Ben-DutkaEven though Sony says they'll stick with the PlayStation Vita and continue to push it into the next generation, one analyst believes the portable's time is unfortunately limited.
Cowen & Company analyst Doug Creutz says he believes the Vita is "sinking" and that integration with the PlayStation 4 won't be enough. The only thing that might save it is a "new form factor or lower pricing." Said Creutz:
"We do not think that integration with the PS4 will be sufficient to drive an uptick in sales for the device. Thus, we would not be surprised to see Sony try a soft relaunch of the device beginning at E3, potentially including a different form factor and/or lower pricing."
It was recently revealed that all PS4 developers must include Remote Play for the Vita , but Creutz obviously doesn't think that'll turn the tide. As for the near future, Sony anticipates selling 5 million combined PSP and Vtia units in the coming year. Hopefully, upcoming titles like Killzone: Mercenary and Media Molecule's Tearaway will help as well.
But above all else, it may need a price cut.
It just needs a price cut.
Too much doom and gloom! Why don't we wait until after E3 (and the almost definite price cut announcement) before declaring this great handheld dead (or dying). I seem to remember even MORE doom-and-gloom reports/articles about the 3DS about a year ago and it seems to be doing fine now…
As for the Vita's future as it stands? I already have a backlog of games to get to and I'm stoked on the upcoming onslaught of games already announced. That along with mandatory remote play functionality with PS4???? Enough goodness for me already and I'm sure E3 will send it to another stratosphere…
Last edited by PoopsMcGee on 6/6/2013 1:28:35 PM
What the Vita needs is a release of a Monster Hunter game. Preferably one that has cross-platform play and save, and not like what Cap. did with the Wii U and 3DS where you have to be local for cross platform.
If they'd drop the price $50 and redesign it so that it could take standard SD memory cards then they'd sell as many as they could make. They wouldn't have to do anything else to move units; it's not a bad machine, it just needs to be re-positioned and marketed properly.
Not a bad idea at all. A redesign of that nature would minimally impact early adopters of the handheld while making it that much more desirable for those on the fence about buying it…
It better not…
I have noticed that the Vita gets barely any support in the way of online sales as well. So not much incentive for current owners to buy regularly for the system. Nor have we gotten much in the way of updates for apps, the browser, nothing.
Not only is it tough to start off as a Vita user, with the Vita card, system itself, etc but games themselves aren't cheap. Especially in Australia.
Last edited by SmokeyPSD on 6/6/2013 2:05:30 PM
I'm mildly interested in the remote play feature, but it definitely needs a price cut before I consider getting me one.
I also think Sony must think of the Vita in the same way as Nvidia see their Shied: Something for a smaller niche, and not for the mainstream.
Niche penetration would/could mean failure of the Vita platform. At most a break even investment for Sony. It would be a shame because it does what it says and has so much potential.
As I write I wonder…. Imagine A PSVitaLite. Same tech with low cost components. Eventually Bundled with the PS4.
I think we for a long time already can conclude that Vita is a failure from a mainstream perspective. This machine has no support from the developers out there – they are far too busy making handheld games for the mobile/tablet markets.
It will be VERY expensive for Sony to keep supporting this platform all alone. So the question is if they are not better off making it a PS4 accessory. To have every game support Remote Play is a clever way of adding value to the handheld for years to come without having to put too much resources into it.
But it makes this device an accessory, a niche product for a small core who are really, really into the Playstation product line.
I don't see price as the main problem here.
Sure, a price drop can make most *anything* sell more, but I don't think people all of a sudden want to start carrying around yet another handheld device just because it's cheap.
No, I think the only way forward, if they are to continue supporting the device at all, is to realize that this is a very special device for a rather small niche. Most who really wants a Vita owns one now. They will probably experience a small boost in sales along with the PS4, but it will be no gamechanger.
Last edited by Beamboom on 6/7/2013 12:34:27 AM
I have my Vita since Day 1 but the lack of titles always drives me nuts. Plus there just seems to be a ton of Fighting games on this system, doesn't there? Games like the Final Fantasy X/X2 reissues I have been waiting for like most everyone else here. I bought the Sly Cooper game despite not liking the cartoony games just for something else to play upon it. Now with all that said if someone bought the system TODAY and had a PS+ then they really don't need to complain too much. They get Uncharted, Wipeout, Gravity Rush, and the following two games shortly: BlazBlue and Zero Escape. Basically buy the memory card and as long as you have the PS+ you don't have to buy the games. Just wait for the free ones every month. Too bad minus Ninja Gaiden, Disgaea, and Zero Escape I have bought every single Vita game offered for free.
A price drop certainly wouldn't hurt, though the real price drop needs to occur with the memory cards.
I don't know about anyone else, but (properly working) Remote Play is what would sell me, not on a Vita, but on a -PS4-. With two (and at the end of this year, three) small kids running around, I seriously do not have time to sit stationary in front of a TV to play anything unless it's late at night, at which point I'm usually too tired to play anything. This is why I 1) have only turned on my PS3 once in the past 8 months (to update it), and usually only a handful of times a year; and 2) have only been playing my PSP recently, and why the PSP has been my most used gaming system of the past nearly 4 years. A Vita (with hardware refresh, price drop, and/or mem card price drop) is a no-brainer for me (though I can't afford to get one right now; I'm still not sure which version of Dragon's Crown I want to get). But the Vita allowing me to play PS4 games flawlessly on the go, even if it's only over wifi around the house? That's 100% win.
Hilariously, while the only two genres I really care about are fighting games and RPGs, the Vita -does- have a ton of fighting games, and fighting games is the one genre I would usually not bother with on a handheld system (I'm an arcade rat, still arcade controls for anything "serious"). Bring on the RPG ports!
Everything Sony does gets counted out early, Vita will make it but it needs all those things the other posters listed above me.
I'd like a "go" version of it, I thought the PSP go was kinda cool but not enough to convince me to get it over a regular one. But now that it doesn't need a disc drive it'd be perfect. And while there at it why not make a damn Playstation phone. Like the xperia play but with vita guts. That'd be my next phone if it came out. And come on, where are the vita RPGs I desire!
Last edited by Wrote on 6/6/2013 5:20:46 PM
How low can they cut and still churn a profit? What's the production cost?
"All PS4 developers must include Remote Play for the Vita". That would be awesome! Currently the vita is very limited with remote play on ps3 games which i was a bit shattered about when i got one but this is defiantly good news
I'd like to see Sony redesign it for some better battery life and strength. Drop the price a little and also make digital downloads a little cheaper.
The PS4 requires remote play which will definitely help.
The Vita's marketing is bad. Not many people really understand just how powerful it is.
Personally I think it needs a price cut, but really more importantly it needs games! It has a couple that I'd love to play and would call AAA games, but with a device that costs as much as a console system I think it needs more support. I won't be spending a couple hundred bucks just to play a hand full of games I'm interested in and then see the system become an "extra controller" for the PS4.
Honestly the greatest disappointment with the gaming industry for me imho is the lack of support for the innovators. For instance, The move controllers was a great motion controller and yet no support outside of first party. Now, why is it that M$ got great support from developers for kinect. It also happened with the ps3 out the gate and now following suit is the vita. I don't think some of these failures are completely Sony's. In fact, I would argue it's the game developers lack of vision that is causing these new platforms to fail. Ben if u read this I would really like you to voice this before Sony and developers. If not for me then for gamers alike please because it seems that they mean to cut off their own foot without knowing it till the axe goes through. I really would like answers & I don't think anyone has asked this question which to me seems like it should be obvious to everyone.
Last edited by BattleFox21 on 6/7/2013 2:50:04 AM
I mean " the making of games in general not just motion controls(was an example). Anyways I would really appreciate Ben Dutka's opinion on this…?!
price cut with new redesigned model, and new games if the vitas to survive.
as ive said many times its actually CHEAPER to buy a ps3, 2 controllers, 2 games of your choice, and some stores were even throwing in a 50 PSN card and play TV, for FIFTY bucks less than the vita!
right, so a home console plus goodies or a portable console?
thats like saying 50 grand for a brand new ferrari, or 50 grand for a new ford.
which one will you take?
needs a external and internal redesign too.
outside it looks like a stretched PSP, it just does not look as futuristic as it could and should.
does not look and feel like a premium device, especially for its premium price, and its quite uncomfortable to hold but then i guess we should have expected that as all $ony devices are.
looking at you DS3……..
internally they need to add a mini HDMI port that way people can connect the device to their TV, and maybe even use the ps4 controller as controls for your games.
even has the front touch pad, maybe use 1 side for the vitas screen and other side for vitas back touchpad.
needs internal memory though, it is absolutely flabbergasting and ridiculously pathetic that the vita has NO internal memory!
WTF!?
come on $ony, flash memory is f*cking dirt cheap stop forcing consumers to pay for your extortionate proprietary memory cards.
and last but by far most important, GAMES!
the vita is struggling for so many reasons, but the biggest one is 99% of the games it has are available on other platforms, and again a large majority have released on home consoles far earlier.
no one is going to wait months to play a game on the vita when they could play it on their ps3 now.
so it needs games it cal call its own, ideally new IPs.
but to help that allong, the ps3 has seen allot of the famous family franchises abandoned this gen.
SOCOM, the getaway, syphon filter, resistance, medievil, sly cooper, jack and daxter, ect, ect.
games will probably never see again because of sales, or their respective developers are busy elsewhere.
so why not make the vita the home of the bastard child?
sure people would much rather these games for ps4, but hey what would you rather.
a new syphon filter game for the vita, or NO syphon filter game at all?
exactly.
the vita needs games it can call its own, but new IPs are dime a dozen so why not help inflate its own library with lost forgotten but still loved and desired franchises?
Vita is simply experiencing what the PS3 was going through. It just needs to hang in there, pump it more with software, and do a price cut.
It is too late for them to change what the vita already is without scraping the current one all together. Which would make some people mad because it would basically be a vita 2. 3 things that I thought the vita should had from the get go. Those are phone functions, bc, and a standard memory format like a SD card.
I'd love to say that a price cut would turn the tide for me; I'd love more to support this ambitious device. But I game at home, not away from home. Not even its exclusives tempt me yet to shell out $200+, with proprietary memory only adding to the injury.
I need a considerably larger library and a price cut under $200 WITH the memory. But I recognise that's likely too high an expectation. lol Sooo, I probably just won't get one.
Too little too late. Read the writing on the wall Sony. A fool (Sony) and his $$$ are soon parted.
Too little too late. Read the writing on the wall Sony. A fool (Sony) and his $$$ are soon parted.
I need a price drop on the memory,the unit price is fine, they could drop the 3G its useless.A new monster hunter with cross play would round out my VITA experience. Im already backlogged on it.I play everything so im doin just fine with it.
A price would help, but keeping the price the same and bundling in a good game and decent size memory card would be better.
The Vita needs is more than 3 new game releases a month. More games please.