Sony no longer reporting PS4 shipments, Final Official total 117.00m

[Bofferbrauer2]

padib said:

Bofferbrauer2 said:

People left the Vita because of 2 main reasons: It's price (both for the console and the expensive memory cards one needed for the Vita) and the lack of software.

Switch had a Killer App with Breath of the Wild right out the gate, with MK8DX, Splatoon 2, SMO and so on coming quickly afterwards. This meant that there was actually something to play on the Switch, and it's capabilities were quite a bit higher than the ones of the Vita.

Both together contributed to the Switch being seem as a much more viable investment than the Vita ever was. What the Vita absolutely lacked was any Killer App, any game exclusive to the Vita that would sell the system. There ain't anything that could qualify in the slightest for this. Sure, it had many games, even some pretty good PS3/PS4 conversions - but since they already existed there, there was little reason to buy a Vita just for them. Worst part of the Vita was that you basically needed a PS3 to download PS1/PSP games onto the system. Why make it so convoluted??? Sony needed to make some system sellers for the system, and absolutely failed to do so. As such, they pretty much left the Vita to die.

The only type of games that really sold the system were Visual Novels, as there's plenty of them, especially in Japan with tons of Otome there that never made it outside of Japan. But that's not enough to make the system sell in big numbers, and even less so outside of Japan.

So saying that it's not what Sony wanted is pretty much a joke, as they could have done so much for both the Vita and the Japanese market in general, and didn't do anything worthwhile, leading to their declining sales in Japan and the death of the Vita.

Speaking of the Vita, Jim Sterling made an excellent video 8 years ago about the system where he points out at all it's problems and how Sony left it to rot and die instead of doing something that could have saved the console:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUn7Ye8mDXU

It's not a joke, the joke is that you can't mention anything Sony could have done to fix it. They had killer apps on the Vita. Not only did they have great 3rd party support as usual while Nintendo had much less support on the 3ds, but it also had whatever 1st party games Sony could afford to make. The problem was not that, the problem clearly is that Nintendo has become too strong they are virtually undefeatable in japan.

And even if they listened to your horrible sunk-cost advice, what Sony killer app would turn the tide that is not already on their home console, which the Japanese just don't buy?

You have no solution, so cut selling false arguments. Sony lost and name me one thing they can do to fix this in Japan. There is nothing. They even have final fantasy exclusive and can't win. They had Monster Hunter on Psp and couldn't win. It's over and they know it, and good thing you don't manage them or your ideas would have lost them money. They did well to exit before losing any more. Let them focus on their strengths.

@curl. The PS4 lost a significant market to the 3DS/switch, leading to lifetime sales 10M lower than what their main consoles are able to do, and full loss of potential 70M in handheld. They are direct competitors.

What Killer Apps? I went through the entire game catalogue of the Vita, and the only real big releases I could find were ports from other console games. If you have any real Killer Apps in mind, care to mention them?

@underscored: Nintendo is strong in Japan because they make games that also interest Japanese players. Sony gradually stopped doing so when they focused all on fighting the Xbox by bringing more and more games for western audiences. Sony literally abandoned Japanese players with this tactic. If Sony would create some games that were actually also interesting for Japanese players and not just western ones, then Sony could easily grow there again. But that's simply not what they're doing with their laser-focus to the west, and even burning some of the few bridges left with actions like the recent price hike.

Long story short, Playstation sales in Japan are not low due to Nintendo, they are low due to the actions, or lack thereof, of Sony in Japan.

Last edited by Bofferbrauer2 - on 29 August 2022