gameboy since it's installed market base is allready used to that stuff. It's never really been a handheld based on short burst plays. (Of course the gameboy could lose like 50% of it's entire market base and still outsell the PSP like 3 to 1)
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[Tsargrad]

I don't think there is much market for a designated portable console, but the 3DS / DS sales indicates otherwise. I myself will be buying one, but I anticpate 99% of its use will be at home. I'm not planning on taking it to work for tram travel entertainment. The only usage away from home will be interstate flights when trapped at the airport or at the inlaws where I go insane.

The key to me buying this system was the minute an Uncharted title was announced. So its the software. I love the franchise (might hopes are as high as on Uncharted 3, so thats a good thing as well) and having another game, although being a prequal is sweet by me.

And I love Riiiiidge Racer on the Sony consoles. Its not a new console if there isn't a new version of this floating about.
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