Sony blames phones for low Vita sales.

Summary:

http://www.gameranx.com/updates/id/19821/article/sony-explains-why-the-vita-isn-t-selling-so-well/

Full article:

http://www.vg247.com/2014/01/13/ps-vita-“people-look-at-it-as-the-ipod-of-handheld-gaming”-says-sony-boss/

"In all honesty, higher sales would have been what we had hoped for," Gara said. "The market Vita entered was more complicated than it was when the console was originally thought about and designed. Games on tablets and phones have changed the marketplace and people can't carry too many things around at one time.

"The truth is that the number of people that want the core experience [that Vita offers] is not as big as the number that simply want any sort of game available on the move and, because the likes of a tablet and smartphone are so multifunctional in their use, they will always be very appealing.”

Click on the full article for the whole interview.

They're accurate to do so. The price didn't help, either, I imagine.

It's too bad the Vita didn't sell better, it really is the coolest dedicated gaming handheld since the DS Lite.

And no games.

I guess that would explain the low 3DS sales....oh wait.

Lame excuse coming from Sony.

The problem is that the Vita was made for the hardcore gamers like all of us on this board. The Vita has a great list of specs and features but in the real world people really don't care much for handhelds outside of the market that Nintendo obviously has locked up. Look at console software sales. Games like Madden, GTA and COD always clean up. They stopped making Madden on the Vita and the COD game was garbage. Games like P4G and Tearaway are loved by the hardcore crowd but the casual market will never embrace these titles. So in a way the Vita and Wii U have some similarities. They both have great exclusive and niche titles but lack the 3rd party support to make them relevant.

I think it's a valid reason. But then looking at the 3DS sales, it can't be used as a very valid excuse. Yes phones and tablets are eating into handheld sales, but Nintendo is at least finding a way to fight back

not to sure about this. considering people complained about half what Sony did with it day one and complain about its lack of stand out games.

Sony knows what it must do.

1. They have to increase their digital efforts but with some exclusive vita psn games.
2. forget ps mobile just keep everything under psn and expand it
3. Above all else they need to offer more affordable memory options or make the next batch of vita's with at least 16GB built in
4. Increase multi media apps to compete with tablets. manga readers ect.
5. Fix the browser or get google to put chrome on there
6. more ram for multi tasking
7. Increase the battery life to compete with tablets
8. Get an 8 mega pixel camera on there (I believe they were going to have one in the vita we have now at one point)

People who want sony products already pay top dollar for them so give the people what they want and stop skimping on the hardware to make it affordable. Not every device has to appeal to the mass market. Sony should have made the vita the best it could be and people will pay for it.

Yea, phones and the fact that it has nothing worth playing besides remakes and multiplats. Lets not forget the absolutely insane price of their stupid memory cards and turning it into a PS4 peripheral. Its mind boggling how Sony can do something so right like the PS4 and then completely shit the bed two times in a row with their handhelds.

That's not how I remember it. I remember there being a ton of threads about how Nintendo is doomed because of the Vita. And I remember the launch library being praised. Uncharted!!!!11!1!

Sony themselves are smartphone manufacturers, and I do find their flagship Xperia Z1 as very appealing. How many smartphones pack in a 20.7MP camera these days? And it is also dust and water resistant. Might consider it as a replacement for my 3-year old iphone soon enough.

Yeah when they were the same price. The complaints were still there. And stayed there exclusively after the price drop.

Wut

The Vita sucks

at least xperia is not to blame.

nobody bought that.

I got one of those shitty ones with a slide out controller for free. Gave it to my niece and she never used it. lol

They should just let 3rd party companies develop the Vita Memory cards. I believe it would help the Vita in sales because it will help the consumer out aswell.

Can't wait for Microsoft to blame phones and tablets for low XBone sales.

@mems_1224 said:

@Blabadon said:

@mems_1224 said:

Yea, phones and the fact that it has nothing worth playing besides remakes and multiplats. Lets not forget the absolutely insane price of their stupid memory cards and turning it into a PS4 peripheral. Its mind boggling how Sony can do something so right like the PS4 and then completely shit the bed two times in a row with their handhelds.

Wut

The Vita sucks

Dealin' with it :(

I blame the lack of compelling retail software. There are few indie games that interest me and Sony doesn't seem in backing their own handheld with their treasure trove of exclusives. We have what.... Uncharted from launch, Jak trilogy that's available on both PS2 and PS3, Littlebigplanet and Killzone Mercenary.

Am I missing any Sony staples?

Where is Infamous? Where is the third party support? Sure there's a dusting of good games like Gravity Rush and Tearaway only available on PSV but for the most part it's been turned into an indie and port system.

Vita can benefit tons from PS4...

I think there's too much overlap between Sony's consoles and handhelds. If you really look at the Vita's library, it's pretty much a similar library to the PS3. That's really where Nintendo's handhelds shined...the 3DS games are much different than the Wii's (not so much the WiiU, with the dual screen).

Just about everyone has a smartphone these days. I think I'm one of the last American's left to have never owned a cell phone (true story), particularly in my age demographic, let alone a smartphone.

In the US alone, smartphone gaming has around 126 million players, making it one of the most popular segments. By 2016 that's expected to rise to 144 million, according to a report by MediaBrix, which would equate to more than 8 in 10 smartphone users.

The popularity of smartphone games in the UK isn't quite so high, but according to a report by comScore, 52.4% of UK smartphone users were playing games on them at least once a month in the three months ending February 2012 and if those US figures are anything to go by the numbers are likely to be even higher now.

So why such a sudden surge in popularity? Are games getting better or are we just spending more time at bus stops and doctor's waiting rooms?

One of the main reasons is cost: games are cheaper to buy on smartphones than their PC or console counterparts. They're also a lot cheaper to make in general, meaning that the various app stores, particularly Google Play and the Apple App Store, have become flooded with an enormous selection of titles.

Then there's the fact that, according to eMarketer, 48.4% of the UK population will have a smartphone by the end of the year, essentially meaning that almost 1 in 2 people will already have a device capable of playing portable games, rather than needing to invest in extra hardware.

Smartphones seem an unlikely new home for old favourites, but if more get ported they could soon be the go-to place for a dose of nostalgia, resurrecting games that were lost when we sold our old consoles or when they finally gave up after years of faithful service.

With new and more powerful smartphones being released all the time the gap between phones and new consoles may close too. Sure, the next generation of consoles has just arrived and initially they're likely to blow away anything a smartphone can do.

But five years down the line people will still be using the Xbox One andPS4, while Samsung will likely be up to the Galaxy S9 and there's no telling how powerful that will be, especially now that 64-bit chips are making their way into handsets.

-LBP

-MotorStorm

-Killzone

-Resistance

-ModNation Racers

-Jak Trilogy

-God of War Collection

-Uncharted

-WipeOut

-Sly Cooper

-MLB

-Super Stardust

I think that's the list of PS2/PS3 Sony titles/franchises to make it over to the Vita

vita just doesn't have alot of games exclusive to it it's mostly just ports the original psp had stuff like crisis core and gta liberity city stories

Ya sure phones have tons of games, but they pretty much all suck, especially when it comes to controls. That is also why they are cheaper.

@Nick3306: There are a variety of controllers available that are compatible with, or in some cases even designed specifically for smartphones. Some of them, such as the Moga Pro controller, include a cradle for the phone so that you can essentially turn your handset into a true handheld console, complete with the necessary buttons and sticks.

Others, such as the Nyko Playpad Pro, are just standard controllers, which don't clip to your phone, so they're no good for gaming on the move, but will be ideal if you stream or output your games to a television or monitor through a dedicated MHL cable or mirroring device. Some phones, such as the Sony Xperia Z1 and many other Xperia handsets, can even be made to work with Sony's DualShock 3 pad via Bluetooth, giving you the comfort of a familiar controller, though you will need to buy a USB On The Go cable to make the initial connection.

Smart phones are easily the biggest reason.

That was one of the biggest reasons the 3ds flopped at launch was being $250 in a market where an awesome android tablet cost the same price (now they are cheaper).

Lowering the 3ds price, and then immediately following it by releasing lots of software helped Nintendo compete. After the price drop the PS vita is still more expensive than tablets like the nexus 7, and they didn't follow the price drop with any compelling software.

phone games are not complex enough to compete with retail handheld games. Sony is full of it.

They need more games for the system.

the ps vita should have been the xperia play with the vita hardware even if it was priced at $500 it would have been a better product imagine a android phone that didn't disappear after a year

@Blabadon: Motorstorm isn't on PSV but that's still more than i thought. My favorite genre though (3rd person action adventure) needs a major influx of new software on the handheld. Not just from Sony but third parties as well.

How about a new Uncharted, Infamous, Tomb Raider, Hit man, Mass Effect, Resident Evil outbreak, and GTA.

Imagine if PSV had that kind of lineup? Not ports but new side stories! It would be awesome.

The system has some good games, sure, but what it's lacking are games that make me run out and preorder. Nothing announced for PSV right now has me excited. Nothing.

@SEANMCAD: Precisely. Smartphone gaming has practically killed the handheld gaming industry in more ways than one. In a way, Sony actually caused the downfall of the Vita through the Xperia brand of smartphones. And these days, smartphones are even capable of console-quality graphics.

The PlayStation Vita lacks a proper library of video games for it and some of the video games are even ports or close to it. If they really do not know why the PlayStation Vita is doing poorly, besides one of the examples I mentioned, they as a company will never be able to seek improvement to the Playtation Vita, sort of like how Nintendo is unable to seek improvement for the Wii U, because they as a company fail to see what the reals problems are or refuse to make improvement necessary or focus on past weaknesses they have yet to make a strength; such as Nintendo's poor third party support that they have been dragging on, from generation to generation and see no reason to fix even though it is hurting them.

3DS is doing just fine, I think Sony is trying to hide behind a bullshit excuse.

So you're turning a thread about the lame excuse Sony gave for Vita sales about the XOne? You've got some serious problems

BTW the XOne is selling very well. Not sure where you get it's not. It might not be selling as much as the PS4 but that doesn't mean it's not selling well. Only a loser cow would think so...oh wait I forgot who I quoted.

The 3DS is doing fine, but not as well as the DS. If you look at the Vita sales, and the drop from the DS to the 3DS sales you can see less people are buying handhelds than before. Saying the reason is the cellphone is rather inline.

Just ribbing fanboys like you, sheesh. Welcome to System Wars, by the way lol

Ya if you want to pay the extra cost. Still doesn't address the fact that 90% of games for smartphones suck. They are easy to make so you get tons and tons of crap from people who shouldn't be making games.

May purchase a Vita when the price drops again and can purchase one for hundred pound with a memory card as I wanna play some PSP Game. My tablet has buttons, its called a App which allows me to synchronise controllers like 360 and WIIU (not tried PS3 but I dont like the controller). I dont own a phone but I do own a tablet and a 3DS so I dont get the argument of"phones have destroyed the market" BS when 3DS ar3 selling well.

You do enough of it in other threads. SWs doesn't always have to be this way.

Partially he's right. Just because the 3DS is being a success does not mean the Vita would be too if it had the games. Most 3DS buyers are diehard Nintendo fans used to their handhelds. Sony handheld market was composed of only one system and most of their users are now playing on tablets and smartphones.

I dont get where people get this wrong notion that just because the 3DS is a success that the dedicated handheld market isnt dying, completely forgetting the 3DS had to have a MAJOR price cut to start selling...

@Jakandsigz:

Back in 2004, the PSP did sell well at first. While the game library was OK at first, much interest in the PSP was due to its ‘large screen’ which could play movies, music, and even browse the Internet. I think it is safe to say that the interest in the non-gaming aspects of the PSP was a precursor to the mobile PC explosion to come. The third generation iPod Nano, which could do video playback, was released in September of 2007. While the DS beat the PSP fair and square in the market, the PSP’s non-gaming features of video playback, music, and Internet were being taken by the mobile PCs rising with the smartphones.

I don’t think it is the mobile games that has hurt the Sony handheld so much as the mobile PCs. Who cares if the Vita has video playback? So do our phones. Who cares if the Vita can go to the Internet? Our phones have browsers on them. The Vita can play back music? So can our phones. Much of the value of the PSP was with those non-gaming elements. I would say that such value was eroded from the PSP as mobile PCs absorbed them. When it came down to the Vita, one only thinks of the device in the context of games as opposed to games + movies + music + Internet like the PSP had when it launched.

Nintendo consoles do not intentionally try to conduct PC features. Nintendo, being a game company and not a general electronics maker, makes devices that are focused only on games. So when the Nintendo handheld and mobile PC meet, you can only compare the games (and mobile PC’s games are absolutely terrible). Nintendo consoles do not lose value if the mobile PCs can play videos, music, and browse Internet. Sony consoles, however, do lose value since Sony is trying to make the consoles be the device that ‘does everything’.

Pretty sure the high price point and more ports than original games has something to do with it.

Motorstorm RC.

While I do agree that there could always be a lot more Vita titles, I was merely adding to your list. I've been extremely satisfied with my Vita thus far and have had an outburst of games to play on it.

I will agree also that its future as far as titles go looks bleak, though I'm excited for Danganropa.

How big is Vita in Japan since Monster Hunter jumped shipped?w

$199-PS3

$199-Vita

I would buy a ps3 any day over a vita with that price.

Nothing in his post is related or makes any sense. The most I got out of this is using randomly thinking that the PSP somehow had PC features that were never on phones before which is a load of BS.

The PSP did sell well ok and? it had good games at launch and people were buying it left and right until Sony started screwing up marketing and made the prices go even on PSN, and started having games release slower. Resulting in pirating. has nothing to do with imagining it was some sort of new handheld device with PC features phones already had.

Or that's what I am getting from whatever this is.