[AniHawk]

Honestly, I predicted that Sony's next handheld would look a lot like this, simply because there wasn't anywhere else for it to really go. If anything, their hardware engineering and pricing were better than my expectations.

i think they learned a lot from their mistakes with the psp, namely the features that should be available in a handheld, and not using moving parts. the biggest thing they lack is software. i think they needed a lot of studios immersed in developing games that were well-suited to handhelds. this is difficult for them in particular because it's antithetical to the direction they've been pushing game development since the playstation (more realistic and/or cinematic experiences), and they never really built any sort of lasting franchise outside of hot shots golf and gran turismo.

[Zeer0id]

I wonder how Fire Emblem 3DS will do in the states...

Currently on track to do a whopping 0 until NoA decides to announce it

[Pureauthor]

i think they learned a lot from their mistakes with the psp, namely the features that should be available in a handheld, and not using moving parts. the biggest thing they lack is software. i think they needed a lot of studios immersed in developing games that were well-suited to handhelds. this is difficult for them in particular because it's antithetical to the direction they've been pushing game development since the playstation (more realistic and/or cinematic experiences), and they never really built any sort of lasting franchise outside of hot shots golf and gran turismo.

I believe they learned a lot on the issue of how to launch a high-end portable system from the PSP, but they completely ignored the new question that had opened up during the PSP's lifespan of why you would want to launch a high-end portable system.

[Man God]

i think they learned a lot from their mistakes with the psp, namely the features that should be available in a handheld, and not using moving parts. the biggest thing they lack is software. i think they needed a lot of studios immersed in developing games that were well-suited to handhelds. this is difficult for them in particular because it's antithetical to the direction they've been pushing game development since the playstation (more realistic and/or cinematic experiences), and they never really built any sort of lasting franchise outside of hot shots golf and gran turismo.

Sony barely has a handle anymore on what sells on consoles, they are completely lost when it comes to handhelds.

It's funny because I'd generally say their games got better from PS2 to PS3 but the sales even when considering the total number of PS3's on the market compared to the competition just aren't there.

[bigtroyjon]

Looks to me like the PSV+PSP has lost about 200k sales and the 3DS+DS has gained about 200k sales for the year comparison. That's less of a loss for Sony and less of a gain for Nintendo than I would have expected given the 3DS's meteoric rise.

3DS sold a lot of units when it launched last year which is why the Nintendo gap isn't wider right now. It's going to get much bigger before it starts to get smaller again when the price cut rolls around.

The gap in Sony handhelds isn't bigger because they sold a lot of units in the first few weeks of this year. Here is what it looked like in week 7.

PSP+PSV(YTD)=312K PSP(2011YTD)=338K

As you can see it's widening by about 20K a week on average.

[?oe?oe]

Looking at the above, it seems not by much...lol

That's because 3DS is picking up Vita's slack.

[ShockingAlberto]

What makes you think they'll have one? Honestly, I predicted that Sony's next handheld would look a lot like this, simply because there wasn't anywhere else for it to really go. If anything, their hardware engineering and pricing were better than my expectations.

Nintendo kind of forced them in to it. It was obvious where the DS successor would have to be going graphically, at which point the rationale for Japanese developers to develop for the PSP dwindled dramatically. So they had to go big or go home.

And they kind of...did both.

[Krev]

This is a MC thread but let's not get too myopic such that we miss the bigger picture of Japan's sales within the worldwide market. I'm sure Sony's plan was not to fail miserably in Japan with the Vita but they had to know rough times were ahead within their knowledge of release schedules and what was in the works and they chose to launch anyway. And the reason they chose to launch anyway is because Sony's strengths in software these days, such as they are, really aren't focused on what's popular in Japan and haven't been for some time.

I would say Sony chose to launch the system anyway because they had no other choice. 3DS already had nearly a year's head start and a lot of pledged third party support. The longer Sony waited, the more of a foothold 3DS would get in the marketplace and the harder it would be to gather significant third party support. The only thing they could do about the rough schedule on the horizon was hope a successful launch would convince publishers to come on board. They tried to do this by unloading almost everything they had in the launch period, but clearly it hasn't worked.

I've made the point before that I think that Sony has traded strength (development dollars is more accurate) in Japan for strength in territories outside Japan and has found some success doing it. The best example: We learned this week that Uncharted series is now at 17 million shipped. That's an accomplishment for a series that is PS3 (ok a little bit of PSV also) exclusive (we do remember how the PS3 started, right?) And interestingly enough it was the release of Uncharted back in late 2007 that actually opened my eyes as to the potential of the PS3 and it was one of my favorite games of that holiday season. (As was R&C: Tools of Destruction!) Certainly it wasn't only Uncharted that helped pull the PS3 back from the nearly dead but Uncharted + other quality Sony IP's (Infamous, Resistance, God of War, Killzone, GT) and key third party support did.

Sony's decision to sacrifice so much of their Japanese development resources in favour of western studios may have helped them with the PS3, but it's really bitten them in the ass when it comes to the Vita. Japan is the major battleground for dedicated handhelds, and if they're not going to get great third party support, they needed to have some really solid first party games for the region. So far we've seen Gravity Daze (which is a terrific game from the little I've played), and that's it. It's one of Vita's biggest successes so far, which is a pretty big hint that those sorts of games should have been a bigger priority for them.

And what are Sony really doing for the platform with their western first parties? None of the studios behind the IPs you listed are working on Vita games. Kind of beating a dead horse here, but at most they devote a B team to make a portable spin-off, as they have with Uncharted, Resistance, and Killzone. The brand names alone are not going to convince anyone to buy the system. They're not that popular.

The only major western Sony team (as in, one that makes their big budget console games) that we know to be working on a Vita title is Media Molecule. That doesn't exactly speak to Vita being a big priority in the west.

I certainly don't know which IP (or even IF their will be an IP) will be the one to spark the Vita but I have to think that Sony has the software support to at least lead the way. They've already done a good job at launch with Uncharted, Hot Shots, Gravity Rush, Unit 13, Wipeout, etc. which are all games which show the potential of the system. If Sony can keep that up (and we still have the Western launch of Gravity Rush, Sound Shapes, Resistance and Little Big Planet this year as just the stuff that's known right now) and continue to get some key third party support then the Vita might not set the charts on fire but it will continue to sell and hopefully reach a healthy market penetration. At least in places not named Japan. =( Of course not much of what I've discussed here helps the situation in Japan based on what we know right now. And that's a direct result of that lack of software that appeals to Japanese tastes, mainly, with pricing and popularity of other platforms being secondary problems. The pricing will be fixed, eventually. The software is a tougher problem but perhaps Sony showing off Soul Sacrifice on May 10 is a sign that they are at least aware of the problem and doing everything they can possibly do to fix it. At this point I doubt it will be enough for the short term but I'm at least going to keep an open mind. For the long term I still can't conceive of the Vita being an outright failure. The hardware is too good, too developer friendly and offers cheap enough development costs that at the very least it will always have a niche.

Attempting to drive a new dedicated handheld with western support is a TERRIBLE strategy in 2012. Developer friendly hardware is useless when developers are all being contracted to produce iOS games instead.
The Vita performed okayish in the recent NPD (maybe, there were no official numbers...) because it just launched. It opened reasonably well in Japan, too. It's going to fall off a cliff in just the same way in the west, if it hasn't already. It's not as if the game line-up is so much stronger in the west than it was in Japan.

Nintendo kind of forced them in to it. It was obvious where the DS successor would have to be going graphically, at which point the rationale for Japanese developers to develop for the PSP dwindled dramatically.

Might it have been a smarter strategy to release a PSP+ system with the Vita's unique functionality (ala the GCN-> Wii transition) and a UMD drive for full backwards computability, and hope to become a port twin for the 3DS?

So they had to go big or go home. And they kind of...did both.

[darkwing]

it's scary that the Vita has no big game coming in several months, do you think it could come down to X360 numbers in a few months?

[jman2050]

So they had to go big or go home. And they kind of...did both.

See now that made me laugh.

[Krev]

it's scary that the Vita has no big game coming in several months, do you think it could come down to X360 numbers in a few months?

It has Persona 4 in June and Hatsune Miku in August, so sales won't be nearly that bad.
Although it should sell less than Wii in August, with the launch of DQX.

[perfectchaos007]

it's scary that the Vita has no big game coming in several months, do you think it could come down to X360 numbers in a few months?

But would Sony sound the alarm then?

[Terrell]

Holy shit, I knew that this Fire Emblem would be the one to de-ghetto the franchise. I relish the WiiU edition that will be incoming now.

And Kid Icarus maintains very modest legs after many assumed it would sink like a stone a week or 2 ago.


But yeah, I think at this point, if Sony hasn't realized that they've made a worse job of launching Vita than Nintendo did with the 3DS, I dunno what to say. Nintendo did it HALF-INTENTIONALLY by not releasing 1st-party games to give 3rd-parties a window. What the hell is Sony's excuse for not demanding 3rd-parties be on board when they would have to KNOW that they would fail hard without 3rd-party games being there?

Someone needs to explain this reasoning to me for how Sony could not only make the same mistake after watching Nintendo make it, but make the same mistake even WORSE.

And somehow people have hope for PS4 turning things around, as if Sony will fuck it up so bad that their mismanagement warps reality and causes an inversion so it turns from mismanagement to pure genius.

[darkwing]

It has Persona 4 in June and Hatsune Miku in August, so sales won't be nearly that bad. Although it should sell less than Wii in August, with the launch of DQX.

those games are spaced too far out, by August it's already 8 months into launch


lol I don't think I've ever seen Sony enter panic mode, it would be interesting to see

[Erethian]

Only thing I'm interested in about the Vita now is what Sony says on May 10th when they do their earnings announcement.

Or maybe they'll gloss over it completely.

[perfectchaos007]

Only thing I'm interested in about the Vita now is what Sony says on May 10th when they do their earnings announcement. Or maybe they'll gloss over it completely.

"We have a lot of great things planned. The Vita's future looks bright."

Or they can say the same thing they did during the PSPGo lifecycle. "So far, sales have been better than expected"

[Krev]

Holy shit, I knew that this Fire Emblem would be the one to de-ghetto the franchise. I relish the WiiU edition that will be incoming now.

Man, I hope it's coming. It would be great on the tablet controller. Releasing a mainline Wii U game would be a nice way to get Japan on board now that the series is a big draw again, but they could go the other way and keep it on handhelds in response to the 3DS success.

those games are spaced too far out, by August it's already 8 months into launch

One is in two months from now, another is two months after that.
Whatever bump they're going to give the system will be big enough that X360 numbers are inconceivable for a long, long time.

Only thing I'm interested in about the Vita now is what Sony says on May 10th when they do their earnings announcement. Or maybe they'll gloss over it completely.

We already know what they're going to do: a big unveiling party for Soul Sacrifice.

[Luigiv]

rounded to the nearest 100k

Ah, you're stealth edit just answered my question.

Edit: Oops, wasn't even stealth. I didn't realise that I hadn't refreshed the page before replying.

[Hammer24]

What is the situation with used Vitas right now? Are there any available? At what prices?

[LOCK]

That's because 3DS is picking up Vita's slack.

That was the point....

[Chris1964]

Famitsu Sales: Week 16, 2012 (Apr 09 - Apr 15)

01./01. [PSP] 2nd Super Robot Wars Z: Saisei-hen <SLG> (Bandai Namco Games) {2012.04.05} (¥7.330) - 32.937 / 279.051 (-87%)
02./02. [3DS] Kingdom Hearts 3D -Dream Drop Distance- # <RPG> (Square Enix) {2012.03.29} (¥6.090) - 18.968 / 287.860 (-51%)
03./06. [3DS] Monster Hunter 3G # <ACT> (Capcom) {2011.12.10} (¥5.800) - 18.940 / 1.356.045 (-11%)
04./03. [3DS] Kid Icarus: Uprising <ACT> (Nintendo) {2012.03.22} (¥5.800) - 17.533 / 234.722 (-36%)
05./07. [3DS] Super Mario 3D Land # <ACT> (Nintendo) {2011.11.03} (¥4.800) - 16.369 / 1.527.501 (-14%)
06./05. [PS3] Pro Baseball Spirits 2012 <SPT> (Konami) {2012.03.29} (¥7.980) - 13.612 / 129.898 (-44%)
07./04. [PSP] Pro Baseball Spirits 2012 <SPT> (Konami) {2012.03.29} (¥5.980) - 11.510 / 102.622 (-54%)
08./09. [3DS] Mario Kart 7 <RCE> (Nintendo) {2011.12.01} (¥4.800) - 11.375 / 1.650.162 (-26%)
09./08. [NDS] Pokemon Conquest <SLG> (Pokemon Co.) {2012.03.17} (¥5.800) - 9.404 / 297.174 (-41%)
10./11. [3DS] Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games <SPT> (Nintendo) {2012.03.01} (¥4.800) - 8.268 / 135.823 (-14%)
11./10. [PSP] Black Panther 2: Yakuza Ashura Chapter <ADV> (Sega) {2012.03.22} (¥6.279) - 7.595 / 143.804 (-40%)
12./00. [PSP] Atelier Elkrone: Dear for Otomate # <ADV> (Idea Factory) {2012.04.12} (¥6.090) - 7.360 / NEW
13./13. [3DS] Harvest Moon: The Land of Origin <SLG> (Marvelous AQL) {2012.02.23} (¥5.040) - 4.986 / 159.931 (-17%)
14./00. [PSP] Princess Evangile Portable # <ADV> (CyberFront) {2012.04.12} (¥6.090) - 4.809 / NEW
15./12. [PS3] Devil May Cry HD Collection <ACT> (Capcom) {2012.03.22} (¥4.990) - 4.055 / 62.328 (-37%)
16./16. [WII] Wii Sports Resort # <SPT> (Nintendo) {2009.06.25} (¥4.800) - 3.914 / 2.855.282 (-23%)
17./15. [PS3] One Piece: Pirate Warriors # <ACT> (Bandai Namco Games) {2012.03.01} (¥8.190) - 3.512 / 788.309 (-31%)
18./19. [PSP] Monster Hunter Freedom 3 (PSP the Best) <ACT> (Capcom) {2011.09.22} (¥2.990) - 3.489 / 234.126 (-17%)
19./00. [PSP] Armen Noir Portable # <ADV> (Idea Factory) {2012.04.12} (¥5.040) - 3.469 / NEW
20./18. [WII] Mario Kart Wii <RCE> (Nintendo) {2008.04.10} (¥5.800) - 3.427 / 3.490.325 (-20%)
21./20. [WII] Wii Party # <ETC> (Nintendo) {2010.07.08} (¥4.800) - 3.345 / 2.251.795 (-20%)
22./23. [WII] Just Dance Wii <ACT> (Nintendo) {2011.10.13} (¥5.800) - 3.077 / 585.683 (-24%)
23./27. [WII] Go Vacation <ETC> (Bandai Namco Games) {2011.10.20} (¥5.800) - 2.975 / 279.494 (-11%)
24./21. [3DS] Nintendogs + Cats: French Bulldog / Shiba / Toy Poodle & New Friends <ETC> (Nintendo) {2011.02.26} (¥4.800) - 2.822 / 516.330 (-32%)
25./26. [3DS] Theatrhythm Final Fantasy <ACT> (Square Enix) {2012.02.16} (¥6.090) - 2.714 / 139.374 (-21%)
26./00. [NDS] Pokemon Black / White # <RPG> (Pokemon Co.) {2010.09.18} (¥4.800) - 2.515 / 5.430.587
27./00. [PS3] Attouteki Yuugi: Mugen Souls # <RPG> (Compile Heart) {2012.03.22} (¥7.329) - 2.393 / 32.745
28./29. [WII] Kirby's Return to Dream Land <ACT> (Nintendo) {2011.10.27} (¥5.800) - 2.353 / 616.659 (-23%)
29./00. [WII] Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games <SPT> (Nintendo) {2011.12.08} (¥5.800) - 2.344 / 176.837
30./30. [3DS] Hatsune Miku and Future Stars: Project Mirai # <ACT> (Sega) {2012.03.08} (¥6.090) - 2.333 / 122.698 (-24%)

Top 30

3DS - 10
PSP - 7
WII - 7
PS3 - 4
NDS - 2

SOFTWARE

------------------------------------------------
|System | This Week  | Last Week  | Last Year  |
------------------------------------------------
|  3DS  |      30,5% |      24,1% |       7,3% |
|  PSP  |      26,5% |      43,8% |      53,1% |
|  PS3  |      19,6% |      14,3% |      17,3% |
|  WII  |       9,6% |       7,0% |       5,4% |
|  NDS  |       8,4% |       6,5% |      14,4% |
|  PSV  |       3,4% |       2,3% |       0,0% |
|  360  |       1,9% |       1,9% |       2,2% |
|  OTH  |       0,2% |       0,1% |       0,1% |
------------------------------------------------

HARDWARE

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|System | This Week  | Last Week  | Last Year  |     YTD    |  Last YTD  |     LTD     |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|  3DS  |     62.653 |     67.613 |     25.320 |  1.554.623 |    902.680 |   5.690.362 |
|  PS3  |     19.975 |     20.775 |     21.232 |    521.870 |    458.948 |   7.939.018 |
| PSP # |     15.285 |     16.780 |     24.745 |    371.087 |    700.473 |  18.608.195 |
|  PSV  |      8.157 |      8.283 |            |    245.048 |            |     647.842 |
|  WII  |      5.295 |      6.569 |      8.245 |    192.459 |    330.384 |  12.360.202 |
|  360  |      1.122 |      2.983 |      1.733 |     20.295 |     47.085 |   1.541.033 |
| NDS # |        614 |        568 |     14.540 |     15.457 |    527.548 |  32.850.959 |
|  PS2  |        508 |        617 |      1.198 |      8.758 |     22.213 |  21.963.049 |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|  ALL  |    113.609 |    124.188 |     97.013 |  2.929.597 |  2.989.331 | 101.600.660 |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|  DSi  |        614 |        568 |     14.001 |     15.457 |    505.972 |   8.260.655 |
|  PSP  |     15.285 |     16.780 |     24.234 |    371.087 |    684.097 |  18.447.620 |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[AniHawk]

Only thing I'm interested in about the Vita now is what Sony says on May 10th when they do their earnings announcement. Or maybe they'll gloss over it completely.

i kinda want them to gloss over it completely and then at the end of the conference someone will jump up and say, 'OH SHIT, I FORGOT ABOUT THE VITA!' and run out of the room.

[BishopLamont]

What makes you think they'll have one? Honestly, I predicted that Sony's next handheld would look a lot like this, simply because there wasn't anywhere else for it to really go. If anything, their hardware engineering and pricing were better than my expectations.

And I predicted Nintendo would be this aggressive towards courting third party support. Its really obvious that a Sony without third party support is a dead Sony. Nintendo knew that if they hit all the right spots, that there really wasn't much Sony can do, as you said, Sony didn't really have a choice. If you can't compete in software front, then you're going to try to do outdo them on the hardware front, sadly software will always matter more than hardware. But in the end, the Vita could have been a PSP-like success but Sony wasn't aggressive enough towards third party. I bet they're really shocked by how everything has played out. Not by the 3DS' success, but rather how fast the Vita has fallen into irrelevance, simply because they let Nintendo so much time in the market to themselves. I completely understand how Sony could've been so short sighted, but it still amazes me that they could practically sit on their hands and do nothing regarding the Vita.

[KillerMan91]

those games are spaced too far out, by August it's already 8 months into launch lol I don't think I've ever seen Sony enter panic mode, it would be interesting to see

PS3? It had 200€ price cut under a year.

[Aostia]

PS3? It had 200€ price cut under a year.

Yep.
As a "Vita fence sitter" I would really appreciate such a big % price cut for their beautiful portable device.

[electroplankton]

13./13. [3DS] Harvest Moon: The Land of Origin <SLG> (Marvelous AQL) {2012.02.23} (¥5.040) - 4.986 / 159.931 (-17%)

It's holding better than expected!

[Aostia]

It's holding better than expected!

Do we know which is the best seller of all time among the HM brand?

[Erethian]

Do we know which is the best seller of all time among the HM brand?

Island of Happiness, with 304,348.

[BurntPork]

This would make me very happy. :D Almost! Looking at the above, it seems not by much...lol

No, it's by a ton. Looking at 3DS, it's insane that the handheld market is smaller than last year overall.

[DrWong]

No, it's by a ton. Looking at 3DS, it's insane that the handheld market is smaller than last year overall.

I don't know, you have a new device - 3DS - which must compensate for 2 dying devices - DS & PSP - and a new device - Vita - in zombie mode...

[mclem]

This is a MC thread but let's not get too myopic such that we miss the bigger picture of Japan's sales within the worldwide market. I'm sure Sony's plan was not to fail miserably in Japan with the Vita but they had to know rough times were ahead within their knowledge of release schedules and what was in the works and they chose to launch anyway. And the reason they chose to launch anyway is because Sony's strengths in software these days, such as they are, really aren't focused on what's popular in Japan and haven't been for some time. I've made the point before that I think that Sony has traded strength (development dollars is more accurate) in Japan for strength in territories outside Japan and has found some success doing it.

Which brings up the question I keep coming back to: Why did they launch in Japan first? They sacrificed a full US/EU holiday season in favour of releasing a system with games that aren't particularly pitched at Japan. Other than possible Japanese Culture (I'm an expert) reasons, that just doesn't seem to make sense.

[electroplankton]

Which brings up the question I keep coming back to: Why did they launch in Japan first? They sacrificed a full US/EU holiday season in favour of releasing a system with games that aren't particularly pitched at Japan. Other than possible Japanese Culture (I'm an expert) reasons, that just doesn't seem to make sense.

Againg, this is false.
On 26 titles, just 5 or 6 were from Western developers.
We can agree on the fact that there were no big names (though PSP had a similar launch line-up, even inferior in numerical terms, and it sold way better), but there were a lot of games tailored on the Japanese audience; Katamary, a visual novel, a dating-sim, two fighting games, 3 jRPG of different kinds, Ridge Racer, Dynasty Warriors, Minna no Golf.

[Chris1964]

3DS sold a lot of units when it launched last year which is why the Nintendo gap isn't wider right now. It's going to get much bigger before it starts to get smaller again when the price cut rolls around.

Price cut last year is NSMB2 this year. The gap won't get smaller.

[gamergirly]

JK! Sorry but I had to :lol

Lol

[bede-x]

So nice to see that there is still a thriving market for a quality SRPG.

Exactly what I was thinking. Hopefully it will lead to more titles in the genre.

[muu]

Ciel no Surge supposedly doing pretty well. Apparently it's possible to see the total # of users, and according to the current 2ch thread the numbers are approaching 25k.

Depending on the way the user #s are counted (that couldn't possibly be simultaneous users, so # registered? and is there only one registration/system?) this may give us a glimpse of retail vs digital sales as well.

[matmanx1]

Sony is in a weird position with regards to it's best studios. I don't know if Sony can mandate that Naughty Dog produce a Vita specific title. And that's assuming that Naughty Dog would even have the extra manpower, which they don't. And the same goes for Sucker Punch and Insomniac.


The only studios Sony can exert direct control over and mandate that they produce Vita titles are for the most part already doing it or have already done so. I'm not sure how much more Sony could realistically do at this point besides some serious moneyhatting and as we well know Sony is not in a great position to do that at the present time.

In short, I think Sony threw it's best marbles on the table. It just turns out that their best marbles aren't as good as Nintendo's and they aren't rolling far or fast enough.

[Cygnus X-1]

By Fall they should be.

From September 2012 onward.

[BorkBork]

It's looking more and more likely that the Vita's future is not too bright. Yes, yes it's been less than six months in, but for the sake of speculation: What should Sony have done instead?

- Made a PSP smartphone?
- Made another go at a revamped PSP with lessons they learned from Go?
- Exited the handheld portable market altogether?
- Invested more in developer relations for the Vita?

What does GAF think? I really have no answers as to a good way Sony could have handled this generation to be honest.

*This is for the Japanese market.

[Lord_Byron28]

It's looking more and more likely that the Vita's future is not too bright. Yes, yes it's been less than six months in, but for the sake of speculation: What should Sony have done instead? - Made a PSP smartphone? - Made another go at a revamped PSP with lessons they learned from Go? - Exited the handheld portable market altogether? - Invested more in developer relations for the Vita? What does GAF think? I really have no answers as to a good way Sony could have handled this generation to be honest. *This is for the Japanese market.

Securing important exclusives, releasing in a timely manner(meaning closer to or before 3DS) and learning from their previous mistakes with PS3/PSP. I'd been saying from Vita's unveilment that it shows Sony hasn't learned from their past mistakes and that it wouldn't do well. I didn't think it would do this poorly but I predicted it would be pretty bad due to a high price for a high end portable with zero games that had selling power.

[darkwing]

Sony is in a weird position with regards to it's best studios. I don't know if Sony can mandate that Naughty Dog produce a Vita specific title. And that's assuming that Naughty Dog would even have the extra manpower, which they don't. And the same goes for Sucker Punch and Insomniac. The only studios Sony can exert direct control over and mandate that they produce Vita titles are for the most part already doing it or have already done so. I'm not sure how much more Sony could realistically do at this point besides some serious moneyhatting and as we well know Sony is not in a great position to do that at the present time. In short, I think Sony threw it's best marbles on the table. It just turns out that their best marbles aren't as good as Nintendo's and they aren't rolling far or fast enough.

we will get a hint on May 10 on what Sony intends to do for the Vita, I'm more interested in knowing who the developer of Soul Sacrifice is

[evangd007]

Sony is in a weird position with regards to it's best studios. I don't know if Sony can mandate that Naughty Dog produce a Vita specific title. And that's assuming that Naughty Dog would even have the extra manpower, which they don't. And the same goes for Sucker Punch and Insomniac.

Sony should have had their flagship studios make PSP games to get them familiar with handheld development, but they unfortunately did not.

[timetokill]

- Exited the handheld portable market altogether?

This. I've been saying this from the end of the last handheld generation.

[Green Slime]

Might it have been a smarter strategy to release a PSP+ system with the Vita's unique functionality (ala the GCN-> Wii transition) and a UMD drive for full backwards computability, and hope to become a port twin for the 3DS?

Yes, absolutely. Making their platform just slightly more powerful than 3DS would've likely been much more beneficial, as they could've priced at $200 or less at launch, and likely gotten a lot of devs to both push their PSP projects to be early Vita projects, and also get more multiplats from 3DS.

[Salvadora]

This. I've been saying this from the end of the last handheld generation.

I would argue Nintendo needs competition but it seems Apple is that now.

[Sho_Nuff82]

Sony should have had their flagship studios make PSP games to get them familiar with handheld development, but they unfortunately did not.

I don't think Western AAA console game developers are ever going to be serious about making games for handhelds.

[Chris1964]

Ciel no Surge supposedly doing pretty well. Apparently it's possible to see the total # of users, and according to the current 2ch thread the numbers are approaching 25k. Depending on the way the user #s are counted (that couldn't possibly be simultaneous users, so # registered? and is there only one registration/system?) this may give us a glimpse of retail vs digital sales as well.

25k number looks high for first day sales, Someone who has played the game must confirm if these users are unique or 2ch trolls again.

[FoneBone]

I don't think Western AAA console game developers are ever going to be serious about making games for handhelds.

Yup. I think a lot of their strategy hinged on AAA western support... and it's been obvious for a while that that supposed PS3/360/PC/Vita ecosystem is never going to materialize. Let's not even talk about exclusive titles.

[?oe?oe]

That was the point....

Hey, hey, HEY!

[grimshawish]

It's looking more and more likely that the Vita's future is not too bright. Yes, yes it's been less than six months in, but for the sake of speculation: What should Sony have done instead? - Made a PSP smartphone? - Made another go at a revamped PSP with lessons they learned from Go? - Exited the handheld portable market altogether? - Invested more in developer relations for the Vita? What does GAF think? I really have no answers as to a good way Sony could have handled this generation to be honest. *This is for the Japanese market.

Either done a PSP+ (as you say learn from PSP Go), which allows for UMD's but enforces all new PSP games to be sold with a new Vita like card system. Also maybe slightly more power. Then later moving onto Vita fully.

Or alternatively a full on gaming tablet - honestly theres a market for that and I think its where Sony should go next.