-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Shawn Layden loves the Vita says it's still viable just not in the West
- Thread starter Vanillalite
- Start date
yurinka
Member
Vita means love.
Regarding why it doesn't work in western market, maybe it's because Sony doesn't market it any more, needed a pricecut especially in the fucking memory cards and more games from top -non indie- devs.
The support from the indie devs has been awesome, but after a few years Sony didn't support it properly in terms of marketing and big 1st party or moneyhatted 3rd party games.
Market it as Remote Play and PS Now, portable indie games machine with PS+ free games and bundle it with every PS4.
Its install base would grow and would make sense to make bigger games for it.
Regarding why it doesn't work in western market, maybe it's because Sony doesn't market it any more, needed a pricecut especially in the fucking memory cards and more games from top -non indie- devs.
The support from the indie devs has been awesome, but after a few years Sony didn't support it properly in terms of marketing and big 1st party or moneyhatted 3rd party games.
Market it as Remote Play and PS Now, portable indie games machine with PS+ free games and bundle it with every PS4.
Its install base would grow and would make sense to make bigger games for it.
Principate
Saint Titanfall
Even those developers are starting to/have and likely continue to ditch the vita in favour of PS4.
KZXcellent
Member
Yeah it'll still live in Japan. Also the occasional bone thrown at it by Gio Corsi at PSX shows.
GhostTrick
Banned
lol
Kresnik258
Member
It's still just about clinging to viability in Asia thanks to strong software sales, but not for much longer by the looks of things (especially with companies like Falcom & Marvelous bailing out).
Would've been nice if he could've shown that love by using his clout to get a bit of extra content on the platform. I suppose Vib Ribbon was him, lol.
Would've been nice if he could've shown that love by using his clout to get a bit of extra content on the platform. I suppose Vib Ribbon was him, lol.
Toadthemushroom
Member
He's not wrong about how Vita fared overall in different markets, but it's hardly shocking that a Sony exec calls the Vita his favourite portable. Personally I don't think Vita (or 3DS for that matter) holds a candle to the PSP or DS that preceded it.
entremet
Member
You think they silll spend that time and money to do that? This is the same company that can't get us to change our PSN names.
Crankshaft
Member
It's my favorite portable too! Now about them memory card prices...
Interfectum
Member
Leona Lewis
Banned
axisofweevils
Holy crap! Today's real megaton is that more than two people can have the same first name.
I love the Vita. It's a great system hampered by incredibly off putting decisions. The Switch is kinda giving me a similar feeling, with less drawbacks, but the VNs / fanservice-y games don't seem to be heading towards it yet.
I guess I think they should have done it years ago.
Augemitbutter
Member
k.
just give me the localizations. i need those dungeon crawlers.
just give me the localizations. i need those dungeon crawlers.
Vita was dead years before the Switch.
OfficerRaichu15
Member
So does that mean we may get a new Sony handheld? 
For Japan, I meant. I think a lot of developers are gonna move from Vita to Switch.
nintendo weebs rejoice
Omnii-chan
Member
Well at least its not dead, right?
I think the Vita would have done pretty decently had it just been a dual analog PSP2 with non-proprietary memory and no touchscreen gimmicks. They just needed to improve upon what the PSP did instead of go in an awkward side direction.
Reason for my thinking = Because the PSP is one of the top 10 all time selling game systems
Reason for my thinking = Because the PSP is one of the top 10 all time selling game systems
So does that mean we may get a new Sony handheld?
In an attempt to reach out to the European markets, Sony will be releasing the Vita-E1000 with no wifi, 1GB of non-expandable memory and with Invizimals: The Alliance as a pack-in.
entremet
Member
In the West, yes. Layden is not contradicting him.
HackTheSlash
Member
"Its still my favorite portable!"
Until i can find a Switch in stock somewhere
Toadthemushroom
Member
Yeah, I don't think there's much life left in it, it's still getting games but it's clear the games it was built to play aren't coming out anymore as the PS4 is simply stretching the hardware too thin.
I'm not even sure a New 3DS-style hardware refresh would have worked (though Vita's OS and platform itself doesn't seem scalable to the extent of 3DS, going from the Vita TV's rigid unflexibility) since a lot of current console games wouldn't scale back to the original Vita in the first place.
I guess Minecraft's arrival on Switch will also slow down Vita hardware sales to the masses. But I remember Sony Interactive Entertainment Japan going on record saying they have some first party Vita games in the works for the audience that basically bought a Vita for Minecraft?
I'd still like to see another handheld from Sony, though the ForwardWorks effort seems to have replaced first party handheld games that we'd have traditionally seen. Perhaps an ARM + Nvidia PS5 platform will see an architectural shift that'd favour two devices with a shared library of games, if Sony is willing to give up backwards compatibility, that is.
Grim Patron
Member
I don't think Nintendo wants vita "fan service shovelware" next to games like vroom in the night sky and the like
ThatRandomCliff
Member
The Vita has been lying in a hole for a couple years now, it simply took the Switch to finally bury it. R.I.P
James Scott
Banned
I'm honestly surprised it's lasted as long as it has with how poorly it's done in the west and the lack of Sony support.
It was the highest quality portable device (for its time) but it never really took off here. Japan had a big boost from Sony funded MH clones and a price drop, but they didn't even fully localize their in house one in the west.
It houses the definitive Persona experience and some of the best "Ace Attorney" games are on it
so I had a good time with it but I haven't felt the need to use it since Dangan Ronpa 2 came out
Also think people are over exaggerating the cost of the memory cards. They were most likely a way to reduce the cost of the main unit. Don't think a $299 PSV would've faired much better vs a $179 3DS
It was the highest quality portable device (for its time) but it never really took off here. Japan had a big boost from Sony funded MH clones and a price drop, but they didn't even fully localize their in house one in the west.
It houses the definitive Persona experience and some of the best "Ace Attorney" games are on it
DR
Also think people are over exaggerating the cost of the memory cards. They were most likely a way to reduce the cost of the main unit. Don't think a $299 PSV would've faired much better vs a $179 3DS
Hamster Plugin
Member
Those fucking memory cards killed it.
If Sony really wanted to do super expensive memory, they should have made it all internal memory included in the device. That's how phones get away with ridiculously expensive memory. Psychology is weird, but people are more likely to buy one expensive device than a slightly cheaper one with a mandatory other purchase on top of that.
There's also the problem that the high memory card prices discourage people from buying games for the Vita because the games won't fit. That's a fucking ridiculous business decision.
If Sony really wanted to do super expensive memory, they should have made it all internal memory included in the device. That's how phones get away with ridiculously expensive memory. Psychology is weird, but people are more likely to buy one expensive device than a slightly cheaper one with a mandatory other purchase on top of that.
There's also the problem that the high memory card prices discourage people from buying games for the Vita because the games won't fit. That's a fucking ridiculous business decision.
Toadthemushroom
Member
It's easy to forget that PSP was very appealing when it launched in 2004 because it was a multimedia device. The marketing itself centred around the ability to play and view Music, Video (UMD video!), Photos, alongside games. Some ads entirely focused on the other three that weren't games.
Of course, Apple ate Sony's lunch there, but I don't think a PSP2 would have the same appeal as PSP, much like how Vita didn't. The market had changed. Vita's initial slump at least encouraged Sony to rethink their approach and lower their barriers to entry for developers, something which paid off in spades with PS4 (And is paying off with Switch, as the exact same thing happened with Wii U).