Sony - "Remote play may save the Vita in the west"

http://www.mcvpacific.com/index.php/news/read/remote-play-may-save-vita-in-west-says-sony/0135352

Sony's handheld is viewed as a triple-A device in Japan but is struggling elsewhere.

The handheld routinely vies it out with 3DS for supremacy in the weekly Japanese hardware charts. The story is completely different in the UK, however, where weekly sales are minimal.

The platform holder has previously said triple-A economics aren’t viable for the device and that users can expect fewer first party titles for Vitas in the future.

This might not be the case, however. In Japan at least Sony now argues triple-A can be viable. The West is a very different story.

In fact, SCE president Andrew House has suggested to IGN that the company has to focus on other aspects in the West.

“I certainly think you’ll still see Vita as a triple-A machine in Japan where it has a different function with the console dynamic of the marketplace,” he said. “That for me is a given.

“It’s hard to say in terms of the other markets. I think Remote Play is still in its nascent stages, I think we need to have better understanding. We know a lot of players are embracing it and using it and seem to like the experience a lot, but necessarily that changes the dynamic.”

Can the streaming of PS4 games on the handheld plug the triple-A gap on the machine? Is there even still a demand for portable triple-A games? Is asking consumers to pay $250+ for a portable console when nearly all of them have a very viable games machine already sitting in their pocket in the form of a smartphone?

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In celebration of my Borderlands Vita Bundle arriving today, I ask System Wars...

Can ANYTHING save the Vita in the west?

Does owning a pocket PS4 appeal to the modern gamer?

Is Andrew House on drugs?

Eroica be Livin la Vita Loca

How can you save something that's already dead?

stfu sony vita is dead let it go!

you can't save something that's dead

That's the only reason I want one-to stream PS4 content.

Believe it or not but apparently there's been a little demand for them, recently. I went to gamestop yesterday and they employee told me that they get requests for the console all the time. The reason they are not in stock anywhere, according to him, has something to do with a battery shortage. Now i'm not sure if its the whole deal or just one component but that is what he said. I went in looking for an OLED model--asked if any gamestop managers or employees ever keep any in back, etc. He said no, but I know for a fact that some gamestop members do hoard stuff.

Yeah, that is freaking bullshit Sony.

It's failing in the West because of the lack of AAA software. If Sony's first party would pump out some more titles, it could encourage 3rd parties to do so as well.

Despite what most people think, the PSP had quite the diverse library of 1st party exclusives, 3rd party exclusives, and ports from home consoles. Hell, it's been my most played platform the last couple of weeks with Final Fantasy Type-0 and Gran Turismo PSP eating up most of my gaming time. And these aren't just some throwaway games, they're full fledged AAA with great production values and content. The Vita needs more of that.

I really hope the Vita's fortune turns around in the West because it has so much wasted potential at the moment.

Ok, Sony...you tried, now let Nintendo have that territory.

Fact is Sony tried to do what Microsoft did when they saw how successful a console could be, only with handhelds.

Well, it didn't work out as well as it did for MS, sucks for Sony and fans who bought into the experiment. I have never been a believer in the handheld market as I believe smartphones more than covers that task along with being more useful and practical.

Back to doing what you do best Sony, no more distractions and trying to shoe your way into markets where you are not needed.

cows got owned on this one. they tried but sony needed to secure some capcom games and square pgs to make this work.

or if they had their AAA studios work on the system and not the B dev teams. Tearaway i heard was the only thing worth a damn aside from persona 4

The Vita is a commercial failure. Stop with your PR bullshit Sony, no one is buying it and you know it.

I don't think games were the problem early on. They supported it early with games from multiple genres. Tearaway is great, but there were several high quality and unique games before that such as Gravity Rush and Soul Sacrifice. It also received some fairly outstanding exclusive versions of some of their AAA franchises, like Killzone, Little Big Planet, Wipeout, Uncharted, etc. I think the problem is those games basically didn't sell at all, so they weren't going to invest in round 2 of games when round 1 didn't sell - and the device itself didn't sell. Sony does still have Freedom Wars coming, it just remains to be seen if that's the last support they give it as far as 1st party exclusive.

It will probably go on for awhile with 3rd party Japanese developers supporting it, but I'm not sure how that can last or if they will continue porting games west if Sony is literally giving it NOTHING.

Be a believer!

The Vita is so freaking uncomfortable when I use it for remote play.....

yeah right, tell the lucky people how they go about using L2/R2 and L3/R3 buttons on the Vita

Ironically, the only chance the device has to really survive in the west is probably a Gran Turismo game + bundle, or a Final Fantasy Game + bundle. But the chances of either of those happening are probably nil. It's a shame Sony didn't have one of those lined up maybe 12 months after launch, to let it build some momentum.

I think so long as Japanese games get localized (there is a flood of them this year) - the Vita can go on for awhile in a zombie state. That's good enough for me since I'm not big on handhelds anyway, but I really want to see Sony at least crank out a few more titles besides Freedom Wars. If they just stop completely, the Vita library is mighty thin on truly exclusive titles.

Vita groupies just suffered a terrible blow to the morale.

like hell it will.

@lamprey263: back touch screen suckssssss. Every Dev who maps a button to it seriously deserves to get slapped in the face.

@bbkkristian: really? In what way? Controls? Lag? I'm curious. My vita just arrived at the door! Yay!

Guess I'm weird Sony. I kinda wanted to play ps4 games on my TV and vita games on my vita.

killzone, uncharted games were made by b-team devs.

what they needed are games like monster hunter and pokemon, phoenix wright and professor layton and not pocket versions of call of duty/assassins creed.tearaway was awesome, but too little 2 late. persona sold well on the vita from what i heard...thats what they needed

oh totally forgot about the horrible prices for the memory cards....

and everything else is on this video

That sound fine, the focus, luckily for the Playstation Family is mainly on the PS4.

Microsoft should take note.

Andrew House is of course in the very uncomfortable position of explaining the Vita, but he's doing a piss poor job when it comes to its PR.

I believe this interview was last week. That said, Andrew House is wrong. People buying the PSV as a $200 accessory and having it be successful as only that? Mr. House... you need to wake the **** up. The system sells well in Japan because Sony has made sure that the Japanese market has Japanese oriented games. What do we have in the west? Ports of multiplat titles that you can play on anything from a PS3 to an iPad; that's what we have in the west. What the **** is the point of buying a handheld gaming device when there is very little original AAA content? Oh yeah... there is NO FUCKING POINT!

The PSV is dead in the west after this year. Sony obviously isn't supporting it. Due to that, third parties aren't supporting it. The only support it's getting is indie games and those don't interest me. PSV is the first Playstation disappointment that I've ever had and I've been with the platform since 1995.

This only serves to lower my trust in Sony's commitment to their products which is sad when one considers that the Vita's library of exclusives was/is far more impressive than the PS4s which is another one of those systems where Sony keeps putting tons of emphasis on indie titles/features rather than their own first party "AAA" exclusives.

All I can say is I'm glad I never bought a Vita, and I'm alright with not having a PS4 right now. Sony really needs to start making some games if they want my support again.

Remote play is an even bigger gimmick that the Wii U gamepad. It even performs much worse than it. The few times that I've gotten it to work flawlessly the screen has looked amazing. The huge problem I have with it are the awful controls. Since the Vita lacks clickable buttons and triggers they map this to the touch screens and it is terrible. I gave up trying to play Infamous like that. Battlefield was ok. Injustice was good.

When/if Vita drops to $100 i'll buy. Spending over $100 for a system with zero games is dumb in my book

As long as they are not going to stop localizing Japanese games it's all good for me after all that's what matters when it comes to handheld devices.

>viable games machine

>Smart phone

They could turn it around easy but they have no clue what they are doing up there. They already knew their first party sucks so before this thing was announced they should have had things like grand theft auto and other popular western games secured.

What they can do now is focus on getting western games since the vita is doing fine in Japan. Then release a vita 3000 with the oled back, design of the slim, with compatibility with micro sd cards, and possibly slightly better specs so older games might run better. Price it $199 and drop the price of the other models $149.

Done.

nah.......... there isnt much remote play fucntionality on it anyways

tho... PS NOW could be a big thing for the PSVITA but it just seems like the few people that will be getting NOW will just use it on their PS4's or buy the VITA TV cuz its way more cheaper than buying a VITA

Meh, don't care. I buy handhelds to play Japanese games and there is no shortage of those. Sony can discontinue the system in the West and it wouldn't affect me. The system will still ride out this generation. It's not going anywhere despite the "it's dead" comments.

remote play wont do squat.

imho the problem is that they are making the wrong AA and AAA games. not many want to play the uncharted or killzones of this world on a small screen. they want it on a big TV....with a big sound system and so on.

its not just a production values thing as mentioned in the vid above. they are games designed for the big screen.

borderlands was a real missed opportunity. the idea of borderlands (shootin and lootin) is brilliant for a handheld but the console version is really designed for 4 player co-op and longer stints of play and the vita cant cope with it. a new borderlands designed only for the vita would have been so much better.

something like diablo/torchlight would be ideal for the vita.

gran turismo would be very nice to have on a handheld. a proper GT (the PSP one was not great).

something like baldurs gate/neverwinter nights could also work very well.

elite. that could be awesome to have on a handheld (its something that can be played in short and long stints).

trackmania...that would be brilliant on the vita. track building and sharing on the vita could work really well. if they could share MP and tracks with the PC version then all the better.

the only game from sony that i have for my vita where i think "yes...this is where this series really belongs" is little big planet. the game really shines on the handheld...i wouldnt play it anywhere else.

Handhelds dont appeal at all to me, i only use WiiU pad if pro controller dont work for the game...i dont see why i ever should get and use Vita

No, Sony, Remote Play will not save the Vita in the west, original, compelling content will. You know, the kinds of games that made the 3DS as big as it is, the kinds of games that indicate that you actually give a damn about the system, instead of just thinking of it as an accessory to your console, and treating it as one.

There's a reason Vita's are not in stock anywhere. Sony is silently killing the platform. They are not restocking because they have reduced production. The irony is that a system called VITA is dead dead dead.

Makes you really grateful the PSP had a much better fate.

what made the 3DS be as big as it is was a price drop. $160 vs $250 and no Monster Hunter.

Sure, the price drop helped, but would you buy a $170 handheld with nothing to play on it? Nintendo coupled the price drop with a staggering output of 3DS games (Mario 3D Land, Mario Kart 7, Kid Icarus, NSMB2, Fire Emblem, Pokemon, Zelda, Animal Crossing, Donkey Kong, Luigi's Mansion), which is ultimately what sold the system. Why would anyone (still) spend $270 to play a handheld port of Ocarina of Time?

And that exactly is what Sony failed to realize with the Vita, and why they continue to struggle.

Remote play won't help the Vita at all in the West. The handheld needs more interesting content released for it and sony needs to drop the price of the handheld and it's accessories especially those memory cards.All these things will help the vita sell more.

NICE. AN OVERLY EXPENSIVE CONTROLLER.

I'm so glad I didn't go through with my Vita purchase.

I wish you'd warned me ;__;

Oh well, I spent $30 on the system (new), and got Persona 4 Golden out of it, so I can't say I complain.

You know, I would've gotten it too for that price. That's too good.

Yeah, I mean, it's like buying one bad game or something.

Plus, like I said, I got P4G on the Vita eventually, which is now my all time favorite game, so I can't be too mad at it.

@TheEroica: the back touchscreen is sometimes unresponsive when you go to use it. FFXIV on remote play mapped switching your hotbar to it. My second hotbar is mostly buffs, and I have stopped using them all together because the back touch screen is so unreliable when you need it [most].

@bbkkristian: I spent a few hours with it today... I really thought the remote play feature was more stable than what I experienced. Resogun was too laggy for a serious play and infamous second son was unplayable. Now that said I was a floor above the ps4 and I'll tweak that to see if it makes a difference. I love the quick functionality and there are plenty of games to keep me moving for now. I do not like the back touch screen at all but again I have 2 hours of game time. Overall, reading the comments, I can see the disdain for a consoles lack of AAA quality support and to that I sympathize, but as a before bed/travel handheld that keys into the ecosystem of my other consoles I'm digging it. I certainly have a laundry list of games I've yet to play in that store.