Japanese Stores Cut PSVita Price By 20 Percent

[rocketpig]

GhaudePhaede010 said:
I am the writer. And what I said I stand by. There is absolutely no way that people are taking an android over a 3DS for gaming. It is not happening. And I am not saying what you imply at all. You imply I am saying everyone is broke... no-no...I am saying the price of a dedicated hand held video gaming system is too high for todays consumers. The perception (sic?) of a hand held video gaming console is that it be affordable and not close to console prices. Which is why people are willing to buy 3DS now that would not just a short while ago.

You use ancedotal evidence so allow me to do the same. My best friend has an iphone and an android tablet but said, "No way would I get a 3DS at that price. 250 for a hand held is too much." Price dropped, he got the Zelda 3DS bundle. I am not saying he is broke, I am saying the cost is too high for a hand held... especially in todays economy. He afforded all three, but not a 3DS at 250. Get it? Good.

The blame is not on external forces, I am trying to say that even without other compitetion, if the hand held consoles released at the prices they did, people would still balk because that is a home console price tagged to a hand held. Nice try spinning it.

Jesus Christ. I never said anyone was taking an Android over a 3DS for GAMING. In fact, I kind of said the opposite. My point is that they are overlap devices. There are people out there (like me, all of my friends, my nieces) who own MULTIPLE Android/iOS devices. We can afford the 3DS but we have no interest in buying one because we already own "good enough" mobile gaming devices.

They're not in direct competition with each other; anyone who says so isn't paying attention. But that doesn't mean they don't share consumer space. Overall, I think the 3DS will do moderately well for itself. For a handheld gaming device to succeed, it needs to differentiate itself from the tablet/phone market. The 3DS does a decent job of that. Do I think it will be as successful as the DS? No, I think there's about a zero percent chance of that happening. The casual market that made the DS so massively popular has moved on to other devices. Still, that doesn't mean Nintendo can't make it out of this generation with a tidy profit. But even if they do, that doesn't mean the market is stable or expanding because it's not.

On the other hand, I think the Android/iOS market is going to absolutely fucking kill the Vita. It's too expensive (and unlike Nintendo, I doubt Sony has the wiggle room for a price drop) and it crosses over with Android/iOS far more than the 3DS. Sony (again) couldn't have managed the design/launch of a handheld device much worse than they have twice in a row now.