Nikkei Industry Rumor: "Devs canning Vita projects, moving to 3DS"

[mike_intellivision]

Sony's financial situation makes it difficult for it to cut the price on the Vita where it would have to take a loss/take a larger loss on each unit sold. (I have heard it is making a profit on each unit but that has been unverified and typically Sony sells hardware at a bit of a loss at introduction).

While price cutting may not be an option, other design decisions could be much more of a problem.
1. The required non-included proprietary memory increases the real purchase price (by at least 10 percent or $25 in the US). In other words, the difference between the PSV and 3DS is $105 not $80.
2. Charging $50 for the top-of-the-line Uncharted title (at least Gamestop is doing that) may give people pause. It took a while for $40 3DS titles to be accepted. (That is the only game at that price so far).
3. Charging the same for a digital download as for a physical copy of the game is not going to make a lot of people buy the tangible product. It probably could make just as money as a physical sale by charging $10 less and probably sell more too. (For example, wholesalers charge small game stores $43 for $50 games -- so there is some thought to this statement).
4. Not having backward compatibility -- and scrapping the method to port over UMD games -- eliminates almost all reason for PSP owners to upgrade to the new Sony machine when they change handhelds.

Mike from Morgantown

PS -- When Nintendo cut its price and lost money for the first time ever over a reporting year, there was much "Doom and Gloom" talk. Given Sony's situation, I am surprised not to see any similar talk about the company as a whole.