Judging Vita before its first Christmas is "preposterous" - Sony

[Chark]

RolStoppable said:

Chark said:

Do you not think gaming media has influence on the market? Vita started selling like crap in Japan due to a lack of eastern appealing software and an overabundance of PSP software releases. Once Vita started dropping in sales, this included highlighting sales drops from launch numbers which is obvious, the negative articles started making their rounds all over the media. Gaming sites, electronic sits, business sites, all pointed at Vita long before world wide launch. It cultivated the Vita doom, it was already established before it even got into people's hands.

The forums, the message boards, the blogs. Those aren't just profile pics in a virtual landscape, those are real people spreading hate for the system, consumer loyalty at its worst. It's not just online, those people have friends, those friends have friends. Mass information spreads like a wildfire. When something becomes "in" it is because of perception. Vita is on the wrong end of perception to the extent that the "in" thing is to hate the Vita. It takes time to overcome something like that, people need to stop caring, stop listening to the fanatics, before the Vita will become an option for people. People are prone to social influences.

I'm not saying that is the only factor, of course price and other things serve to dissuade especially since the main competitor dropped their price heavily. Some say its software, but there was plenty of software at launch and it does have a large selection with some big names. I fear that every new console is going to be a victim of this from now on, new hardware won't have the lineup of several year old systems. It seems people are comparing it to that and not to systems during their first year on the market.

He mentioned the Wii which pretty much proves the importance of the gaming media or rather it's lack thereof. Basically, each month right after the NPD numbers were published, editorials on gaming websites started to pop up and questioned if the Wii actually deserves its sales when there are so much better systems out there. The message boards were filled with hatred, proclaiming that the Wii isn't even a proper gaming console and that it belongs into the same category as Leapfrog. The anecdotal evidence somehow always happened to be "everyone I know who owns a Wii isn't using it anymore" and this was in 2007. The Wii kept on selling regardless.

What this means is that the massmarket doesn't read the gaming media. It also means that the average forum user doesn't actually talk to people about video games. All these pissing contests on the internet do not reflect the real world and neither do they influence or change the real world. The dedicated followers of gaming who suck up every bit of news and discuss them on message boards are powerless.

The current problem of the Vita in the market isn't hate. It's indifference. People just don't care about it and some may not even know that it exists.

Th Wii was an astounding sucess in the non gaming market. Droves of people not interested in gaming pick up a Wii. I'm not saying gaming media effects those who don't game, the mainstream if you will, it affects gamers. Gamers are the ones who read the articles, who are influenced by it. Gamers are the bulk, if not the repeat consumers of the industry. You don't need mainstream appeal to succeed, you can do fine by attracting the "core". The Vita became a target and is taking overwhelming bad PR that has crippled its sales to the core gaming consumer. It wouldn't have meant much if they had mainstream appeal like the Wii which managed high sales despite core backlash.

Right now Vita is surviving off of PlayStatiin fans and independent thinking consumers who decide to get one, not much else. Either Sony needs to quite the angry core, or attract the outside mainstream market. It looks like they are trying to wait it out until they get bored or the software starts to appease them, rather than cut the price out of desperation. Providing several bundles is their attempt at appeasement at the moment. As for the mainstream, well that's a harder fish to fry, but maybe they are pushing their marketing budget for that...a long shot to try and catch fire though. The Vita is in a tough position trying to sell while trying not to sink potential profits as an antidote. Maybe they will do better than people think this holiday, either way a price drop will come at some point, but at a better time for Sony financially.