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Forums - Sony - Tretton: PlayStation Vita's Got a Dedicated Fanbase, It's Just Not Big Enough

V-r0cK on 04 July 2013
foodfather said:
Initially, I thought the Vita would never kick off because there is not justification for having hand held consoles when you can buy a tablet, which are more appealing devices and their games cost no more than a latte.

However this doesn't explain why the 3DS is doing so well.

Vita is a fantastic device with a great screen and UI, you can argue that it doesn't have games but from what I've seen, it has much better games than the 3DS.

The real question isn't why is the PSV selling poorly, but why is the 3DS selling so well.

Pricing and games.



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ethomaz on 04 July 2013

I think there a big room to improve in Japan at least because each new game the sales go over 30k.



dahuman on 04 July 2013
gooch_destroyer said:

Posted Tue 2nd Jul 2013 16:45 by Sammy Barker

 

Growing pains

While it’s now host to a pretty strong selection of games, the PlayStation Vita is still struggling to garner the commercial success that it probably deserves. Hardware numbers are catastrophically low, and it’s failing to secure big third-party brands as a result. Despite this, SCEA president Jack Tretton believes that there’s still a big market for the device – irrespective of the growing dominance of smartphones and tablets.

“If you’re really going to change the industry, and you’re going to do something that people are going to remember you for, then you’ve got to take a few risks,” the straight-talking gaffer told IGN in an episode of Up at Noon. “It seemed crazy in 1995 to go up against Nintendo and SEGA, and release [the PSone]. Given smartphones and tablets, a lot of people are now asking, ‘Why do you want to have a dedicated handheld?’ We always thought that there was an opportunity, seeing as not everybody can be at home all of the time, to try and deliver a high quality experience with dual-analogue sticks and a great screen. And I still think that there’s an audience for it.”

Tretton reckons that there’s good reason to believe that the system will rebound, too – even if the platform holder has got its work cut out. “The thing that has me encouraged about the Vita is that the people that have bought the console really enjoy it – they’re very happy with it, and they’re buying a lot of games,” he said. “I think that I said at E3 that owners buy around ten games on average, so we’ve got a dedicated fanbase, it’s just not big enough right now.”

The executive continued that connectivity with the PS4 could boost the handheld’s prospects in the future. “I think that the connection to the PS4 and the ability to play remotely on your Vita will get a lot more people interested in the system, but there’s clearly a lot of work still to be done,” he noted. “We knew that we were going into a really difficult market [from the outset].”

During the interview, the likeable suit took the opportunity to reiterate that Remote Play between the PS4 and Vita will work on launch day, which is definitely an exciting prospect. Still, the handheld is in a bit of a strange spot at the moment, because it genuinely is bursting with solid content. The problem is that while the software in the pipeline is certain to appeal to existing owners, there’s nothing really on the horizon that’s going to prompt prospective buyers to purchase the machine.

http://www.pushsquare.com/news/2013/07/tretton_playstation_vitas_got_a_dedicated_fanbase_its_just_not_big_enough

 

It's kinda sad if you think about that bolded quote a little bit considering that it's nothing but damage control:

“The thing that has me encouraged about the 3DS is that the people that have bought the console really enjoy it – they’re very happy with it, and they’re buying a lot of games,” he said. “I think that I said at E3 that owners buy a fuck ton of games on average, so we’ve got a dedicated fanbase, it’s just super huge right now.”



dahuman on 04 July 2013
foodfather said:
Initially, I thought the Vita would never kick off because there is not justification for having hand held consoles when you can buy a tablet, which are more appealing devices and their games cost no more than a latte.

However this doesn't explain why the 3DS is doing so well.

Vita is a fantastic device with a great screen and UI, you can argue that it doesn't have games but from what I've seen, it has much better games than the 3DS.

The real question isn't why is the PSV selling poorly, but why is the 3DS selling so well.

I wouldn't say the Vita has better games though, if you are talking about graphically then there are things on a higher tech level, but not really better as games overall. Doesn't help that Nintendo 1st party games are usually really good on handhelds while Sony is still having trouble figuring it out on top of all the 3rd party games on 3DS IMO.



teigaga on 04 July 2013

I've arguably spent too much money on vita titles. But so easy with all the cheap psp, psone classics.

Sony could have sold double amount of Vita's they have now if they had bend make a new Jak title instead of uncharted, if they priced the system at $299 Instead of $250, but included 32GB internal memory. If they organised with square to get Type 0 ported to the system in time for its western launch window and if they really pushed for all the PS2 classics ICO/SOTC, GOW, JAK, DMC, RE4, Ratchet on the Vita at the same time or even before they released them for the ps3.