PS Vita is the Gaming Gadget of the Year, why can't it sell?

[Solid-Stark]

superchunk said:
Why isn't it selling?

Its not a mass market product. It a niche product that does its job very well.

I go back to my original statement/thread. It should have been a smartphone.

Keep ALL of its existing features, power, game choices, controls, etc. Just slightly different physical design and of course sold through cell carriers on contract etc. Could even pimp out a new model every other year to align with contract upgrades.

Would have done much better. Would have had a higher profit margin for Sony. Would have been able to be priced like cell phones (in the States at least) on contract with prices from $49 to $199.

Hell, I would have gotten one. Probably one for my oldest kid too.

Sony does not have the first party software to push a niche product like a dedicated gaming console. Only Nintendo has that capability. Smartphones and tablets now rule the entertainment portable market, not gaming consoles. Sony has the experience and capacity to immediately do well in that market and should have went for it.

Don't counter me with PSPGo (a digital only crappy low-end product) or the Xperia Play (a low-end phone with zero gaming support) as reason it wouldn't work. It would have to be the Vita in a slider fully Android phone scenario. i.e. a real high-end smartphone with high-end gaming capability.

Im curious, if it was a phone, would it be getting spec jumps every year? 3 years from now, would early adopters be shunned?(Not be able to buy the latest games)

If it was a phone, I wouldn't have bought one.

The PSP was in a drastic decline for years, be what it was that caused it. The Vita isn't off to a great start. Perhaps the mass market just doesn't want a "Playstation" portable anymore.

Nintendo may have gotten passed the barriers due to much stronger name IP's. But maybe, just maybe, the market is transitioning to tablet and smartphone gaming as the new "portable gaming". And yes I'm talking about sub-$5 (or whatever the average price is) games.