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Forums - Gaming - Vita autopsy: What Went Wrong?

 

What was the biggest reason for the Vita's failure?

Not enough advertising 37 11.04%
 
Not enough games 89 26.57%
 
Too expensive (Including memory cards) 96 28.66%
 
The 3DS was just too mighty 73 21.79%
 
Other 40 11.94%
 
Total:335
Zackasaurus-rex said:


Regarding the last statement, this just tells us that you are uninformed on the subject. While VGC's consistently troubled tracking of physical sales tells one imperfect story, it completely neglects the digital side, and digital sales make up a higher percentage of Vita sales than they do on any other console/handheld. Devs have spoken out about the high attach ratio, indicating that it was over ten games per system owners many months back. That's actually pretty incredible. It makes sense, though. The Vita has an extremely core demographic, meaning that people who don't consume a lot of games aren't likely to buy a Vita. Meanwhile, the Vitas has more than a strong enough library to keep that core buying.

Regarding the first thing, you're making a fallacy. A launch doesn't define a platform's library (though the titles I mentioned go way, way beyond launch), but it does indicate early success. What we learnt from the Vita is that excellent games from new IPs and popular old IPs alike were not driving sales. The games were not the problem (though certainly we can endlessly posit that more games at least constantly help to some degree), because the system was not selling particularly well even when it was releasing quality, high-profile games much more than the 3DS was. Blaming a fancied lack of games is to not understand that the system and its positioning are the real problems. The Vita gets less high-profile exclusives now than it used to get because the system itself did not sell well enough when it already had the games. This is a bit of a chicken-and-egg scenario, and you're getting it wrong.

It's not very hard to get a high tie ratio when you have a samll userbase ...

So your still telling me that games weren't the problem ? 



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Sentient_Nebula said:

I'm hearing smartphones cited a lot as reasons. The issue I have with this theory is that smartphones don't seem to have had a major impact on the 3DS.

Yes, the 3DS is selling less than its predecessor, but I think that's more to do with other reasons, such as confusing naming, lack of innovation, and being expensive (compared to the DS at launch).


Actually, I think you're wrong. Smartphones are the most central explanation for why the handheld gaming industry as a whole has taken an absolutely massive nosedive in the matter of a single generational transition.

Many older players are not sure about carrying around so many devices simultaneously, while many younger ones are preoccupied with mobile games. The niche that handheld game devices used to fill is now filled by devices which do far more and are becoming practically first-world requisite. This greatly reduces the overall handheld market to core/persistent handheld gamers and a smaller but ongoing youth demographic.

There is also a small elderly phenomenon in Japan, but that's sort of negligible. 

You're naming much less proven problems for the 3DS. Marketing and time seem to have fixed the name confusion, the massive emergency price cut caused a 3DS sales spike, and innovation doesn't explain a lot. Meanwhile, the impact of smartphones is one that cannot be precisely measured but is quite qualitatively proven and quantitatively supported. This hit the Vita harder (it has more in common with a smartphone overall and has some of its own challenges), but it still hit handhelds en masse.



a variety of those things, combined.
I think mostly a lack of games especially when compared to the 3DS



 Been away for a bit, but sneaking back in.

Gaming on: PS4, PC, 3DS. Got a Switch! Mainly to play Smash

No big AAA IP on it that's the only real reason why it fail



PS4 - over 100 millions let's say 120m
Xbox One - 70m
Wii U - 25m

Vita - 15m if it will not get Final Fantasy Kingdoms Heart and Monster Hunter 20m otherwise
3DS - 80m

fatslob-:O said:
Zackasaurus-rex said:


Regarding the last statement, this just tells us that you are uninformed on the subject. While VGC's consistently troubled tracking of physical sales tells one imperfect story, it completely neglects the digital side, and digital sales make up a higher percentage of Vita sales than they do on any other console/handheld. Devs have spoken out about the high attach ratio, indicating that it was over ten games per system owners many months back. That's actually pretty incredible. It makes sense, though. The Vita has an extremely core demographic, meaning that people who don't consume a lot of games aren't likely to buy a Vita. Meanwhile, the Vitas has more than a strong enough library to keep that core buying.

Regarding the first thing, you're making a fallacy. A launch doesn't define a platform's library (though the titles I mentioned go way, way beyond launch), but it does indicate early success. What we learnt from the Vita is that excellent games from new IPs and popular old IPs alike were not driving sales. The games were not the problem (though certainly we can endlessly posit that more games at least constantly help to some degree), because the system was not selling particularly well even when it was releasing quality, high-profile games much more than the 3DS was. Blaming a fancied lack of games is to not understand that the system and its positioning are the real problems. The Vita gets less high-profile exclusives now than it used to get because the system itself did not sell well enough when it already had the games. This is a bit of a chicken-and-egg scenario, and you're getting it wrong.

It's not very hard to get a high tie ratio when you have a samll userbase ...

So your still telling me that games weren't the problem ? 


Yes, but other "failed" systems like the N-Gage (though its worth noting that ongoing Vita support makes it a non-failure, but rather an underperformer) have had low attach ratios. That high attach ratio is the result of the very core audience of the Vita (and audiences tend to get less core as they grow, as you implied), but it still requires a stable library of interesting and diverse titles. And indeed, the Vita offers that to its audience.

And yes, I am telling you that. Throwing more games at any system can help, but that doesn't explain its troubles. The Vita was troubled even when it had consistent and impressive high-profile game releases. It would still have that status quo, if not even more/faster releases, if not for troubled sales back then. The sales stopped (most of) the high profile games. Lack of high profile games did not cause the sales problem. Now that sales are too low to support many new high profile titles, it's a two-fold problem that is exercabiting.

So, in short, what we're really arguing is what the -root- problem is. And we know that the root problem is not games, because the Vita hit its struggles in the midst of a great flurry of titles and promises. Games depend on a platform even more than a platform depends on games, because the platform has to come first. If the platform doesn't do well after launch, the games will stop coming, creating a negative cyclical relationship. The Vita was not selling well in spite of its games, not because of them. 



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small44 said:
No big AAA IP on it that's the only real reason why it fail


If only Uncharted, Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty, Killzone, LittleBigPlanet, FIFA, etc. were big AAAs. :c

I seriously don't understand how people ever got it in their heads that this was the problem. It has that problem now because of lack of initial sales. But it had great AAA support at launch and still wasn't selling well in spite of that.



Zackasaurus-rex said:

You're naming much less proven problems for the 3DS. Marketing and time seem to have fixed the name confusion, the massive emergency price cut caused a 3DS sales spike, and innovation doesn't explain a lot. Meanwhile, the impact of smartphones is one that cannot be precisely measured but is quite qualitatively proven and quantitatively supported. This hit the Vita harder (it has more in common with a smartphone overall and has some of its own challenges), but it still hit handhelds en masse.

Okay. I just felt smartphones wasn't a good enough reason for the Vita's low sales, since the I thought the 3DS would've been affected by around the same amount, and didn't fully explain the gap between the 3DS and Vita.

I suppose that last sentence makes sense though.



"Never argue with stupid people. They will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience."

-Samuel Clemens

Zackasaurus-rex said:
small44 said:
No big AAA IP on it that's the only real reason why it fail


If only Uncharted, Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty, Killzone, LittleBigPlanet, FIFA, etc. were big AAAs. :c

I seriously don't understand how people ever got it in their heads that this was the problem. It has that problem now because of lack of initial sales. But it had great AAA support at launch and still wasn't selling well in spite of that.


Do you  think 5 games will change something,xbox1 and ps4 is getting at least 1 AAA game in a month



PS4 - over 100 millions let's say 120m
Xbox One - 70m
Wii U - 25m

Vita - 15m if it will not get Final Fantasy Kingdoms Heart and Monster Hunter 20m otherwise
3DS - 80m

Severe lack of system selling games, overpriced memory cards, games that were a better fit for a big screen experience or had a superior PS3/PS4 version.



curl-6 said:
Severe lack of system selling games, overpriced memory cards, games that were a better fit for a big screen experience or had a superior PS3/PS4 version.

pc have the superior version it's didn't stop ps4 and x1 to sell well



PS4 - over 100 millions let's say 120m
Xbox One - 70m
Wii U - 25m

Vita - 15m if it will not get Final Fantasy Kingdoms Heart and Monster Hunter 20m otherwise
3DS - 80m