Sony Working Toward Post-2012 Vita Price Drop

[Fanghawk]

Sony Working Toward Post-2012 Vita Price Drop

Sony's engineers are looking for ways to reduce production costs, but won't be done in time for the holidays.

Sony may have an impressive handheld gaming device in the PlayStation Vita, but its biggest criticism still stands: <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/117718-Sony-Nixes-PS-Vita-Price-Cut-Rumors>it's an expensive handheld gaming device. What not everyone may realize is that Sony isn't charging $250 dollars a unit because it can; <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/115396-PlayStation-Vita-Components-Worth-159-10>the Vita actually has very high production costs, which may even mean the company is losing money on each sale. Still, Sony knows it's in a tight spot, and Worldwide Studios head Shuhei Yoshida explained that its engineers are in the process of reducing manufacturing costs. The only drawback? Any price drops wouldn't take effect until 2013.

"People like cheap or free," Yoshida told Eurogamer. "Of course, cost reduction is one area our engineering team is working on. But we just launched the platform earlier this year. It takes time to do so ... It's too early."

While a price drop may not be possible in the immediate future, Sony instead is focusing on fixing the second criticism of the Vita by <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/118990-Vita-Having-Difficult-Time-Attracting-Third-Party-Support>improving its games catalog. "We see lots of feedback from consumers saying they would like to see more content, they would like to see their favorite franchises coming to the PS Vita," Yoshida explained. "So we have to continue to work on bringing more content from big titles people are looking for in terms of franchises, to very small, snack-sized, intuitive casual games on the digital distribution side."

While the Vita <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/9434-PS-Vita-Impressions>is a powerful piece of hardware that provides console-level experiences the fact remains that it's lagging behind in the handheld market thanks to competition from the competitively-priced Nintendo 3DS and huge range of titles on mobile markets. Fixing these concerns might go a long way towards improving its prospects, just like the price drop on the 3DS did for Nintendo, but if it can't do so before the holiday season Sony could have a tough time building up new audiences in the new year.

Source: <a href=http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-08-16-sony-engineers-working-on-ps-vita-cost-reduction-for-post-2012-price-cut>Eurogamer

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[TheSapphireKnight]

I've felt the price of the Vita itself has been pretty reasonable and has had a pretty strong lineup compared to the 3DS at the same time. If they dropped the incredibly inflated price of the memory cards before the holiday season that might help.

The Cross Buy program seems to be nice as well. It is kind of unfortunate that Sony hasn't been able to find success even though lately they have been getting alot right.

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

I thought the price was reasonable considering what it can do, but I can see how people might think differently.

I think when this price drop does happen and when the Cross Buy program happens that Sony will do just fine since they seem to be getting their shit together now.

 

[ResonanceGames]

Now that crossplay is finally getting sorted out, what they really need to do is start porting lots and lots of PS1 and PS2 games over.

There are only so many first party games they can crank out in a year, and they've done an OK job of it so far. If the system had better support for back catalogs then more people might buy it -- and bring some third party developers along with them.

 

[Furioso]

Well there goes my hopes of a price drop before P4G came out, oh well, maybe I can hope for a price drop on those memory cards

 

[Soxafloppin]

It looks like a lovely bit of kit it really does, but its simply too much money for me to spend on a Handheld.

I read some Devs won't even make games for it because not enough people on own them, they're happy enough to port over but not to make exclusive games.

 

[Ghonzor]

Let me level with you Sony...
I will buy a Vita if you drop the price.
As it stands I'll probably just buy Persona 4 Golden so I have a copy and wait it out.
If you lower the price, you actually get my money. Come on. Some profit is better than no profit.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

I still wouldn't buy it if they dropped the price.

The console isn't the problem.

The lack of a decent games library is.

 

[FalloutJack]

I still wouldn't buy it if they dropped the price.

The console isn't the problem.

The lack of a decent games library is.

And no backwards compatibility to make up for it.

On the bright side, though, Sony does not believe it's the end of the world as we know it and I'm just fine.

 

[ResonanceGames]

I still wouldn't buy it if they dropped the price.

The console isn't the problem.

The lack of a decent games library is.

And the lack of games is caused by a lack of sales. Due to the price.

These things all permeate each other, and it's important to get the juggling act right or else you wind up with a mess like this.

 

[GeorgW]

Sure Sony. So you want to cut the price, but it's not gonna be ready until right after the biggest selling season in the year. Nice job there.
Why even announce that, now people will be more reluctant to pick it up this holiday season.
The big problem for the Vita in my eyes isn't price, it's the catalogue, and they are doing a pretty good job with that. With the cross platform news earlier this week, I'm now seriously considering buying a Vita. But as it seems, it wouldn't hurt waiting a few months...

 

[Baresark]

This is quite the 180 they are pulling. Trying to find a way to drop the price is admirable though. Considering they are already selling it at a loss. But that is their big grand, horrible plan. They are cool with losses as long as it pays off in the end. Only the likes of Sony and Microsoft can get away with this as they have the monetary backing to support such bad ideas. Most of the business world is smart enough to know out of the gates that the best idea is to provide a good product for as functionally cheap as possible. That doesn't mean undercutting your own production and still selling it for too much.

But seeing as how the production costs of those stupid proprietary memory cards are no way as much as what you are selling them for, reducing the prices of those is a good start.

Edit: The truth is that I really want one. I can even afford to pay your ludicrous prices, but there are two things stopping me.

1. Between buying a game, a decent sized memory card, and the system, I will be paying more than I did when I bought a PS3 a couple of years ago. That is a terrible thing and even if I can afford it, it's probably not actually worth it.

2. The game selection is completely lackluster at this point. I waited till there were at least 3 games I wanted for the 3DS (games that weren't remakes that is) and I find no reason to not follow that reasoning here and now.

 

[sb666]

what they really need to do is start porting lots and lots of PS1 and PS2 games over.

I agree with this. I want to be able to play Final Fantasy IX, Silent Hill and Metal Gear Solid 1 on my Vita so I don't need my old PSP anymore.

 

[FalloutJack]

I still wouldn't buy it if they dropped the price.

The console isn't the problem.

The lack of a decent games library is.

And no backwards compatibility to make up for it.

It does have backwards comparability, what the hell console are you playing?

Oh, did they change it to play all of my PSP games?

 

[FalloutJack]

I still wouldn't buy it if they dropped the price.

The console isn't the problem.

The lack of a decent games library is.

And no backwards compatibility to make up for it.

It does have backwards comparability, what the hell console are you playing?

Oh, did they change it to play all of my PSP games?

Given I've had Vice City Stories and Persona 3 Portable on there since day one, they never needed to change it.

No no no, hear me clearly. The Vita was not made to play the games that I have and own currently on my PSP. That backwards compatibility. It's not essentially an upgraded PSP. It's a new handheld system. Now, has this changed or has it not?

 

[Kyr Knightbane]

*Looks at the fire extinguisher in one hand and the can of gasoline in the other* Which one to use on this fevered debate.... Which one....

*Throws them both* Look, people are always complaining about the lack of games and the cost, but look what it can do. Its replaced my need for a Netflix player, a camera, a video camera, it does skype remarkably well, outstanding actually, I can watch YouTube on it, And the launch titles while sparse were amazing. Rayman Origins? It was and still is a game that gets alot of play time. Ninja Gaiden? An amazingly competent port. Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3? Again an amazing game. Unit 13? Some of the best 3rd person shooting I've ever played, you can stealth through entire missions or take em out one by one. The multi-player was brilliant too. People who complain about the lack of games need to simply open their eyes, and stop hating on Sony for what happened to the psn or how expensive it is. 250 bucks is expensive, yes, but people spend more than that on graphics cards nowadays. Its an amazing handheld thats only gonna get better. I can't wait for Killzone: Mercenaries, Call of Duty: Black ops Declassified, and Ragnarok Odyssey. Its a decent system, and the titles it has now are solid. Just give it time