Bobby Kotick: Vita is great, but where's the market?

[demonfox13]

d21lewis said:
Here's my take on the current state of portable gaming:
The DS was a success because it offered great games and features that nobody else was offering at the time. The 3DS offers just as many new features but not everyone is aware of them, yet. All people think it is is just a DS with a cheap 3D effect (but the 3D is actually very good). When it starts pushing new games and not just ports, it will do very well. Problem is, casual games may eat into the market of the 3DS. Nintendo lost some momentum with the 3DS. They need to pump out the next batch of Mario, Mario Kart, and Pokemon to get gamers hooked before the PSV hits or people get too used to playing cheap thrills like Angry Birds.

The PSP was a success because it offered "the Playstation experience" on the go. The PSV is offering more features and such at an affordable price. The problem is, the 3DS has some serious horsepower. If third parties don’t try to push the PSV's capabilities, the games will look almost as good (we're talking Xbox vs PS2) on the 3DS. Sony excels when third parties offer exclusive games. If the 3DS can offer "the Playstation experience" AND "the Nintendo experience" , Sony may be in trouble. They need their big developers working on their big franchises if they want to win this thing. Third parties are loyal to no one.

I once saw "mini-games" like those offered on phones and pads as a threat. I've been playing a lot of games on my phone and playing my PSP less and less. I'm actually getting bored with those bite sized games and hungering for full game experiences, again. I can't be alone in this. I think the PSV and the 3DS will both do very well--just not as good as their predecessors. There will always be a market for the premium experience.

Well there are proper games on the PSP if you look at God Eater Burst, PeaceWalker, or even the GoW games among many others not on phones and that will never be on phones. My only criticism so far on Vita is the exclusivity with AT&T. They should allow 3G AND 4G so you can tether it to your phone. Imagine playing COD multiplayer or Uncharted multiplayer on the road?  Or playing a MH game on the train or outside? I see huge potential but the AT&T thing rubbed me the wrong way. Also Sony has quite a few first parties that have developed and are developing great games even for Vita. The Wipeout series, Super Stardust series, along with Resistance, KZ, Uncharted, among many others. What I always loved about my current PSP is how well the sleep mode lowers battery usage. I played Ghost of Sparta for a couple of hours between travel time and putting it on sleep mode on and off and whatnot, then put it on sleep mode at the end of the day. A couple of days later I turn it back on to see the game paused realizing I had forgotten to save and quit. My point is that people have bashed the PSP because of the full console type games and the "boo hoo you cannot pickup and play and put down 5 min later", well to those idiots it is called sleep mode and you can play anything 5-10 min at a time and then catch up later. Battery Life, the PlayStation experience, good online , is all Vita really needs.