pokoko said:
I've been arguing for years that Sony's absolute biggest mistake with their handheld division has been their failure to develop a kid-friendly IP. In Japan, they can get by without it. In the west, the handheld market depends on titles that appeal to a younger audience. Developing such an IP--and I mean the whole nine yards, including games, television, and toys--should have been a priority from the moment they launched the PSP. Even if it wasn't, it should have been one BEFORE they launched the Vita. The adult gamer market is not going to support dedicated handheld devices in North America. What makes this even more of a mistake is that Sony is in a good position with Sony Pictures to leverage kid-friendly properties. They could make it happen. If nothing else, they could have formed a partnership with someone that already had a popular media IP and offered to handle the video-game segment of the market. It's the same criticism I have with Nintendo: no one is going to do your job for you. If you wait for that, and it doesn't happen, it's your own fault. If you want a particular market to develop on your device, you go out and lay the groundwork yourself. |
Sony's biggest handheld mistake isn't that they didn't make kid friendly IP's, it's that they didn't make big IP that appeals to everyone. The only really big games on the Vita are Gravity Rush and tear away, both new IP. I agree with the groundwork claim tho