Sony wants to flop at mobile market again

Sony's new PlayStation chief John Kodera has hinted at the possibility of Sony re-entering the portable games market, according to a report in Bloomberg news.

[...]Kodera stated that in his opinion, "rather than separating portable gaming from consoles, it’s necessary to continue thinking of [portable gaming] as one method to deliver more gaming experiences and exploring what our customers want from portable. We want to think about many options.”

Isn't time they learned that mobile market is not for playstation? There goes years of R&D wasted on a product that'll flop.

Source: Gamasutra

I don't why its a bad idea for them to try again. Persistence is key.

Wasted money on a market they can't penetrate.

Sony is king of home consoles and music industry, but mobile market? No. Well, at least they can make nintendo drop the prices of their products, who knows.

There's no reason why they can't succeed. The Vita is extremely nice hardware. If they can bring the same level of quality hardware and fully support it with software--more than JRPGs--they could have a huge hit on their hands.

That is the switch. They are trying to make a PS4 switch. Or play your PS4 games on a phone, like what Steam is making.

They just need to make a PS4 portable. That way they're not splitting game development. If they go for another PSP-styled dedicated device, it's gonna be DOA out the box.

@recloud: "Sony is king of home consoles and music industry,"

What music artists are under Sony these days?

Yeah it will be smart for them to do a ps4 portable if only to target japan. Something that just scales and play ps4 games without much effort from development. Then dev can decide on making big or small games that all ps4s can enjoy. I think Japanese publishers will appreciate that. Add a gimmick like a neat portable hdr screen if cost and power permits and watch that thing take off in Japan.

I hope they do make another handheld because the PSP & Vita were great pieces of hardware... only problem is they don't have the studios anymore to support a second piece of hardware (3rd if you count PSVR).

I don’t care for handhelds so for me this is bad news. I don’t want them doing anything that will take resources away from PS5 and PSVR 2.0 in the future. I don’t think they’ll ever be able to top Nintendo in the handheld arena. Their exclusive games don’t translate as well to handhelds like Nintendo exclusives do.

I can see why they are doing this (Japan) but I think it’s a wasted effort.

@PSP107: CBS Records, Columbia Records, Jive Records, Century Media Records, Epic Records, Arista Records, Essential Records, Flicker Records, GospoCentric, Legacy Recordings, Masterworks, Sony Classical, Sony Music Latin, Star Time International, Verity Records, Volcano Entertainment, RCA Records, among others.

They have to. Look at the Vita, thing was a failure in most respects but managed to still get a ton of third party Japanese support, heck, it kept getting support long after Sony abandoned it, and it even still does to this day. Now that Sony is out of the market, all that support from Japanese third parties is going to eventually landslide to Nintendo uncontested.

In the console wars, one of the main differentiating factors Sony has against MS is its Japanese support, if the Japanese market becomes more focused on supporting Nintendo and the Switch, Sony could see its third party Japanese support dwindle. This could threaten their strengths in western territories if MS offers a better system foe AAA western games and Nintendo gets the people who want Japanese games.

Even if Sony's next handheld is a repeat of the Vita, at very least, it should tie up Japanese third parties with support for it for a long while. Plus, the Vita had a pretty crap life. I think they'd have to try really hard to eff it up that bad again. There's at least something to gain even if the system isn't that successful.

Portable VR will becme a massive untapped market in the years ahead. Man, some System Warriors need a touch of imagination.

But I was wondering who are the performers signed to Sony.

@lamprey263: Exactly what I'm thinking. Part of sony's strength is there ability to carpet bomb the world with niche but very important software from there homeland. Some studios do not look to do much. They are just happy to sell 2 mill. They budget there games as such. This helps build that big tent install base that 3rd party thrive on. In the past usually almost half of that 2mill target is guaranteed to come from japan with playstation. It keeps that relationship going. Heck SquareEnix does not have to be conflicted about making AAA jrpg games. They can target 10mill and get at least 2mil from japan alone on playstation. The console business is clearly going down so many are now looking to make the Switch (pun intended) and of course a return to pc. Heck alot of indies that came out of that vita program are finding a new home.

This sony advantage has been masked by them winning in NA and UK this gen. It didn't really matter as they are trouncing there competition everywhere else. I don't know how feasible is it to make a portable ps4 that play 720-900p ps4 games just for Japan. A targeted hardware just for that region that does not split software development with the main console. I think that will be smart move for those worried about loosing support for the main console. That will help keep falcom, atlus, hell even konami etc. Atleast keep them supporting playstation along with everything.

I know Will Smith and Avril Lavigne are on the Sony label.

All they had to do was release AAA games for Vita, but they didn't for some stupid reason. The console's hardware was powerful for 2012, it could run games such as Uncharted GA, Killzone Mercenary and Gravity Rush. Games such as God of War, Gran Turismo, Patapon, Infamous, Yakuza ( Though it only gained popularity in the west recently.), SOCOM, Syphon Filter ( Okay, these two are dead but they were great on PSP.) etc. could've been released on PS Vita and they would sell. PSP was so good and popular despite losing the war against DS. It sold something like 80M, more than 3DS. It got some great 3rd party, some of them are exclusives, games like MGS Peace Walker, FF 7 CC, Dissidia 012, a port of Crazy Taxi, 2 GTA Stories games, Smackdown vs Raw games, Persona 2 and 3's portable ports, 2 Ace Combat games and more! There were simply more games on PSP, and even more games on PSP that were suited to outside of Japan. PS Vita is a haven for JRPGs, they are not that popular in west. I remember waiting for a Battlefield game on PS Vita after seeing PS3 would get DLCs for BF3 2 weeks earlier, thinking Sony could get them to release a Battlefield game, such as a Bad Company port on PS Vita. PS Vita had a very big potential, it could bring games from home consoles to portable, but Sony just let it die.

I've never understood why Sony abandoned PS Vita after 2 years, was it because of PS Now which is not mentioned at all these days or PS VR which is below expectations according to John Tsuyoshi Kodera. They started to sell PS Vita as a 2nd screen for PS4, removed Vita from PS TV.

They've also failed with 2 cameras and touchpad on the back. They were I think Sony's attempt at innovating like Nintendo, but whenever I needed to use them in games, it felt like a chore. Most games didn't use them, I only used them in like 3 games. Cameras' resolution was bad, and probably no one used social media on PS vita so that they could share pictures.

I don't care about the touchscreens of DS, hybrid usage of Switch, and failed innovations of PS Vita. I just want to play big AAA games that you would find on a PC or a home console. With adequate battery time and a comfortable controls.

I think Sony approach at mobile gaming is all wrong. Especially in today's market. It would be hard to release a handheld gaming device that's specs could inspire awe- at a price that could inspire sales, and bring devs on board.

What I would suggest they do is involve their mobile tech. Their flagship phones are top tier, imagine that at E3 they announce "Playstation Phone" ... 5.8" 4K HDR amoled screen, latest and greatest SoC, 12GB ram, IP68 water resistant, ripoff Joycon you can slide on to the ends, stereo speakers to match or beat Razer phone. It's possible, and I would buy it. It would help sales to get carriers on board to be able to get them at a discount when signing contracts.

It's a pipe dream, but It could be done very right. Short of that, I'd suggest they just don't bother.

@dr_vancouver: it has to be cheap or it'll fail.

Which is the biggest problem with the handheld market. The only way to combat that, for Sony, in my opinion is to go the exact opposite direction and make it real expensive. In North America, carriers will eat two thirds of the cost when signing people to contracts, IDK if it works that way in EU or Asia but Sony can entice people to buy a thousand dollar phone / gaming device when it only costs say 350 on a two year contract.

@dr_vancouver: making it expensive is a stupid strategy business wise. If anything, their huge mistake with the vita was not including internal storage and an SD card solution. They're capable of making a powerful handheld without taking a loss and at a consumer friendly price.

I don't want them to make another handheld. I want all their studios working on home console games. Why would I want to play games on a tiny handheld screen when I can play them on my 55' 4K Samsung?

Do they have any building's left to sell to fund this?

"Mobile gaming" are an inevitable future. A future.

Anyone serious in gaming business should have a good presence or focused look at it.

This includes the futures of consoles, PC and mobile. Mobile currently, IMO is a branch out of the PC phenomena filled to the brim, but not limited to F2Ps and Microtransactions.

It doesn't seem like they're going for another VITA but it can be a strategy.

If Sony only had to choose one, they're could be better off waiting for a feasible PS4Portable to possibly siphon a bit from the Switch's successor. A respectable number 2 and hopefully break even at the very least. Market presence might be a good investment for the future and customer's mindshare of said future.

@FireEmblem_Man: after holding a Sony flagship or Razer phone in your hand, how can you be impressed on a technical level for even half as much money as one of those? I can't. In both their previous attempts at getting a slice of the handheld pie, Sony has kind of gone the "XBoneX" approach- less games but more power. If they're gonna try that in 2018 or beyond they're gonna have to match flagship smartphones or not bother. If they want to own portable gaming, getting phone carriers to absorb most of launch units instantly. It's the smart move to think outside the box: aka a $900-$1200 CDN, go after all mobile gaming Trojan horse. Never been done, I think if they were smart they could pull it off, hell look how much people spend on iPhones.

They'd have more luck trying to revive the Walkman brand.

Yea good luck convincing people to invest into your dead beat handheld segment for a 3rd time.

PSP was a success though right?

@i_p_daily: you really don't know that Sony is thriving, do you?

They're not the giant they used to be when they led the way in portable music players and TV's. They're pretty much just Playstation now.

interesting. they could make a proper gaming phone. they have everything they need in house to do it. they know how to make phones (some dam good phones), they know how to make portable hardware (the vita was an amazing gaming handheld) and they have a studio or 2 at their disposal.

it could be a way to get the market more interested in sony phones. making me too android phones isnt really working for them but games, proper games, is one area where sony have strengths no other phone maker has (both in terms of first part and 3rd party relations). should it use android or an enhanced version of the vita OS? upsides and downsides to both.

going the other route, cramming as much of a PS4 as possible into a handheld, is another option. they could have a new SOC with fewer GPU resources and using LPDDR instead of GDDR5. the smachZ is kinda that (the CPU is actually more powerful than a PS4 but the GPU is quite lacking in comparison) so AMD can give them options. they couldnt get a full PS4 in there of course. but it would mean patching all PS4 games again. PS4 games are also huge in terms of GB: im not sure they would be suitable for a portable device.

i think, whatever they do, they need to get their top talent working on it. the PSP and vita were treated as second class citizens mostly from a development standpoint. also no stupid custom memory cards.

Wouldn't a PS4 portable be $500+ ? For a handheld to have that much power it would definitely be pricey.

@boycie: wrong.

Theyre music, cameras, movies and PlayStation.

Even though the Vita is a massive flop, the PSP was actually quite successful and sold like 80 million units. The only reason the PSP looks bad is because someone really creative at Nintendo made the DS Lite, which got the DS to 154 million units sold. Even though some DS fans at another forum did not want to admit it, without the DS Lite, the PSP would have outsold the DS family. Not bad for Sony's first attempt at the portable market.

If they come back strong, they might have another success on their hands.

They actually had a popular gaming device but you may have been too young to remember it.

Pokemon. They want Pokemon.

IIRC, Vita's problems were its price and the memory cards that were expensive and proprietary, I remember that was a big backlash at the time. Am I right?

You are correct.

@recloud: That and lackluster first party support after a couple of years. Sony totally threw it under the bus.

That's what I hated about the psp they did the same thing with the memory cards cost me $50 for a 4gb memory card.

PSP where pretty successful, I knew a fair few people with them. The psvita though I only new 1 person and he loved it except for the lack of games. I wanted one they were just to expensive for what they were

IMO this is theoretically only a small part. The bigger part?

Sony has not been able to nurture any legacy IPs like Nintendo for it. Their first party output wasn't probably on par to the 3DS including reception.

Software is far a bigger part. Imagine the VITA outing with minecraft and a far higher budget Capcom made MH-esque game (ala Bloodborne contrast to dark souls) in its first year or two.

That part might be harder to see. But as the Switch has shown, even if it's their somewhat expensive handheld, no recent previous handheld b/c, humongous size, driving "console quality" w/c some argued heavily against Sony's handheld mantra, sub native resolutions tied to hardware power and relatively sparse 3rd party, software remains the most potent force like BoTW.

Whatever Sony had they were probably not even a third as potent as Mario, Zelda, Pokemon and MH.

No. Freedom Wars and SS didn't have anywhere near the reception of MH.

Memory card IMO is also less of a deal thanks to PS+ saves, pc connectivity and physical cards. 8-16 GB cards by then should be ok and shouldn't hamper anyone if the software library was compelling enough.

sony would have to make a handheld that can run call of duty and battlefield/battlefront/assasins creed etc....otherwise its DOA.

if it can make one that runs all 3rd party then it might have a chance to sell somewhat.

however the market for those games and sony in general are against handheld gimped experiences. it would not sell well imo...

also, they would have to support it with some 1st party games. which means less games for their consoles and more upset fans.

lastly i suppose they could ripoff the switch and make it so you can dock the vita2 and play on a tv. however it will still be gimped compared to ps5 or ps4 so why would anyone buy that version? portability would get many customers but that is not the majority as switch has shown. switch 3rd party ports dont sell as well.

it would sell very well in japan though.

I would be willing to sacrifice a bit of power for a hybrid Sony machine like the Switch. Now that I play Switch A LOT, I find myself wishing that all gaming was like that. The Switch is brilliant, and Sony could also be brilliant with a similar product. (ok I just want Ratchet and Clank on a true hybrid gaming device)

Big Playstation fan but given how they treated Vita, I won't be supporting another Sony handheld... ever.

They probably won't even support it themselves.

Portable gaming is awesome, it's like gaming, but smaller.

This forum is not a place for you to spam. Please read the rules!

I can already image its bait. Playstation V, not 5, like Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. It's also a successor to the Vita.

In all seriousness, I would invest in a new way to play games, with a controller for the PS4 Pro. There's so many ideas out there... I once came up with a gamepad that had Atari Driving Controller-like dials that you could press on their outer rim, to register a direction or an action in each one of them, and/or rotate both in their own axes with your thumbs. The idea: to have 6DoF (six degrees of freedom) in two dials like you were playing Etch-a-Sketch or using a CAD Software 3D Mouse. It would take a bit getting used to it, hence the investment on something that could be a games' future, due to the nature of how the characters look and move.

Hopefully, its just a rumor and the president shut down this idea and it never sees the light of day.

This is a massive waste on resources, time, money that could go to exclusives games.

I am a asshole for saying this but I don't care; I really glad smartphones are killing handhelds, resources wasted on these little shits could have been leverage for at least 8 AAA exclusives.