PS Vita Developer Says Launch Will Be "Car Wreck"

[stingstang]

Another take is this: Phones have been a part of handheld devices far before it was the other way around. The original PSP could make calls through the wifi, and it was free! Add a 2g/3g network and you're golden. As long as you can make a call with the Vita (which can't seriously be that hard to mod) it should sell just fine.

 

[hoofhearted]

I want to purchase the best portable gaming experience and I think the Vita will be that. I also want to see some nice games available at launch.

I don't want to see this device become cell carrier subsidized or bundled, contracted or any of that crap.

Now if I could pop in a sim card and the device would also act as a simple cellphone and texting, that would be great. I could bring it to work and justify it as my phone.

And they need to do somethng - either reduce the price or offer an external UMD drive and allow to play their PSP library (or at least some way to load in your existing game library and licenses). At least with the 3DS you have access to the large DS library. Much easier to invest $169 on a 3DS knowing that it will play my daughters DS games.

 

[jbob5590]

Dedicated gaming handhelds are still completely viable in my opinion. I gladly carry my iPod, DS, and smartphone everywhere I go. I do this because they all excel at one or two things. No one has yet to come out with a mobile device that can effectively and sufficiently meet my mobile needs. I prefer to play games on the DS to save my phone battery for calls and my iPod for playing music. The DS on the other hand doesn't surf the web, play music, or make phone calls as well as my phone or iPod. I've looked into combining my MP3 player and phone into one device, but combining them loses me some features and puts my eggs into one basket (leaving me with nothing if the battery on my combined device goes dead).

Handheld consoles are great for hardcore gamers. Both the PSP and DS have an impressive catalog of ports and revamps that make them worth owning. Final Fantasy I, FFII, FFIII, and FFIV are all playable on the PSP and/or DS. The Monster Hunter Freedom series (games that can suck up hundreds of hours) are all found on PSP. Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together are another pair of PSP games that players could easily play for months and not max/finish/100% everything.(I've put over a hundred hours into the two games within the past year and i've yet to complete either of them.)

Handheld consoles are also great for smaller developers, because of the much lower development costs. Many games that would have never seen the light of day on the Xbox 360 or PS3 have been released to great sales on handhelds. Just because handhelds aren't the home of "HALO 8" or "Call of Duty 12: More Duds with Guns," doesn't me they are any less hardcore. In fact they are probably more hardcore because of the lack of huge blockbusters such as HALO and CoD. Some series are more at home on consoles than on handhelds and vice-versa. HALO, CoD, Gears of War, etc have to have the big flashy graphics to draw in a lot of "gamers," but as far as I'm concerned graphics should be the least of any gamers worries. Good gameplay should come before graphics any day, handheld developers seem to understand that a lot better than their big console counterparts.

 

[dstigue]

Kids are the #1 selling point for these. Want the kids off your expensive big screen give them a handheld game. They can play anywhere and don't tie up anything like the TV. Nintendo typically rules this area because they have easy games for kids. PS Vita is too much it doesn't fill that niche.

 

[sinned angel]

I think it will sell alright...

NINTENDO FAILED because their market target is always for MAINSTREAM, now there are a lot of better devices targeted on mainstream, they lose their market.

SONY will SUCCEED because their target market is always for HARDCORE GAMERS, now there's no any other device targeted on their market, they have no competitor.

And personally because I have no luck in looking for a good game, a real one, not just silly casual games on those mainstream devices.

 

[alidan]

[citation][nom]Chaostrix[/nom]The main reason the 3DS failed was due to the bad press about the screen causing eye conditions, a small game library, and region locking.What people want from a device, is for it to be a specialized device for gaming, which has a large library, which doesn't require jailbreaking in order to play all games developed for the system. This is proven by how well regular DS and PSP sales are world wide per the weekly hardware charts.[/citation]
main reason was/is no games, nothing else even figured into it.


i was going to say the same thing. however, with apps, i believe some gerners can do just as good there as they do in traditional routes, like a puzzle game.
[citation][nom]kinggraves[/nom]Retitle to "No name shovelware developers jump on the bandwagon". Go google them, tell me anything they've made is worthwhile, even THQ dumped them. Go check out their site too, I was able to notice they stole Enix's slime mascot in their job advert before the "UFC Trainer" advert exploded my speakers with fail and I ran.This has nothing to do with what gamers want. Small time devs like this like the fact they can compete with the big boys using 99 cent games. They can't make a million dollar "blockbuster" but they can make a few cartoon birds and pigs. People are much more likely to buy their garbage when it's 99 cents. It's the Taco Bell marketing strategy, people will buy it no matter how terrible it is if it's cheap. On the other side, it's much easier for the big production studios to toss out short games and make their money back selling extras and DLC once the hook is in.Yeah, the industry loves app store gaming, they win. It's the gamers that lose. You aren't going to get a quality product consistently at that price. You aren't going to get high end graphics that took 20 people to draw. You aren't going to pay a design team to strategize and put unique inputs into designing a level perfectly. You are not going to get the same level of product for 99 cents that you are for 50 dollars, that just isn't how things work. There's a lot of 50 dollar games that aren't worth more than 99 cents, but with the industry following this path, ALL you will get is products only worth 99 cents.[/citation]

 

[eddieroolz]

I don't understand the sudden criticism against Vita. When it was announced everyone praised it for its exceptional price - and it still is exceptional despite 3DS's drop.

 

[Guest]

The PSP sucked primarily because of the lack of developers making awesome games for it. As a secondary concern, the lack of the second analog stick also made it hard to port many 3D games over successfully to the platform without them suffering from usability issues. The PSP was superior hardware, and it got trounced by the Nintendo DS because the DS offered innovative game play. I haven't seen Sony make anything truly innovative in years. The PS3 was just a much faster PS2. The Move was a response to the Wii, and while it is more accurate and responsive, it's also a LOT more expensive than the Wii is. The xbox is also less powerful than the PS3, but it has MUCH better online support, is cheaper, and has most of the same games that the PS3 does.

Sony gives you better hardware that does the exact same thing as everybody else for more money. I have yet to see Sony really push themselves and developers to make something extraordinary using their hardware that simply can't be done on another platform. The Wii did that. The DS did that. Sony just expects me to re-purchase my favorite PSP games for a second time because they got rid of UMD cartridges.

 

[stamps79]

Didn't you hear, Angry Birds is coming to Vita next year. =) Silly Games, that are awesome on touch screen devices.

 

[Guest]

vita's too damn big. 7 inch width??? how the hell is that gonna attract casual gamers??? its over half a foot big. while it looks cool, its clunkier than ipod, and wen it comes to portables, i want a simpler sort of game. not angry birds simple, but mariokart or cave story. deep games, but they're not epics. i have consoles for that. vita will initially do decent, but i think 3DS will beat it, but iOS will win again. Nintendo 3DS is simple, but fun. and the library is gradually improving, and its cheap. sorry mini brick vita, i cant see the practicality of buying you.