GamrDebate: Is the Playstation Vita already doomed?

[dharh]

RolStoppable said:

Seece said:

Pretty sure Nintendo are ahead of you on this one. They're clearly not afraid of taking risks (although I always stand by my belief that they had little choice but to go with the Wii) If they thought they could have another Wii hit on their hands they would have gone the same route, but they know, and I think most other people realise that it just wasn't going to happen a second time around, it's not radically different enough to capture the casuals immagination, it's just never going to get that IT status whoever they target it at. Nintendo are courting third parties because it's a lot safer and a lot more predictable.

I don't know why you're using PS3 losses as an excuse as to why the strategy doesn't work, different company, different mindset.

I wouldn't be surprised to find Nintendo are worried about their future, every year they're going to have to fight that bit harder than they did last gen to keep 3DS relevent, even if you take games out of the equation, people are still choosing iPhones and the likes over dedicated handhelds.

The safest bet argument doesn't fly, because then Nintendo would have launched the 3DS with Super Mario Bros. 3DS, a sequel to the #1 selling game on the DS. The DS game released in 2006 and never got a sequel, so there was more than enough time to get the game ready for the 3DS launch. Releasing a sequel to your biggest IP on the launch day of a new system is the safest bet to get off to a good start. The reality is that Nintendo didn't even have the logo to show for SMB 3DS when they announced it at their last briefing, so everything points to a reaction to poor 3DS sales and the game may have not been made at all, if the 3DS had sold well. Let this sink in for a while: Nintendo would deliberately forego making a sequel to their biggest IP, that's how messed up things have been inside the company in the last couple of years. Would Microsoft stop making Halo? Unthinkable.

I said the strategy is flawed and the PS3 is a good example of why it is. There's a chance that it does work, but if it doesn't, the company is screwed. Sony lost a lot of marketshare, mindshare and profits this generation.

I am pretty sure that Miyamoto is worried about his future, because he can't have his way. But Nintendo, as a company, has all the IPs and talent it takes to keep making dedicated gaming platforms, but their businessmen need to bitchslap their developers more often, because it's very much needed.

even if you take games out of the equation, people are still choosing iPhones and the likes over dedicated handhelds.

This sentence really doesn't make sense, because the only reason why people would choose iPhones and the likes over dedicated handhelds is if you take games out of the equation. A handheld without games is worthless, after all.

There is a huge range of gamers. Some who game because they like to game, at the exclusion of other activity. There are some who game only when there is downtime, IE when on the bus or waiting for something. And then there is the huge spectrum in between. For a great many people their only access to gaming, and the only one they want, is through the one device we all pretty much MUST carry with it, that being the phone.

For every one person who is will to spend the money it takes to buy a dedicated handheld and the expensive (relatively) game purchases that go along with it. I can show you at least two people who would rather just use the phone they already own and buy a cheapo $1.99 game to screw around with for a few hours before they never touch the game ever again.

As these phones get more and more powerful it will become even more true. More and more people will prefer to only have the one device (phone) to do their gaming, especially when these handhelds are not nearly so much more powerful than their phones.

Take gaming out of the equation these people are going to have an iPhone or some other powerful phone. Add gaming back into the equation and the question becomes, since I already have this powerful device why would I go out and buy a 3DS or PSVita.

That's just talking about the casual style gamers. When targeting actual gamers who game just to game, both SONY and Nintendos answer to this can be seen in the design of those respective systems. They've had to further differentiate their devices to make their games exclusive. Dual Screen, 3D, back touch sensitivity, duel analog sticks. Without that differentiation there would be NO reason whatsoever to buy those systems because the iPhone would always be better.

Me I think this is quite possibly the last gen for traditional hand held gaming. At the very least the next playstation portable will be nothing more than software that can get loaded onto suitable powerful phones of which sony happens to sell some. Nintendo has some soul searching to do.