How to save the Vita?

[Nando]

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-10-16-roundtable-saving-ps-vita

from the article:

"...in the interest of revitalizing the Vita, the GamesIndustry International staff went around the horn, each picking one challenge the system is facing and suggesting how Sony can best meet that challenge. There's no telling if these suggestions would be enough to save the system in a world gone mad for tablets and smartphones, but it would be tough to make things much worse. So let's get straight to it and start with the single biggest problem facing the Vita today."

[SignOfZeta]

The biggest problem with the Vita is that nobody asked for it. It's hard to fix that.

Sure phones are hurting the traditional handheld game market, but Nintendo is still doing fine.

The old PSP wasn't exactly a barn burner either until Monster Hunter and Bandai's anime base titles turned it into a must have. With out those games, and without Nintendo's business, and now minus the iPhone crap, what's left over isn't a lot, and that's what the Vita has to work with.

I *suppose* I'd rather play the next Super Robot Wars on the Vita as opposed to the 3DS, but frankly I could do either, and I already have a 3DS.

[Flare65]

I'm a big fan of the PSP and love a lot of the games for it.  It is my most favorite handheld system out there, but I never saw the need to get the Vita.  There just isn't any killer games on it that I'd be willing to cough up the coin to purchase one.  I'm hard pressed to name any of the games...besides the new Lumines puzzle game. 

[HercTNT]

Friend of mine just picked up a vita brand new with an 8 gig card for $160 from a store going out of business. He has had it for a week and cant find any games that interest him. That seems to be the biggest problem next to the battery life.

[ParanoiaDragon]

Yeah, I too am a big PSP person, it's my overall favorite portable, but the Vita, in the US, has nothing.  When Ys Celceta is released stateside, that's a different story, I'd buy one for just that game, or really, anything from Falcom, but then again, I'm a bit nuts   I do think Sony is being stubborn with price, it'll be sometime next year before they give in, as it's just too high for the market, especially next to the 3DS.

[GohanX]

There's no magic involved, the Vita needs two things: The correct price point, and some killer apps. Don't get me wrong, I think $250 is a good price for the technology, but is too expensive for a handheld for most people. It has a lot of good games, but it has little that can't be found elsewhere, and nothing that is a must-have.

It seems like companies forgot what sold the big selling systems in the past. THE GAMES.

I'm not planning on getting a Wii U at launch for the same reason. No killer app to make me spend the cash.

[soop]

I can't believe how badly CoD is f*cking up. I was really looking forward to that, and it's going to be a rushed piece of shit.

Uncharted and Gravity rush are ok though.

[geise]

There's no magic involved, the Vita needs two things: The correct price point, and some killer apps. Don't get me wrong, I think $250 is a good price for the technology, but is too expensive for a handheld for most people. It has a lot of good games, but it has little that can't be found elsewhere, and nothing that is a must-have.

See I don't understand why others think it's to expensive. People are willing to pay $400 or more for a new IPhone, Dorid, or whatever other overpriced smart phone so they can stay grandfathered in?  Or, still pay $200 on top of the extra price for a "fixed"two year contract data plan.  All for a phone.

[Nando]

There's no magic involved, the Vita needs two things: The correct price point, and some killer apps. Don't get me wrong, I think $250 is a good price for the technology, but is too expensive for a handheld for most people. It has a lot of good games, but it has little that can't be found elsewhere, and nothing that is a must-have.

See I don't understand why others think it's to expensive. People are willing to pay $400 or more for a new IPhone, Dorid, or whatever other overpriced smart phone so they can stay grandfathered in?  Or, still pay $200 on top of the extra price for a "fixed"two year contract data plan.  All for a phone.

Depends on the phone, if it's a smartphone and the person isn't a hardcore gamer, it more than makes sense to get a phone that lets you game, communicate and tap into the web.

Like the article stated, hardcore gamers are a niche market today.

Now the price isn't too bad, I agree. The hardware is gorgeous, but I am on that same "there are no must have games" boat. I'm more and more leaning towards the 3DS XL - mainly for the Nintendo franchises and a few other exclusives.

[Necromancer]

Yep, too pricey and not enough games.  It's pretty sad when target/walmart/whatever has a better variety of PS2 games for sale than it has for the Vita.

The biggest problem with the Vita is that nobody asked for it. It's hard to fix that.

As opposed to the clamoring hordes screaming for the 3DS or the PSP or even the Wii? 

See I don't understand why others think it's to expensive. People are willing to pay $400 or more for a new IPhone, Dorid, or whatever other overpriced smart phone so they can stay grandfathered in?  Or, still pay $200 on top of the extra price for a "fixed"two year contract data plan.  All for a phone.

Most people figure they're going to have a phone/data plan no matter what, so they don't factor that cost into the buy-in price (even if equal, cheaper options are available); and the Vita looks rather pricey at $50 more than the iPhone 5 and even pricier against a free iPhone 4.

[Arkhan]

I like my Vita.  I use all of the things it can do:

Smartphony3G shit
PSN to get other games that aren't available in stores (theres a neat RPG on there)
Gravity Rush and Wipeout
soon, Ragnarok Odyssey.

It's got a slow library start for sure though.

Which sorta sucks.  I use mine right now to use the internet on the toilet at work.

like right now.

edIT: also to be fair, the 3DS has had a shitty start too.  Most of the games are lame, save like 3 of them

and once just came out (Code of Princess).

[soop]

Like the article stated, hardcore gamers are a niche market today.

See, that's the thing.  Even though they might no longer be in the majority, and although a lot has already been learned in the last 25 years from our dollar, you can't afford to ignore the hardcore gamer.

Sure, you can churn out farmville clones all day long, and at 60p I'm sure loads of people will buy them.  And in the year 2025, madden and Fifa will be cranking out the nth revision of ostensibly the exact same game.

However, true innovation and polish tends to come from the hardcore area of the market, from early adopters, and people who actually read reviews, and are willing to stump up £50 for a new game upon release.

With both Android and iPhone burgeoning with probably millions of games, most of them clones of one another, your game will have to be original, lucky, and fun to make any significant money, and the margins will be stretched further in the future.

All I'm saying is, for the most part, there's little quality control in the casual market, and there doesn't have to be, because games cost f*ck all, and you're probably going to play it for less than an hour anyway.  It stands to be seen if people learned their lesson from the Wii and its shovelware (I believe they probably have), but you can release something totally broken on a smartphone, and all you're gonna get is about $5 and a bad review now and again.

tl;dr, Hardcore has to exist as the top of the pyramid.

[Arkhan]

alot of the "hardcore gamers" turned into fat lazy retards that try to justify their lack of gameplaying with stupid reasons like "jobs" and "families"

[soop]

alot of the "hardcore gamers" turned into fat lazy retards that try to justify their lack of gameplaying with stupid reasons like "jobs" and "families"

I hear ya.  I've been meaning to get in a bit of Soldier Blade recently, but all I've managed to play is pinball and Dance Central.  For shame.  I need a week off :/

[Nando]

alot of the "hardcore gamers" turned into fat lazy retards that try to justify their lack of gameplaying with stupid reasons like "jobs" and "families"

alot of the "hardcore gamers" turned into fat lazy retards that try to justify their lack of gameplaying with stupid reasons like "jobs" and "families"

Nailed it!