warhalohog on 05 October 2012
| mike_intellivision said: Sony has a wonderful piece of technology in the Vita. However, it might be the wrong piece of technology for the wrong time. At $250 WiFi (USD) and $300 3G (USD), it costs more than both its gaming competitor (3DS) and some handheld devices which can play games and music (iPod). Nintendo realized it was selling the 3DS at too high of a price point and cut the price, taking a loss (and a PR hit) in the process. Sony's financial situation makes it much more problematic to do the same thing immediately. Related to this, there have been PR blunders. Most recently, saying that there would be a price cut next year, which is a "sales killer" since people will now "wait" instead of buying. If it is not something you need immediately, many people will wait out an anticipated $50 price reduction. (The only worse way to kill sales is to announce the replacement 18 months before release -- see Nintendo Wii). Also, billing the unit as being an extension of/controller for the PS3 sends the wrong message to non-PS3 owners. Sony has also chosen to emphasize the technology that you can "play" your PS3 games and have console-like experiences with Vita games. As has been pointed out by others, much of the time gaming-on-the-go means quick hits not long play sessions. Mobile devices offer mostly quick hits. The 3DS offers both. Sony has gone in the wrong direction with its long-play emphasis. Finally, Sony has also gone in the wrong direction with compatibility. Since you cannot just pop in your PSP game into your Vita, there is no loyalty. People can buy whatever they want/feel like since there is no inherent benefit to staying with the Sony brand. Conversely, Nintendo has always had one level of backward-compatibility in its handhelds: GBC played GB. GBA played GBC (and GB); DS played GBA; 3DS plays DS. Buy doing this, Nintendo has people locked into their systems who played the previous system since they can bring over all their previous generation games. Sony has some of this going on with the unified PSN, but not nearly as much. So, in closing, the Vita costs too much compared to the competition and what it does, it emphasized the wrong type of games for a handheld, and it does not have backward-compatibility to PSP users (which would cause immediate appeal). Mike from Morgantown |
Ok this made alot of sense to me you should be hired by sony lol, having a vita your psp statement made the most sense, the fact that i had to sell off all my games as i could no longer use them made me think what was the point of buying them and being loyal in the first place
