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Forums - Sony Discussion - How would Vita have done without proprietary memory cards?

 

How many units would the Vita have sold?

About the same 15 55.56%
 
18-21 million 3 11.11%
 
21-24 million 5 18.52%
 
24-27 million 0 0%
 
27-30 million 2 7.41%
 
30-33 million 1 3.70%
 
33-36 million 0 0%
 
36-39 million 0 0%
 
39-42 million 0 0%
 
More than 42 million (specify in thread) 1 3.70%
 
Total:27
Sogreblute said:
Sogreblute said:

Why do people always associate the Vita's poor sales to the memory cards? It was the lack of advertising, interest, and games on the system.

I want to add to this.
Why it failed (in no order)
Lack of marketing, no compelling games/bad ports, had to compete against mobile, memory card prices, early abandonment from Sony, lack of big Japanese games (for the Japan market including Monster Hunter + Main Dragon Quest), amongst other things.

For everyone that says "Home consoles are dying in Japan that's why handhelds/mobile thrive there. Can you tell me why the Vita only sold 6 million compared to the PS4's 9.5 million when last generation it was the PSP 20 million > PS3 10 million? That is a huge failure.

Sony lost two rounds to Nintendo in handheld space. The competition with Nintendo, in handheld space, is tough. Nintendo always prioritizes your handheld public, for they, the handheld is a premium consumer. For sony, the portable space is a sideline product, the stationary consoles have all the sun, for Sony.



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Cerebralbore101 said:

Vita died due to price and a lack of games. Making the memory card non-proprietary wouldn't change either of those. I'm glad Vita died, because it forced Sony to dedicate themselves to one platform.

Are you likewise glad Wii U died because it forced Nintendo to unify divisions and have one platform (hybrid)? Because I for sure am! Now, instead of me having to buy 1 device from Nintendo every 2-3 years (handheld/home console, occasionally a refresh model), I will instead buy 1 device every 6 years and have access to games from both software teams. Nintendo saved me a lot of money in that regard!



It would have sold 20-25M. To do more it would have needed far more, proprietary memory sticks was just one of the problems, the others were:
1) price, particularly once Ninty was forced to make a huge early cut on 3DS, exceptionally (for Ninty policy) selling it at a loss for a while
2) Sony giving up too early on believing in it and supporting it
3) bad marketing
4) losing MH franchise, one of the most important for PSP, and not replacing it with games as much important

Solving all these problems it could have sold 40-50M, not more, as it had the bad luck of coming in a period of portable decline that only Ninty with the hybrid was later able to solve.



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Sogreblute said:
Sogreblute said:

Why do people always associate the Vita's poor sales to the memory cards? It was the lack of advertising, interest, and games on the system.


For everyone that says "Home consoles are dying in Japan that's why handhelds/mobile thrive there. Can you tell me why the Vita only sold 6 million compared to the PS4's 9.5 million when last generation it was the PSP 20 million > PS3 10 million? That is a huge failure.

I actually find it kinda interesting with a few more notable titles, the Vita could have outsold PS4 in Japan. I mean 6 million isn't terrible given how quickly notable support ended.

I can tell you in the US it was difficult to find a Vita years before it was even discontinued, same goes for Wii U. I imagine that could have been the case outside the US as well.



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Xxain said:

The same. Vita's problem was a lack of direction and compelling titles. Vita went from:

For fans that like HD games -> PS360 gamers -> PS3 owners -> Weebs -> then finally a home for Indies. Sony never really knew what to with Vita. It's Software was composed of lesser versions of consoles games when it should have had its own original IP's.

Vita's death was a gross lack of direction. Most likely because SONY did not know why PSP was popular.

Bold:

In the west, because it is a multimedia device. 

In Japan, because it has Monster Hunter. 

Hardware sale: great

Software sale: terrible, it has only 3 games sold more than 5 millions.



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Dulfite said:
Cerebralbore101 said:

Vita died due to price and a lack of games. Making the memory card non-proprietary wouldn't change either of those. I'm glad Vita died, because it forced Sony to dedicate themselves to one platform.

Are you likewise glad Wii U died because it forced Nintendo to unify divisions and have one platform (hybrid)? Because I for sure am! Now, instead of me having to buy 1 device from Nintendo every 2-3 years (handheld/home console, occasionally a refresh model), I will instead buy 1 device every 6 years and have access to games from both software teams. Nintendo saved me a lot of money in that regard!

YES! You get it! Nintendo handhelds never died. Nintendo home consoles is what died. Or rather it merged with the handheld line.



mZuzek said:
Cerebralbore101 said:

YES! You get it! Nintendo handhelds never died. Nintendo home consoles is what died. Or rather it merged with the handheld line.

NO! You don't get it! Nintendo home consoles never died. Nintendo handhelds is what died. Or rather it merged with the home console line.

NO! Neither of you get it! The handheld division merged with itself and divided by the exponent of the square rooted home console division to form the new unified division!

HOW DO PEOPLE STILL NOT UNDERSTAND THIS



Mr Puggsly said:
Sogreblute said:

For everyone that says "Home consoles are dying in Japan that's why handhelds/mobile thrive there. Can you tell me why the Vita only sold 6 million compared to the PS4's 9.5 million when last generation it was the PSP 20 million > PS3 10 million? That is a huge failure.

I actually find it kinda interesting with a few more notable titles, the Vita could have outsold PS4 in Japan. I mean 6 million isn't terrible given how quickly notable support ended.

I can tell you in the US it was difficult to find a Vita years before it was even discontinued, same goes for Wii U. I imagine that could have been the case outside the US as well.

I could be wrong, but I think Sony quietly discontinued the Vita in the West in 2016. You couldn't find one anywhere. I remember my Target had a Vita booth in 2014, but had only a few games. That system did bad in the West, especially in NA. 



It would still done terribly, memory cards were only a part of the problem.



Mr Puggsly said:

I actually find it kinda interesting with a few more notable titles, the Vita could have outsold PS4 in Japan. I mean 6 million isn't terrible given how quickly notable support ended.

I can tell you in the US it was difficult to find a Vita years before it was even discontinued, same goes for Wii U. I imagine that could have been the case outside the US as well.

Yeah, I for one thought that when we got the news it was discontinued I thought it already was like three years prior or something. Vita was not on shelves here, visibly at least, for very long.