The predecessor, Shining Blade, opened with 119k. It lost almost half its opening. To be fair it was leaked onto pirate networks 2 days early, and Shining Blade was a pile of crap that probably hurt consumer faith in the series, but PSP is still clearly a declining market in Japan, and totally dead overseas.

I agree they should have made it a Vita game, it would have been more visually appealing and even niche minor titles like Demon Gaze make excellent sales returns. People like to bash the low Vita sales numbers, but they don't realize (or ignore) that even with these low numbers most Vita games are profitable because they are cheap to develop and Sony does not charge exhorbitant royalty fees. There's a reason why small to medium size third party developers continue to flock to Sony (and Microsoft to a smaller degree) and ignore Nintendo. Time and time again Japanese developers cite excellent Vita/PSN sales as big factors in favorable quarterly earnings reports and adjustments. The digital market shouldn't be underestimated either, as retail middlemen are eliminated and a much larger proportion of the purchase price goes directly to the developer.

Other upcoming PSP games that should have at least multi-platform with Vita are Summon Night 5, Seventh Dragon 2020 II, and Sword Art Online, big mistake in my opinion. Kyoukai Senjyou no Horizon recently changed their release date from the end of the month to "further notice", and it is heavily rumored that this is because they are making a Vita version along with the original PSP version. It's not official, but it would be great to see even more developers realize the Vita market is full of people with lots of money to spend and a great willingness to support the system. The ratio of buyers of certain software to total Vita owners is absurdly high.

If Sony can show that in spite of small user base, your otaku game will still sell better on Vita than 3DS, then that's the most important thing they can do for getting the third parties on board.  

They've already shown that, and it was never really in doubt to begin with. Niche stuff like shmups, ADV games, and generally pervy stuff always seems to gravitate toward the worst-selling console. Happened with the Saturn, the Dreamcast, the PSP, and the 360.

In order for the Vita to have been a worthwhile endeavor for Sony when it's all said and done, I think they need to start swinging for the fences with more mass market oriented stuff. And soon.

But they're not getting the Otaku stuff.  It's still all going to the PSP. 

This forum really needs a multiquote button.

Yes, 128GB card, retailing for about £260.  This will make people buy a Vita.

As well as games never announced for Vita and nothing more than dreams.

There are more games announced for Vita than for PSP at this point, and Vita is getting almost nothing but otaku stuff. PSP is fading, and March looks like a last gasp for it software-wise.

Sony doesn't really need to worry about those games. There is no reason for them to all flock to the 3DS where they will be buried by mainstream games and sell no more (and in fact usually less) than they would on Vita.

Those types of games need sell shitloads and that isn't going to happen on Vita.


This forum really needs a multiquote button.

Well, there's still stuff coming past March - stuff like 7th Dragon & Summon Night (from COMG); some Idea Factory & Prototype games (from amazon.jp).  Then there's the PSP/PSV stuff like God Eater 2 & Toukiden.

But it does seem to be less than it has been last year, at least.  I hope you're right about all this!

Have I ever given you reason to doubt me?

Besides, I think the performance of Senran Kagura and Demon Gaze should lay to rest any doubts. Just like indie games are swarming to Vita in the West, those kinds of niche games will continue to favor the Vita in Japan. Sony ought to be working on stuff that's at least a tier above that, like shoring up Atlus support. Actually, Namco, Koei, and Sega all seem to be very much on board already, so for big publishers it really only seems to be Square-Enix and that dastardly Capcom who need to be persuaded.

But really, I can't believe how little they've done with first party IPs. I don't expect them to be Nintendo, but after 20 years of consoles with amazing market penetration, it's kind of dumbfounding to me that they have never tried to come up with an answer to Pokemon or Animal Crossing.

Have I ever given you reason to doubt me?

Besides, I think the performance of Senran Kagura and Demon Gaze should lay to rest any doubts. Just like indie games are swarming to Vita in the West, those kinds of niche games will continue to favor the Vita in Japan. Sony ought to be working on stuff that's at least a tier above that, like shoring up Atlus support. Actually, Namco, Koei, and Sega all seem to be very much on board already, so for big publishers it really only seems to be Square-Enix and that dastardly Capcom who need to be persuaded.

But really, I can't believe how little they've done with first party IPs. I don't expect them to be Nintendo, but after 20 years of consoles with amazing market penetration, it's kind of dumbfounding to me that they have never tried to come up with an answer to Pokemon or Animal Crossing.