Ben-DutkaThe future seems clear: Digital media will eventually supplant physical. Note: eventually.
However, most analysts agree that it'll take quite some time before we see a complete transition, and many developers believe there will always be room for physical media. And we dearly hope he's right.
For instance, take Grasshopper Manufacture CCO Akira Yamaoka, who told Siliconera that packaged games won't disappear, even though popular digital platforms like Steam have "a lot of potential."
"I don't think that packaged games will die out, but Steam has a lot of potential since it works with different hardware."
He also commented on the PlayStation Vita and Nintendo 3DS, and wonders why Sony's portable isn't selling. Yamaoka says "it's a really good platform" and doesn't understand why it isn't selling better in Japan. He also said he doesn't "see too many 3DS owners oversees" and that's "disappointing." But for the time being, you can bet that Sony will continue to push the hell out of their new handheld, which isn't selling too badly in North America thus far.
As for packaged media, that just has to stay put. At least for a while.
Why isn't it selling? Most of the launch titles were more suited to the Western Market. Once the games that are more suited to Japan start appearing, especially bigger names, it will fly off shelves.
I think Sony really needs to get some compelling non-game apps onto the Vita as well, it adds to the value of the device. Plus the cross platform play is great and all, but games like Ruin (or whatever it's called now) bring that ability to play the same game on both platforms and take your game literally on the move. Sony really needs things like that to set itself apart. But other than that, the usual high profile franchises will help as always.
Apps? What is it an IPhone? I created a shot called the App. Life got ya down? Girl cheated on you? Lost your job? There's an App for that. Drink it up.
You know, Apple did not invent the PDA, nor the concept of small helper applications to handle a specific task. Sidekick was probably one of the first such Apps and it was a TSR running on pre-windows PCs under DOS. The Vita has all the form and function required to be a useful PDA in addition to being a top notch gaming device.
But hey, why not try to shoot that down with pointless and poorly executed sarcasm. Then again we can see from your 'contributions' so far that this is about as well executed and considered as your posts get.
Dude you need to relax and laugh at a joke once in awhile.
Thank you for that extremely delightful history lesson by the way. I can tell by your posts youre just a typical technowhiz. Sand in the V and all.
I honestly thought you were chastising TheHighLander. It wasn't until your second post that I went "oh he's joking!".
To me, this is one of those awkward moments where the sarcasm wasn't transmitted properly through the internetz. :/
You really need to put the sarcasm tag on. lol
… Or give up sarcasm entirely.
I can tell ya why it isnt selling huge amounts in Canada. No physical media.
Um…hate to break this to you, but…Vita games come on cartridges. Better still, they're also available for download, and the downloadable versions are even cheaper than the ones on physical media. Imagine that.
Sure, digital media may be cheaper in the states. But I figured the all knowing highlander would take into accout that we in Canada have this stupid little thing called bandwidth capping. So technically no digital media is not cheaper. But thanks for tryin smart guy.
We have that wonderful thing called bandwisth capping too, it's not just Canadian ISPs that like to squeeze their customers. However the point is/was that Vita games *do* come on physical media. You said that they did not;
"I can tell ya why it isnt selling huge amounts in Canada. No physical media. "
That says nothing about bandwitdth caps, and points the finger at 'no physical media' when in fact there very much *is* physical media.
It is cheaper online and I don't know for you… I am Canadian… I have 210gb per month of bandwith… A 4gb title or two per month is not the end of the world… Even if you have the most basic highspeed internet in quebec it is 30-60gb per month… You will still be ok to get a couple of games… Just have to cut on the pron a bit 😛 XD
And wth about no cartridges lol XD I bought quite a couple of em…
I know there is bandwidth capping in the states. But not every ISP has it like here in Canada. And as for your 210gb/mo wht do you pay montly for it? Who is it through? I know it is probably quite expensive because 100gb/mo through rogers is almost $90. BELL is even worse. unless you got roped in to a 3 month deal at half price.
Last edited by LowKey on 4/16/2012 6:36:12 PM
Oh and my bad I brain farted and mixed up with the GO.
well I am with bell Fibe 25.
You have to deal with them though. At the moment it costs me 65$+tax for 25mb/s with 210gb.
Normally that would be 72.99 + 15$ of extra gb + tax XD
Just tell them you will go with videotron 😛 lol
I've got some packaged media for Juliet.
Last edited by WorldEndsWithMe on 4/16/2012 2:18:41 PM
Wow, didn't know Akira was now in this position. Of all the members of Team Silent, Akira went on to be the most successful it seems.
LOVE what he said about the latest "Silent Hill" aka absolute mess and total misunderstanding of the original art source….
SE: Did you get a chance to play the new Silent Hill, Downpour?
Â
AY: Not yet. What do you think of it?
Â
SE: I’ve only got to try the combat and it seems like the game is designed with a bigger emphasis on fighting.
Â
AY: Silent Hill isn’t about fighting… [Laughs]
Ahahahaha!
I also understand the main art designer of Team Silent (his name escapes me) called Downpour and the recent "HD" remasters "terrible" via twitter.
Feel bad for them guysg
Anyway, he actually said that he doesn't understand why the Vita isn't selling better on a global scale….and that the 3DS has more potential due to the upgrade factor (people will upgrade from DS to 3DS).
price point on vita needs to be lowered down to 199 or lower.
Wololo couldn't have said it better as to why the vita is not selling, i'll kindly type it up here without pasting the entire article.
1) The browser. Crappy netfront browser that was on the PSP. Adding a useless browser that doesn't support any modern web technology and claiming it can "browse the web" is false advertisement.
2) Lack of PS1 game support. Nuff said.
3) Lack of PSP title support. Less than 1/3 of the games are available to be used on the Vita. Plus you can't convert UMD's you have already purchased in to a game format playable on the Vita.
4) Overpriced, proprietary memory cards. Sony is trying to make a quick buck off of a useless format. They could have used MicroSD like EVERYONE ELSE and encrypted the file contents to prevent piracy.
5) Games pricing. Mobile gamers are used to paying no more than 5 or 10 bucks on a mobile game. The games are definitely more "hardcore" and more costly to develop, but not enough to warrant $49.99 price tags. They should be no more than $25 or $30.
Another point is there is no effort on bringing the price of digital downloads down.
6) Content manager is crap. You can't just drag and drop files to your Vita. Take moving videos to your vita for example, you have to connect your vita to your PC, be connected online, move your video files to your VIDEOS folder on your PC – So forget about having your own folders where you store videos – You have to put them where sony tells you if you want to move them to your Vita. Same with pictures and music. I hate to admit it, but iTunes did it right.
7) Account switching is a joke. Don't even get me started on what you have to go through to log in to a different psn account.
8) Useless and overpriced 3G. First off, 3G is outdated already when you have 4G and 4G LTE networks. You are limited at 20MB downloads and 3G is too slow to do any real online gaming. You are limited to only turn based games like a Puzzle game of which better puzzle games could be found on any mobile phone.
9) It's not very portable. THe screen looks great but the unit is far too large to carry around while still being practical. PSP GO was the perfect size where you could forget you even had it in your pocket. The quite low battery life and the two joystick nubs doesn't help either.
10) It only does gaming. Don't bother adding a subpar facebook app, a dysfunctional browser, broken mp3 player. There is a nice effort on the netflix and amazon video application but that's not saying too much.
Anyways.. My year and a half old Android phone does everything better than the Vita. Sure it doesn't have a D-pad, analogs, or tactile buttons, but so many Vita games force you to use the touchscreen for gaming that it null and voids the entire point of having the buttons to begin with. After all, who actually enjoys taking their hand off the controls to rub the screen in the middle of a game? Can't they just let that gimmick die and leave the touch screen for navigating the device and webbrowsing?
I would also like to say that Sony has seemingly went to sleep after releasing the Vita. There has not been one decent firmware update since the Vita was released in Japan last year.
"It only does everything"… So far, the only thing it is doing is collecting dust on the desk of everyone I know that has a Vita. Including me.
Last edited by Palpatations911 on 4/16/2012 6:29:10 PM
I forgot to mention that I can connect a bluetooth controller (PS3 SixAxis) to my Android phone. h0h0h0.
Sounds like another desperate money grab on Sonys part. Lol
I want a Vita, but until it does the things that they promised it would, I can wait. I want PS1 games, and PS3 game integration to play PS3 games on my Vita. I want to play the Uncharted game and that it is as far as the launch lineup. Nothing else interests me. So with that being the case, I have to have PS1 support and PS3 game support.
As for the touch screen integration, that is a complete joke. What's the use of having such a nice screen if it is constantly going to have my fingerprint smudges on it.
The browser is better than the on my PSP, and the system is much faster and more responsive. Really all the things you list here were known prior to launch, so whining about them now is kind of pointless. If you're so negative about Vita, then don't buy one, use one or if you already have one you might as well trade it because it's quite clear you don't like it.
PS1 game support will come, it's most certainly not a technical issue, so it has to be a licensing problem.
Other applications will come too, it takes time for developers to deliver.
Account switching isn't a joke at all, it's a personal device like a smartphone is. On a smartphone you don't account switch every 10 minutes, do you?
3G is what it is. The Vita is a global platform which means that it must cater to the lowest common specification for data access – 3G. The download size cap is related to that lowest tolerable speed of data access so that content still downloads in a timely manner. This is all aimed at ensuring that the user experience is the same for everyone.
Content manager is version 1.0 and is not good, the lack of folder support is annoying. You can laud iTunes all you like but it took years for iTunes to – as you put it – get it right. If content manager supported custom folders it would be a major improvement. As would folder support on both Vita and PS3. However in the mean time, you can always move the content that you you wish to put on your vita to the appropriate location and then transfer it. Takes a minute or two longer, but really sin;t that great an annoyance.
Mobile gaming prices are ludicrous and reflect the scope of the games being sold. If you want an Uncharted game on Vita, you pay the appropriate price. If you want Angry Birds – or something like it, you pay that appropriate price. Vita is sold as a gaming system not a smart phone replacement. So mobile phone gamers are not really the target consumers.
All in all your list is an old one that makes complaints of just about every possible thing without looking at the context of why. It's a glass half empty look at things such as PSP compatibility. The glass half full point of view says – for example – Vita supports almost 1/3 of PSP titles and the number is increasing with every firmware update and store update as new games are added to the mix.
Seems like you are predisposed to whine and complain about Sony and their products, which does rather make one wonder why you bother coming to a site which is clearly a Playstation community.
I am a firm believer that physical media will never die, and I mean never. Why would publishers want to give up the opportunity to charge $150 for for a game and some extras and just go digital and sell for 30 to 50 dollars. I could see EA and Activision getting together and making their own console before allowing digital only. Collectors/limited editions make far too much money for them to just give up on them.
Similar to the music industry physical media will always be around in one way or another even if it is only %10 of the industry it will still be there. Go ahead and look up vinyl, it is still sold albeit in very small amounts and only by select artists but it is still there.
The Vita will probably sell a lot better when it gets its first big price drop. And if they finally carry out some of what they said it would do in the first place I know quite a few people that would pick one up even at its current price point(me being one of them).
digital will eventually become the new standard, but it will NEVER replace physical media.
itunes has become the new standard for getting music, but does that mean CD stores have closed down?
hell, does that mean RECORD stores have closed down?
nope!
still going strong!
problem is ISPs are too greedy, its too expensive to get a net connection fast enough and bandwidth high enough to download games.
not to mention then you have nothing to trade in or sell, there normally same price even though your getting LESS, and not to mention if you go to a friends house or something you cant take it with you.
especially a problem if $ony decides to do with future systems what they did with the vita and lock each unit to 1 account!
as for why the vita is not selling the above reason.
1 stupid pain in the a$$ restrictions!
2 ridiculously overpriced!
3 no games!
have to disagree with the no one overseas has a 3Ds point too, everyone i know has one.
hell im thinking of selling my vita for one because of that new survival horror game announced for it yesterday.
not to mention its HALF!
yes HALF the price of the vita!
well correction, half and 20 dollars.
3Ds $200, vita $420!
and you dont get jack sh*t with the vita, stores are offering several games and accessory packs for the 3Ds!
Vita isn't selling because everyone is skint. Handheld gaming is dead now that internet phones and mobile gaming can satisfy most people's on the move needs for virtually no expense.
It's a shame, some of my best gaming experiences have involved me playing my PSP/DS/GBA on long journeys but thats just the reality of it.
Maybe if the global economic situation gets better there might be a resurgence but I doubt it.