Once a month (or more, if these threads become successful), I shall be taking the month's biggest gaming story/event and putting it up for debate, as well as posting my view on the issue. I shall be asking other people on the site to post their opinion and vote either for or against the thread title, and, after 3 weeks, will be selecting the winning side.
This month, I take on the impending PSVita launch, and asking whether or not its lukewarm sales in Japan means a much larger issue for the handheld, or if its sales really are nothing to be worried about.
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It was always going to be difficult for Sony's new handheld. Everything seemed to be stacked against the Vita right off the bat. Releasing a new handheld which looks incredibly similar to its predecessor nearly 12 months after the sequel to the PSP's greatest rival in a world where social gaming and cheap, 99p mobile games are at the forefront of people's minds seemed to pitch the Vita up against insurmountable odds. Poor 3DS sales in the eyes of many, mostly due to health fears, a high price tag and a lack of variety of games at launch gave people mixed feelings about how Vita would fare.
On the one hand, the weak 3DS sales could be seen as a positive for the Vita. After all, the reason for the poor sales was down to the reasons above, so if the Vita could release it at the same price as the 3DS, with more features and a better launch lineup would deal a hefty blow to the 3DS, edging momentum to the Vita and moving a lot of 3rd party support, and consumer confidence, to the console and away from the 3DS.
Conversly, the weak 3DS sales could be viewed as the shift from traditional portable consoles to more mobile games, of which are cheap and easy to get in to. In 2012, is there still a market for a new portable console to launch? Or would the Vita only fall even flatter than the 3DS at launch? Whatever the case may have been, Sony could not repeat the mistakes they made with the PSP this time.
Sadly, it would seem as though they have.
The Vita needed 3 things to be successful: A competitive price, a good games lineup at launch and advertisement. Lots and lots of advertisement.
It seems to me as though Sony have managed to at least follow through on one of these points; the launch lineup. No-one can deny that the games which shall be released for the Vita at launch are of not only a better quality, but a better variety (for the most part), than those in the first 6 months of the 3DS' life. We have Uncharted. We have Wipeout. And we have plenty of stuff inbetween. That's enough for most people to be content with for at least a month or two, in which time more titles would be released.
The biggest mistake, however, in my eyes, is the price of entry. Here in the UK, the Wi-Fi version will cost £230, £15 more than the 3DS launched at last year. On top of this, Vita memory card (which will range from £19 to £89), which are required to play any game, and also the price of the games themselves (which will fall in line with most HD games at about £40) means that you're looking to fork out about £300 at least for a Vita, a memory card and a game. Compared to the 3DS, which you can likely play nowadays for around £150+ a game, this is a huge mistake.
This is compounded by a lack of any sort of advertisment for the console outside of gaming websites and magazines. I hae yet to see a single advert for the Vita, and very little pushing from retailers (no midnight launches in any Game or Gamestation here in the UK, for example), could easily lead to the average consumer to believe this new console is simply another PSP with an extra analogue stick. A much greater marketing campaign will need to be launched in the UK in order for the Vita to be even slightly competitive at launch.
These issues have been reflected in the Japanese launch. Unless (it would seem) you work as a Sony exec, the sales for the Vita thus far have ranged from lackluster to downright terrible. If being outsold by the 3DS neaely 3:1 at its launch in Japan wasn't bad enough, being outsold nearly 9:1 the following week or two only compounded the issue. Now the Vita seems to have levelled at around 20k, but this will likely drop in the wake of no new software on the horizon. With the 3DS nearer 90k, and with plenty of leggy titles currently doing their rounds (Mario, Monster Hunter), the 3DS certainly has all the momentum in Japan. Sony needs to make sure this doesn't occur in the rest of the world, otherwise there could be a real danger of 3rd party abandonment for the system.
In conclusion, despite what it may seem, I don't believe the Vita is already 'doomed'. If Sony release plenty of heavy hitting games this year, and maybe cut the price of both the console and the memory cards, the Vita will have a chance. However, from what I've seen from Sony currently, this won't happen. I'm sorry Sony, but as things stand, I can only say that the Cita is doomed in my eyes.
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What about you? Do you agree? Disagree? Post your thoughts below!
