Hirai: Vita Sales "On the Low End" of Expectations

[redknightalex]

It bothers me that, 1) the Vita needs to constantly be compared to a console experience because it will never match it, and 2) that it should be competing with the games you find among the 40 billion downloads from Apple's App Store. Any of the GameBoys, DS, PSP, or Vitas always held a very separate niche for me than the simple games I get on my Android or iTouch/iPad. When I want to play a game on the toilet, I grab a simple game of Fruit Ninja and be done with it. When I can't be bothered to get out of bed on the weekend, or want to watch TV while grinding out levels, I grab my Vita. A portable console does not, by any definition, require 5-minute only gaming sessions and still the Vita sticks to it like a plague. I certainly don't use it that way and can't see how others would either. Console experience and a quick play one? Nope, doesn't work.

Each piece of equipment has their own value and each of them has their uses. I think if Sony got out of those two pitfalls I mentioned above, they'd be in a much better situation. And the whole memory card fiasco is really hurting them and I think everyone knows it. The best thing Sony has going for the Vita is PlayStation Plus and the freebies it offers.

I really do hope the Vita does well. Last time I felt this strongly about a Sony system was the PS3, which currently makes the most money for Sony iirc. Maybe the Vita will soon be doing the same thing.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

I will say it needs a price cut or something. I love my Vita but it needs more software, well more original software. Although I do have a decent amount of games for it.

Price cut? Nah, the price is fine. You know what needs an obscene price cut? The proprietary memory sticks. There's no excuse for them costing what they do.

I'm wanting to get a Vita myself at some stage but I have to agree the memory stick prices here on my island drive me entirely away from wanting to buy one just yet.

Though I do have a nice roster of games lined up that I would love to play and I have tried the Vita as a friend let my try it for the day and it could do with some more software like Korten said.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Companies do seem to be a bit quick to point the finger at mobile gaming when stuff like this happens. Every time. It doesn't have anywhere near as big a foothold in the gaming market as people seem to think it does.
Casual gaming, yeah. But mobiles aren't exactly pulling people away from consoles/PCs.
If your console has good exclusives and is simple to use, it will sell well. If it doesn't, it won't. That's pretty much all there is to it. If the Vita gets more developer support it'll bump up the sales, otherwise the Vita will go nowhere.

Couple of problems here.

1.) handheld game systems and full blown consoles are two different markets.

2.) "mobile devices," as you call them, probably have more pull than you're giving them credit. After getting an android phone that's capable of gaming and has a physical keyboard[footnote]which makes it awesome for both native Android games, which are better and more varied than most "hardcore gamers" who only ever seem to have heard of Angry Birds give them credit, and also emulators, since it's got enough physical buttons to comfortably do the job[/footnote], I have no interest in ever getting another handheld that does gaming and gaming only. I like the extra functionality too much. If the Vita ran on Android, or if the Xperia Play had /been/ the Vita, Sony might be doing better in that area than they are right now.

 

[xPixelatedx]

One of the biggest challenges facing the Vita is the broadening of the mobile game space thanks to the advent of iPhones and Android devices, which bring impressive power and a huge range of low-cost games to people who would never even think about purchasing a dedicated mobile gaming system

Or, the biggest challenge for the Vita is the glaring fact there is no reason to own one.

Heck, I couldn't even recommend a PS3 to anyone unless they want a good blu ray/PS1/digital media combo player, which is what I use mine for 99% of the time. Also:

which bring impressive power and a huge range of low-cost games to people who would never even think about purchasing a dedicated mobile gaming system

to people who would never even think about purchasing a dedicated mobile gaming system

Yeah... pretty sure that isn't your target audience to begin with. Grandma can play her angry birds while she waits in the doctor's office, and that's fine. Trust me Sony, you've never done anything to compete for that person's $$, nor would you want to. If you make a game console that plays games, I have a feeling that your target audience might be GAMERS... just saying! Maybe you should be more worried about what they think, because as of right now you aren't as popular with them either.

You see, gamers do purchase dedicated mobile gaming devices, and they are. They are called DSs and 3DSs.

 

[Sylveria]

Currently you can get one of the wifi "bundles" with a game, a 4gig stick, and a PSN plus membership (which nets you a load of free stuff) for about $250 if I recall. But, with that said, the game that comes with the device is either AC3, which if you care about AC you already have it on a console, or BLOPS2, which has the same issue. And that 4gig stick isn't going to get you very far.

That price isn't terrible now, its not good, but it's not terrible. If they tossed an 16gig stick in that bundle instead of a useless 4 or started slashing the prices of the memory sticks, they'd probably see the device moving.

But, as many people said, there's only a handful of games for it. I have 5 personally and really the only future release I could give any shits about is Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 +.. and that's only on the caveat that they put the blood back in which I don't know if they did or not.

Well to be fair, AC3: Liberation is it's own game. Similar to AC3 but it has some neat systems in there and is nice for the portable system with bite sized missions on the go.

Also how was Ninja Gaiden Sigma 1+ on the Vita? I was thinking of getting it since I never got NGS on the PS3.

I dunno. I didn't get NGS1 on Vita cause I don't particularly like NGS1 on PS3 cause of the clunkier combat. I don't know if it's a straight port or if it has the enhanced combat that NG2 and 3 had and I've blown enough money this winter.

 

[Sylveria]

Just, first:

Currently you can get one of the wifi "bundles" with a game, a 4gig stick, and a PSN plus membership (which nets you a load of free stuff) for about $250 if I recall. But, with that said, the game that comes with the device is either AC3, which if you care about AC you already have it on a console, or BLOPS2, which has the same issue. And that 4gig stick isn't going to get you very far.

The Assassin's Creed game is Assassin's Creed: Liberations, which is its own beast. Depending on who you talk to, though, it may or may not be worth your time and money. Some reviews are kinder to it than others. And the Call of Duty game is actually Black Ops: Declassified, an absolutely horrendous title designed by the guys who threw together the mediocre, but infinitely superior (to Declassified) Resistance: Burning Skies. It is absolutely not a good game, and why Sony felt the need to market that bundle before the reviews came in is nothing short of ridiculous. They're hoping to cash in on the Call of Duty brand with a title so poorly made that anyone who picks up that bundle is likely going to sell it back immediately afterward.

Geeze I'm making mistakes all over the place today. I honestly thought they were just ports of their PS3 counterparts cause of all the cross-play "hype" they've been throwing.

OT (finally):

Price-cuts, reducing the price of the proprietary memory sticks, continuously working on the convenience of the software (your constant updates do nothing but piss me off, Sony. I'm not hacker, but if I was going to hack your Vita, I can almost guarantee I could find a way around that), all that would help. But even before all that, what Sony needs is software that justifies the purchase.

Right now, the system has absolutely no 'system selling' titles. There are titles that you absolutely must try if you own the system, like Persona 4: The Golden or Gravity Rush (which, incidentally, is now free on PS+, I'm pretty sure), but those are only good if you already have the system. They aren't enough to justify the purchase in and of themselves. You have to already want the system, first. Fix that, Sony, then fix your pricing, and you might have some luck.

I really do love my Vita, though, and I want the handheld to do well. But, my God, it's like the lads there just don't learn. You had some similar problems with the PS3 when it launched. It's 'slow start' was because it took you guys a while to open your eyes. So, please, hurry up and open 'em. You'll be all the better for it, I swear.

Really couldn't agree with you more. Gravity Rush and Persona 4 Golden are what sold me on the Vita with Ragnarok Odyssey to a lesser extent. But, I also got mine used with an additional game (Rayman) and 8gig memory stick for less than what I'd have to pay for a bundle with AC or CoD, which, if my lack of understanding of even the names of the games didn't give it away, I have zero interest in.

Sony's gonna have to throw some money at developers/publishers to really get this thing going. Throw some money at Square Enix so they can get Type-0 localized and port it to the Vita. Throw some money at Capcom to get Monster Hunter on it. Get those series that have a history of moving consoles on to the Vita. And these can not be PSN releases. Sony has to be releasing actual games that wont need to install a ton of date to their tiny memory cards and they seem to be banking really hard on digital games moving this console.. which they aren't going to when you've got a shot-glass worth of storage space.

 

[weirdee]

3DS: It's Pokemon time!

Vita: No 3DS no!

Come this October, if they don't have anything like Monster Hunter lined up at that point, it's gonna be another tough year for Sony...

 

[Asuka Soryu]

I like that mobile phones have doomed handheld gaming, yet after the price cut and Nintendo got more games out, the 3DS spat in the face of that comment.

Sony, get this through your head as it seems you never learn from your mistakes.

Over priced memory cards

Expensive consoles

Not enough games

These things always fly over your head with your new console, you never think about this, until your device starts coughing up blood and dying in the corner.


It's not gone to take a few 'must-have' games to fix this.

The prices need to be fixed! Even if they lowered the price of the Vita, I'd still be less interested in buying it, as the 32 GB memory card is insanely over priced!

Well, I guess it's a good thing it lacks games, maybe that's their strategy. They realise you won't have much space to save games on your overpriced memory cards, so they're gone to make sure there's barely any must-have games for the system.

-face palms-

A Vita and a 32GB memory card costs more then a PS3 with 320GB!

The Vita's graphics are the same as a PS3, so it's only difference between it and the console is it's portable, has less games, no memory built in, a touch screen and touch pannel(good, because gimmics will make the device worth the price)

Do yourself a favour, if you want a PS3 gaming experience, get a PS3 and ignore this device until Sony gets their shit together.


I was at a pawn shop once, the man had gotten a Vita returned to his shop, he saw my PSP and told me I should upgrade to the PS Vita he got. I told him I already own a PS3 and I'm quite happy with my PSP.

Sony says it's gone to be like the PS3, well I'm sure they're gone to hate that, considering how long it took for the PS3 to sell and that was with a price cut. Something the Vita still doesn't have.

No, instead we get a White Vita. Fuckin' A, Sony.


Additional comment:

I'd just like to thank Sony for finding a way of making cartridges have load times equal to a DISC!

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

I like that mobile phones have doomed handheld gaming, yet after the price cut and Nintendo got more games out, the 3DS spat in the face of that comment.

Except it didn't. The 3DS is only the top handheld system if you ignore smart phones, which at this point is more than a little bit disingenuous. It's selling well, but it's not the best selling system in the market. It also sold poorly enough at first that Nintendo had to slash the price almost immediately -- if it were still at the launch price, it would still be languishing.

Plus, you know, Pokemon. That is one serious system seller, and it's something that will remain Nintendo hardware only for the foreseeable future.

 

[Skops]

Dear Sony:

Want a influx of sales worldwide? Get on the horn, Get Capcom to release Monster Hunter 4 on the Vita.

BAM. Millions of Vita will instantly be sold within days.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Sony has a huge ego. They cant keep thinking they are a dominant brand anymore selling on their name instead of the product. Its this ego that almost killed the PS3 when they released it at a stupidly high price. With the company failing and losing money i think PS4 may be the last console we will get from Sony unless they change things up and actually compete with other companies instead of this mentality of "price it high....its Sony, they will buy it".

They had a huge market share with the PS2, it seems they took there fans for granted.

 

[edgecult]

I loved my psp. Still play it to this day (just bought some good games on the cheap for it a few weeks ago actually) and i'm looking to sneak into this generation too but sadly there just aren't enough games on either side that I really wanna get. I'de love to get a vita but at the moment the only real game jumping out at me is a game I bought already (P4 Golden) and Gravity Rush at the moment and 3DS has a similar issue game I bought already (Devil survivor) and code of princess'. Even the future releases are still split to hard on one side meaning neither side is taking an edge or building a sizeable group of games to my tastes. (it's why in the long run even though I went DS early the psp became my favorite sense they had built a much large pile of games I like) /sigh so now i sit and wait looking for one to break out from the other.

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

Oh, long term is important, is it?

That's probably why PS3's updates take so long, then.

 

[J Tyran]

I will say it needs a price cut or something. I love my Vita but it needs more software, well more original software. Although I do have a decent amount of games for it.

Price cut? Nah, the price is fine. You know what needs an obscene price cut? The proprietary memory sticks. There's no excuse for them costing what they do.

Exactly, the price of the console itself is fine. £200 is not a small amount of money but the hardware you get is pretty good value for money. Check the prices of smartphones and tablets and see how many come with two quad core processors and a large OLED screen with a decent pixel density for that kind of money.

But the memory card prices are obscene, its simply to much per GB. The high price ruins the Vitas second function as a media player and actually costs Sony money. Why? Because although the PSN store is easy to use and most of the prices are good value, especially for older games and PS1 one classics people owning a Vita probably don't buy to many because of the cost of the memory.

The Vita also needs more games ASAP, there are probably only five or so games you would actually want. Some of them like Call of Duty: Black Ops declassified are some of the worst games released over the last twelve months. I do not regret buying my Vita yet but if more games don't come fairly quickly that might changes.

 

[CyberAkuma]

So here is my big issue with the memory cards:

The VITA memory cards - in terms of what they offer in terms of space and speed are absolute utter crap compared to the memory cards of today.

The 32 GB VITA card costs currently appprox. $100 bucks.
A SD-memory card equivalent costs $32 (Class 10) but here's the kicker.
The PS VITA memory stick reading speeds are slow as a Class 4 card. Yup, barely 6 MB/s in the tests I've seen.
Don't believe me? Google for it online [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/df-hardware-how-fast-are-vita-memory-cards]. There is plenty of tests people have done that confirms that the transfer speeds of those VITA cards are way WAAAAY below average.

Here comes the fun part: You can buy a SDHC 32GB memory card for $32 and that card will be CLASS 10! I would know beacuse I bought a SanDisk Secure Digital Extreme HD Video 32GB card for my DSLR for $32 last week! And those are rated up to 45 MB/s reading speeds!

So, not only are the PS VITA memory cards significantly overpriced! They are also complete and utter shit in terms of performance! This is something Sony *HAD* to be aware of when manufacturing them. In a time when all other standard memory cards are becoming faster and faster while at the same time cheaper and cheaper SONY decides to go entirely 180° and release propiertary memory cards that are more expensive and far SLOWER than the market average... Because Sony is Sony and Sony are a bunch of anti-consumerist arrogant pricks.

In a time where the hardware market is dominated by competition Sony has shown that they just outright refuse to compete - they'd rather go to great lengths to force the market adapt to their practices rather than letting themselves adapt to the market. And this is obviously the sign that that is not working

 

[Jumwa]

Except it didn't. The 3DS is only the top handheld system if you ignore smart phones, which at this point is more than a little bit disingenuous. It's selling well, but it's not the best selling system in the market. It also sold poorly enough at first that Nintendo had to slash the price almost immediately -- if it were still at the launch price, it would still be languishing.

Plus, you know, Pokemon. That is one serious system seller, and it's something that will remain Nintendo hardware only for the foreseeable future.

The 3DS had a brief sales slump. It started off selling faster than any other console, then it hit a slump, the price drop fixed that, and it's now been outselling everything else like crazy. But this is the Escapist, so let's hang onto that one sales slump forever, I guess.

As well, the 3DS doesn't have a Pokemon title on it. In fact, the 3DS pokemon was only announced just yesterday. So you can hardly attribute it's booming success to Pokemon.

I find it so amusing that when the 3DS had a brief slump in sales, the Escapist was fast to blame the system. The Vita never takes off to begin with, and it's all excuses about smart phones and such, even though Sony's president was shooting down such issues by pointing out that the market is and always has been competitive.

The 3DS is proof that dedicated gaming handhelds can still work. They just need a reasonable price and good games.

 

[surg3n]

Nobody is surprised.

I got that rally racing game, £30 for a console port. The game is 700mb, and they charge £30 for it - anyone else see a problem here?

3DS games often go for £10, maybe Sony should take a leaf out of Nintendo's book, you know, that book they wrote on how to make a succesful handheld console.

It sticks in my craw, because the Vita in it's current state and price structure is doomed, and it's a really nice handheld. It needs some really decent traditional games, no back touch screen stupidity, no camera gimmicks, the damn thing has 2 analogue sticks and 2 triggers, fricken use them!.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Except it didn't. The 3DS is only the top handheld system if you ignore smart phones, which at this point is more than a little bit disingenuous. It's selling well, but it's not the best selling system in the market. It also sold poorly enough at first that Nintendo had to slash the price almost immediately -- if it were still at the launch price, it would still be languishing.

Plus, you know, Pokemon. That is one serious system seller, and it's something that will remain Nintendo hardware only for the foreseeable future.

The 3DS had a brief sales slump. It started off selling faster than any other console, then it hit a slump, the price drop fixed that, and it's now been outselling everything else like crazy. But this is the Escapist, so let's hang onto that one sales slump forever, I guess.

As well, the 3DS doesn't have a Pokemon title on it. In fact, the 3DS pokemon was only announced just yesterday. So you can hardly attribute it's booming success to Pokemon.

I find it so amusing that when the 3DS had a brief slump in sales, the Escapist was fast to blame the system. The Vita never takes off to begin with, and it's all excuses about smart phones and such, even though Sony's president was shooting down such issues by pointing out that the market is and always has been competitive.

The 3DS is proof that dedicated gaming handhelds can still work. They just need a reasonable price and good games.

Can work?

Sure, it's profitable enough.

Is selling well compared to smart phones? Not hardly. I can't find any exact sales numbers for the iPhone 5 overall, but it sold over 5 million units in its opening weekend. The 3DS sold about four million in its first /year./ And the iPhone 5 is only one major current phone model. Even if only, say, 10% of all flagship smartphones that have been sold are actually encroaching on the market traditionally held by dedicated handhelds (which I find to be an incredibly conservative number), the 3DS is still a system with a minority market share.

Edit: And yes, I understand that it launched without one, but a new pokemon within the first couple years of a Nintendo handheld's life cycle is a given, enough so that people will buy the things over their competitors knowing they'll eventually be getting entries in that series. For example, Pokemon X and Y, just announced, 3DS exclusive. Not a big surprise. Plus, it's backwards compatible, so you can still play the current Pokemon title on it in the mean time.

 

[Colt47]

This is really a pity considering I actually like the console set up compared to the 3DS. Then again, Sony is attempting to copy Nintendo in their hardware centric mind set and it isn't working, largely because they don't have enough first party titles to back up their strategy and they are being forced to try and make money back by having extremely highly priced memory. To this date I've only bought two games for the Vita: Gravity Rush and Persona 3 Portable, and I got P3P thanks to a sale that Sony had nothing to do with. They need to put digital games on sale like Steam does and they need to reduce the memory cost in order to push sales of the Vita.

 

[Dendio]

I predict sony ceases any forays into the handheld market post vita. The problem is that cell phones allow for entertainment even if one doesnt play games. In my youth i'd play my gameboy because i had nothing else to do on long trips. Nowadays I can read the internet, make forum posts and play cheap or free games online