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pray4mojo on 17 February 2017
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setsunatenshi said:
pray4mojo said:

Well, for starters, Sony has a history of doing this sort of stuff. Secondly, I think they know that the Switch may just destroy their entire Japanese business. Seriously. They barely beat Nintendo's worst selling home console of all time and got killed again with the Vita/3DS war. If Switch does what I think it's going to do in that country, Sony is in serious trouble. They have almost zero chance without copying them and trying to release a me-also system.

Not completely disagreeing as, yes, Japan is mobile pretty much through and through. Also I do think there must be a plan at work to remain on the handheld market, but financially Japan is not that important anymore in terms of sales. The west is where they are making money and that's not going to change anytime soon.

Where I disagree is on the trouble you're predicting. A $300 handheld just does not sell the numbers you're thinking it will. Look at the 3DS before the steep price cut.

Also, technically Sony's handhelds have always been leagues ahead of Nintendo's in terms of specs and multimedia capabilities. Judging by what we've seen from the Switch, it definitely would not be hard to put on a new portable that would outperform the Switch. The question is, will it be worthwile just to capture the Japanese market?

I honestly don't know, but I would love a new Vita/PSP with all the things fixed (L2,R2, L3, R3, normal sd cards). I don't see it happening with this design though, it's lacking the usual Sony sleekness.

Sony's handhelds have only outperformed Nintendos in the specs department. That hasn't translated to sales as Nintendos handhelds have never been challenged, even in Japan. Sony isn't going to capture the Japanese martket no matter what. Right now, in light of Switch being a hybrid, Sony can only try to stay afloat. Home consoles are dead. Ninendo handhelds reign supreme. There's really no where for them to go right now and it's going to be interesting to see how they approach the problem.