Sony launched its second handheld foray late last year in Japan and in February for the rest of the world. One could say it is too early to say that the device is doomed, and I agree with that notion. However, if Sony wants to save Vita, it must invest lots of money now to recover from the weak performance so far in order to try to make it as successful as PSP, which was no match for DS in the "race" for the top stop, but was a great commercial success, selling more hardware than Playstation 3 to date.
Vita is an incredible handheld machine. Everybody that had the opportunity to use it, agrees with that statement. Its processing and graphics power is unmatched in handhelds. All its touch commands, AR devices and the so needed dual analog sticks provide great gaming experiences. Its price is not cheap ($250), but not so expensive that makes it prohibitive. So, what is the problem with it?
The problem with Vita is that it is a machine more than capable to provide superb gaming experiences, but where are those experiences? The handheld boasted an incredible launch lineup of 25 games. However, 6 months later, I don't thing another 25 games were released. To make matters worse, no significant title was released for the console, making only its launch window interesting for the customers. It is true that the first semester is not very profitable, but even PSP is selling much more not only in Japan where tons of new PSP games are launched, but also in the west, were PSP is dubbed dead due to piracy. And it becomes obvious since, apart from Uncharted: Golden Abyss, by far the great seller for Vita; Persona 4 Golden on Japan, which is a remake, no meaningful titles were launched for console. Mostly, just ports and remakes. And no one will spend $350 to buy the console, accessories and a game that was launched for other platforms 6 months before, platforms that the potential Vita buyer probably owns.
Sony's big mistake was not to invest on Vita during its launch year. The poor 3DS performance during its launch window almost negated Nintendo's advantage of an early launch. If Sony were focused on Vita, it would have signed deals with console-seller games producers to grant exclusive titles for Vita, like Final Fantasy, Monster Hunter or Dragon Quest in Japan and real sports, First Person Shooters, and even a GTA exclusive for Vita during its first year. That would make the customers desire the new handheld, after all people buy consoles for its games. And Sony would now be in an excellent position, trailing the subsequent 3DS success closely behind.
However, with depressing 2.2 million units sold in 6 months against the almost 20 million units of 3DS, Sony has to convince the developers that it is worthy to invest on Vita, even when they have the option of developing for a cheaper platform with almost 10 times the installed base. It is not impossible, but the sole remaining argument becomes more and more money. And, either that or slashing the price is a great backlash for the already dire financial situation of the company.
Where Sony had dropped the ball? In my opinion, in neglecting Vita during its first year. Although we all know that the generation "race" doesn't matter, Sony seems to be burned by the fact that PS3 was not the "winner" of the seventh generation (mostly due their own fault not perceiving the obvious that the price doesn't matter when the difference is not so significative, however it matters a lot when your console costs the sum of the consoles of your main competitors) and is pushing PS3 a lot this year. Meanwhile, Vita was abandoned to its own luck, receiving no attention on E3 (which left all the early Vita adopters and potential buyers awed), and now trying to fix announcing sub-games like CoD Black Ops: Declassified and Assassin's Creed Liberation at the same time XBox 360 and PS3 will receive the full-fledged main versions of the same titles. Of course this strategy will not pay because once again someone who would not spend $350 to buy a Vita and play Fifa 12 while he could spend $50 on XBox 360 or PS3 will still not spend $350 for a sub-Assasssin's Creed 3 or a Sub CoD Black Ops 2 while he can spend $50 for the real thing in a console he already owns.
Sony better do something immediately to bring those AAA titles exclusively for Vita or hope that niche titles like Hatsune Miku, Ys, Legend of Heroes, Disgaea, etc, work their magic for the console to make it at least viable on Japan. Otherwise, as the time passes, it will take more and more money for Sony to convince the developers to bring their games to Vita, to the point of making it commercially unaceptable.
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