So after the 3DS price drop and Vita delay for until 2012, there have been so much emphasis of doom and gloom for Vita, but I believe Vita has a huge chance to make a mark. Here are the many reasons why I think this.
Smartphones
No doubt smartphones will affect both 3DS and Vita. However I feel smartphones will affect 3DS more. The original DS was hugely popular for it's casual appeal. No doubt Mario and Pokemon were huge sellers also, but I think it was the combination of all the casual games that took DS sales to the next level. The problem is you can get many of these casual games on smartphones for free or for 99 cents. This is a bigger blow for Nintendo than Sony, as DS was popular with these types of games. Games like Brain Age, Nintendogs, Cooking Mama, English Training, Style Savvy, Petz, Art Academy, Personal Trainer: Cooking, Sudoku, Big Brain Academy and etc were quite popular on DS. But I reckon the audience that buys those games are unreliable. Little girls who play Petz, Nintendogs, and Style Savvy are probably happy playing a similar games on smartphones. Old folks who played Brain Age, Sudoku and etc are probably happy with the DS and may think they don't need to upgrade, or are not proper gamers and they just stopped playing in general (similar to how Wii Sports audience stopped playing). This only leaves gamers, so the only folks who will want a 3DS are the Mario and Pokemon fans, which is still a huge audience but will never reach the audience of DS. But in general smartphones will affect Nintendo more than Sony.
Japan
We all have to remember, western support is shitty for handhelds in general, even on DS, most of the top DS games were Japanese made (Layton, Nintendogs, Dragon Quest, Brain Training and etc). Because of this, being succesfull in Japan is the most imporant way for the Vita to be successful, they have to make sure Vita is a success in Japan straight away and not years after, if Vita is successful in japan straight away, it means more japanese developer support, whioch means more games, which means it can also be a success in the west due to the games. So which handheld will get the most japanese support, I reckon it will be about even, 3DS will continue to get japanese support based on what the DS got, and Vita will likely continue the trend of japanese support PSP has got lately. We have to remember PSP is at the top of japanese hardware charts even outselling 3DS. The crazy thing is even if you combine both DS and 3DS sales, PSP still outsells DS/3DS.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|System | This Week | Last Week | Last Year | YTD | Last YTD | LTD |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| PSP # | 36.666 | 26.868 | 49.380 | 1.247.814 | 1.234.033 | 17.898.026 |
| PS3 | 20.704 | 23.343 | 45.224 | 717.299 | 858.787 | 6.804.789 |
| WII | 18.232 | 17.114 | 20.038 | 390.367 | 906.918 | 11.670.002 |
| 3DS | 16.415 | 31.826 | | 1.306.156 | | 1.306.156 |
| NDS # | 10.030 | 10.334 | 45.128 | 535.263 | 1.371.159 | 32.685.963 |
| 360 | 1.616 | 1.546 | 6.929 | 71.315 | 130.578 | 1.491.812 |
| PS2 | 1.594 | 1.475 | 1.444 | 46.763 | 51.356 | 21.742.855 |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| ALL | 105.257 | 112.506 | 168.143 | 4.314.977 | 4.552.831 | 93.599.603 |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| DSiLL | 5.267 | 5.258 | 23.120 | 275.397 | 730.225 | 2.222.980 |
| DSi | 4.625 | 4.921 | 17.950 | 240.368 | 505.209 | 5.784.092 |
| DSL | 138 | 155 | 4.058 | 19.498 | 135.725 | 18.093.420 |
| PSPGo | 7 | 14 | 777 | 15.431 | 41.571 | 175.855 |
| PSP | 36.659 | 26.854 | 48.603 | 1.232.383 | 1.192.462 | 17.722.171 |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PSP is getting tons of support now, and top quality games like Final Fantasy Type 0 will also come out on it soon. Vita will be the successor of the current hottest hardware in Japan, I am sure because of that Vita will get a good japan launch as well as good japan developer support. As for budget of making a Vita, game, apparently the development costs is as cheap as PSP, game devleopers don't need to make an Uncharted budget game, they could go as small or as big as they want, Sound Shapes and LittleDeviants are good examples of smaller budget games. So far we only know Gravity Daze, BlazBlue, Hotshots Golf, Dragons Crown, Shinobido 2, and Dynasty Warriors are the jap games for Vita, but I am sure more will get unveiled at TGS with the likes of Falcom (Ys?), Sega (Phantasy Star?), Nippon Ichi (Disgaea) all rumoured to be making Vita games for launch window. The developer of Gravity Daze has said the title should make it for launch and it looks to be a killer app that may appeal to japanese gamer, which is good for a launch title.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m17kyPDNP8&hd=1
Also Hotshots Golf is quite a popular franchise in Japan, and that can also make it for launch.
Western developer support and the most easiest hardware to work with ever
Like I said above, western developer support for handhelds have never been good, even on extremely successful handhelds like the DS. However I feel Vita can change this due to the ease of development and it's similar architecture to iPhone, iPad and all latest smartphones. Many developers from indie to top developers have said this is the most accessible devkit they have ever used, apparently the devkit is easier to use than both PSP and PS3. Developers who have made games for iPhone, iPad, Android, PC, 360 and PS3 can port or reuse assets and engines from those systems. Vita already has tons of middle ware engines announced for it form the likes of Unreal and etc. Because of this ease of development, I think western developers will likely make more games for a handheld than ever before, because of easy ports and reuse of assets from iOS, Android and the HD consoles and PC. There are already iOS game developers making games for Vita, as well as console/PC game developers making games for Vita. As for why I said sales don't matter as long as Vita is doing enough for software to sell, lets take Wii for example, it sells much more than PS3, but PS3 gets more software support, same could happen here, 3DS may sell more but western developers may prefer to make Vita games because they can make games reusing PS3/360/PC/iOS/Android assets that 3DS can't. There are already rumblings of Mortal Kombat, Rayman, Sonic, Disgaea, SFxT, BlazBlue ports for Vita.
Popularity of online gaming
No doubt, online gaming has become hugely popular since the start of this console generation. And it seems Vita online gaming will be even better than PS3. With the Vita you have alll the same basic features PS3 has with friendlists, invites, messaging, trophies and etc. But it takes it to the next level, with Vita every game has it's own startup page where it shows the latest information about the games (DLC, announcements, tournaments and etc), there is also a feed of what your friends have done in the game, basically it is like a facebook wall for each specific game, where it shows what someone has achieved in a game, and it also shows comments which you can reply to. It is obvious th eonline aspect of Vita will be big, however the 3DS online seems to be quite bad (no messaging, friends code). Here is a nice video reel of the online features for Vita
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMqoNDB6OeI
Popularity of shooter games
It is obvious shooters have become immensely popular since the start of this console generation. Vita having 2 analogs is quite huge because no other handheld system has this. Not only are there 2, but they are actual full analog stick and not nubs. Why this is important is because the shooter genre of games is huge, and to be able to replicate the controls on a handheld is huge. I am not saying a shooter like COD will have the same success on Vita as it does on consoles, but it will be a huge helper, not only COD, but other shooters that will appear on it. With the 3DS good shooters won't be possible due to not having dual analogs, I am surprised Nintendo went with only one analog, after all the complaints for PSP.
A good companion to PS3
Because Vita has cross compatibility with PS3, many PS3 owners may be attracted to the Vita. When you are online with a Vita, you can see and communicate with all your PS3 friends from your Vita. Also trophies will likely be shared between Vita and PS3. Cross online play between Vita and PS3 is the big feature. This way we can use the same profile, and keep the same ranks, stats, perks and etc between both versions of a game. You can play online against your PS3 friends with the Vita versions. What this means is that the online community isn't split for the same game between both versions, instead the online community is combined making a bigger online community where both Vita and PS3 players can play against eachother. People may argue who would want to buy both versions, some will and some won't, however even if you don't buy both versions of a game this is still an advantage as you know you are getting to play against both Vita and PS3 online communities with one version of a game. What we don't know that if you have to pay full price for both versions of a game. I think we will see different publishers do different things, some publishers may sell a cheaper bundle deal with both versions. Some may even give Vita version away for free. I do think though cross compatible PSN games, you may get both versions for one price. The cool thing about PSN is quite a few things are shared between systems such as minis and PS1 Classics (maybe this will happen with some new PSN games). Unfortunately with 3DS this is not the case (VC games from Wii don't work on 3DS).
Touchscreen
Forget the backtouch, camera and gyro. The front touchscreen is the most important feature to get many people to even consider getting a Vita. Yes the 3Ds has a touchscreen, but it isn't like the Vita's capacitive touchscreen. With smartphones and tablets, majority of people are accustomed to capacitive touchscreens. Simply navigating a menu with your finger is something many people are used to with handheld devices. This is something Vita has over 3DS. On the 3DS you have to use a stylus, and it is only for the bottom touchscreen and not the main 3D screen (for obvious reasons as it will fuck up the 3D effect). This is quite bad as most of the main gameplay takes place on the main 3D screen so you cannot touch the game environments on the main screeen. So games like Kirby Canvas Curse, Zelda Phantom Hourglass can'r work as you need to touch the game environments. Yes you can make up for it by using the bottom touchscreen as a cursor but this loses the appeal of directly touching the game environments. With Vita you can do this similar to many iPhone games, hell maybe developers can use some of the iPhone games design of touching environments, but this would be the first time we will have these controls in bigger budget meatier games and not just 99 cent appstore games.
Casual appeal
No doubt Vita's main audience is not the casual audience but the teen/adult/gamer audience. However it does not hurt to get some casuals aboard. The PSP was lacking casual appeal. As said above, the touchscreen that is similar to iPhone is going to help a lot with casual appeal, as you can get casual games on the device whether it is through PS Suite or a full retail game. Other controls like backtouch, gyro and AR can appeal to casuals. For example, on PSP we had AR on a game like Invizimals, which was quite a success in europe, but now you don't have to buy a camera add on as every Vita will have 2 cameras built in, and the AR is going to be superior with Smart AR. Here is a videos of Smart AR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4KTljBQovk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkMboeHJQoY
Here is a video of the succesful Invizimals game
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbTJw_2E-Ww
Of course 3DS has AR,but it is obvious Vita's AR is going to be superior. And again, capacitive touchscreen is more accessible than Nintendo's old resistive touchscreen which is not even used for the main screen so you can't interact with the game enviroments as well. However lets be honest, 3DS casual appeal destyoy's Vita, as the device is less fragile, cheaper, and there are games like Pokemon and Mario. But all I am pointing out is Vita has a better chance at casual appeal than the original PSP due to touchscreen, gyro and AR. Hell just look at their trailer reel. It seems as accessible as a iPhone with it's touchscreen and gyro.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUqD8zJJCZ0&feature=channel_video_title
Of course many times these extra controls seem gimmicky, such as Uncharted having touch and gyro controls. Or WipeOut having gyro controls and etc. But as long as we have a option to play with traditional controls, it's okay for Sony to try and sway another audience of gamers, as first and foremost, Vita will always be a hardcore gaming system, these extra control options allows to have more casual appealing games like Angry Birds, Layton, Petz and etc.
Do I want 3D, also is 3DS the next system
Another problem that 3DS had is that it was marketed horribly. Firstly 3D can be a selling point for the system, however it can also be a negative for many folks. I spoke to many people who said they are not getting a 3DS because they heard it fucks up your eyes. This is quite a big problem, not only doesn't 3D fuck up your eyes, but you can turn it off. However maybe casuals are too stupid to know this. Maybe when they hear 3DS they think mainly a 3D system. When they hear Zelda 3DS, maybe they think the game is only available in 3D. Maybe Nintendo need to re-market 3DS and put a little note saying can be played in 2D as well. Another problem with 3DS is many folks don't even know this is the next iteration. They, think it is just a DS with 3D support, basically another DS revision. This is Nintendo's own fault as they saturated the market with so many DS revisions (DS, DS Lite, DSi, DS XL and now 3DS).
Now before I wrap up, let me answer the obvious replies I will get
LOL, this is PSP vs DS all over again
No it isn't, yes there are some similar things like Vita being more powerful than 3DS, or Vita having a larger and higher res screen than 3DS, or Vita is much more expensive than 3DS. These are all similar things, but there are many differences for people to even say it's the same thing all over again. Firstly the Vita having touchscreen is quite huge, with the DS it was one of the first touchscreen handheld devices, and luckily touchscreen has become so huge with handhelds it has nearly become a standard, PSP not having touchscreen was a huge blow as it couldn't have games like Layton, Petz, Brain Age and etc. Secondly DS had innovation with the system with it's 2 screens and touchscreen, with the 3DS, this is not the case, in fact there are potentially more gameplay possibilities on the Vita. It's like with Wii when it was the first motion gaming console which made it become huge, but now competitors can easily immitate this feature (Kinect?) and it isn't a defining feature any more, you need something more. Another reason why it isn't the same as PSP vs DS is that Sony is finally using cartridges instead of the dreaded UMD format. The PSP obviously suffered from loading times which is awful to have on a handheld. Other reasons why this isn't PSP vs DS all over again is because of all the points I made in the thread so far. Piracy also was a big deal with PSP, yes it was with DS also but with PSP it was worse as you do not need to buy a flashcard to pirate, also the PSP audience is more tech savvy than DS, so they will know how to pirate more than the casual DS audience.
Why would I want to play insert game, when I can play it on the PS3, I'd rather play console games on consoles
This is a silly argument, just because a game has pretty graphics doesn't mean it had to be only played on consoles. In fact for PSP many of the games such as God of War, GTA and etc were it's best sellers. Hell Zelda OoT is a console game yet it is the best seller for 3DS right now. Also I think this is a good time to have console quality games, due to smartphones taking the marketshare for small pick up and play games. Also many Vita games translate well as handheld games (LittleBigPlanet, Modnation Racers, WipeOut, Sound Shapes, Hotshots Golf and etc). The reason why PSP failed with some of it's console type games is because it couldn't even imitate console games properly due to the shitty nub.
3DS is cheaper, plus Mario and Pokemon
Of course 3DS will be successful, I didn't say Vita will destroy 3DS, no doubt the price drop will help. And Pokemon and Mario are huge sellers. All I am saying this isn't going to be the same scenario where Nintendo destroys Vita in the west. I think Nintendo fans will get a 3DS and the kids who like Pokemon, but I reckon many of the teen/adult/gamer market may get a Vita. Remember PS3/360 market is quite huge with plenty of gamers who buy software at a regular basis compared to Wii audience, maybe Sony can lure that audience with Vita's defining features like next gen graphics, dual analogs, and online feautures, but at the same time keep to the standards of the handheld market with touchscreen support.
Smartphones
No doubt smartphones will affect both 3DS and Vita. However I feel smartphones will affect 3DS more. The original DS was hugely popular for it's casual appeal. No doubt Mario and Pokemon were huge sellers also, but I think it was the combination of all the casual games that took DS sales to the next level. The problem is you can get many of these casual games on smartphones for free or for 99 cents. This is a bigger blow for Nintendo than Sony, as DS was popular with these types of games. Games like Brain Age, Nintendogs, Cooking Mama, English Training, Style Savvy, Petz, Art Academy, Personal Trainer: Cooking, Sudoku, Big Brain Academy and etc were quite popular on DS. But I reckon the audience that buys those games are unreliable. Little girls who play Petz, Nintendogs, and Style Savvy are probably happy playing a similar games on smartphones. Old folks who played Brain Age, Sudoku and etc are probably happy with the DS and may think they don't need to upgrade, or are not proper gamers and they just stopped playing in general (similar to how Wii Sports audience stopped playing). This only leaves gamers, so the only folks who will want a 3DS are the Mario and Pokemon fans, which is still a huge audience but will never reach the audience of DS. But in general smartphones will affect Nintendo more than Sony.
Japan
We all have to remember, western support is shitty for handhelds in general, even on DS, most of the top DS games were Japanese made (Layton, Nintendogs, Dragon Quest, Brain Training and etc). Because of this, being succesfull in Japan is the most imporant way for the Vita to be successful, they have to make sure Vita is a success in Japan straight away and not years after, if Vita is successful in japan straight away, it means more japanese developer support, whioch means more games, which means it can also be a success in the west due to the games. So which handheld will get the most japanese support, I reckon it will be about even, 3DS will continue to get japanese support based on what the DS got, and Vita will likely continue the trend of japanese support PSP has got lately. We have to remember PSP is at the top of japanese hardware charts even outselling 3DS. The crazy thing is even if you combine both DS and 3DS sales, PSP still outsells DS/3DS.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|System | This Week | Last Week | Last Year | YTD | Last YTD | LTD |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| PSP # | 36.666 | 26.868 | 49.380 | 1.247.814 | 1.234.033 | 17.898.026 |
| PS3 | 20.704 | 23.343 | 45.224 | 717.299 | 858.787 | 6.804.789 |
| WII | 18.232 | 17.114 | 20.038 | 390.367 | 906.918 | 11.670.002 |
| 3DS | 16.415 | 31.826 | | 1.306.156 | | 1.306.156 |
| NDS # | 10.030 | 10.334 | 45.128 | 535.263 | 1.371.159 | 32.685.963 |
| 360 | 1.616 | 1.546 | 6.929 | 71.315 | 130.578 | 1.491.812 |
| PS2 | 1.594 | 1.475 | 1.444 | 46.763 | 51.356 | 21.742.855 |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| ALL | 105.257 | 112.506 | 168.143 | 4.314.977 | 4.552.831 | 93.599.603 |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| DSiLL | 5.267 | 5.258 | 23.120 | 275.397 | 730.225 | 2.222.980 |
| DSi | 4.625 | 4.921 | 17.950 | 240.368 | 505.209 | 5.784.092 |
| DSL | 138 | 155 | 4.058 | 19.498 | 135.725 | 18.093.420 |
| PSPGo | 7 | 14 | 777 | 15.431 | 41.571 | 175.855 |
| PSP | 36.659 | 26.854 | 48.603 | 1.232.383 | 1.192.462 | 17.722.171 |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PSP is getting tons of support now, and top quality games like Final Fantasy Type 0 will also come out on it soon. Vita will be the successor of the current hottest hardware in Japan, I am sure because of that Vita will get a good japan launch as well as good japan developer support. As for budget of making a Vita, game, apparently the development costs is as cheap as PSP, game devleopers don't need to make an Uncharted budget game, they could go as small or as big as they want, Sound Shapes and LittleDeviants are good examples of smaller budget games. So far we only know Gravity Daze, BlazBlue, Hotshots Golf, Dragons Crown, Shinobido 2, and Dynasty Warriors are the jap games for Vita, but I am sure more will get unveiled at TGS with the likes of Falcom (Ys?), Sega (Phantasy Star?), Nippon Ichi (Disgaea) all rumoured to be making Vita games for launch window. The developer of Gravity Daze has said the title should make it for launch and it looks to be a killer app that may appeal to japanese gamer, which is good for a launch title.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m17kyPDNP8&hd=1
Also Hotshots Golf is quite a popular franchise in Japan, and that can also make it for launch.
Western developer support and the most easiest hardware to work with ever
Like I said above, western developer support for handhelds have never been good, even on extremely successful handhelds like the DS. However I feel Vita can change this due to the ease of development and it's similar architecture to iPhone, iPad and all latest smartphones. Many developers from indie to top developers have said this is the most accessible devkit they have ever used, apparently the devkit is easier to use than both PSP and PS3. Developers who have made games for iPhone, iPad, Android, PC, 360 and PS3 can port or reuse assets and engines from those systems. Vita already has tons of middle ware engines announced for it form the likes of Unreal and etc. Because of this ease of development, I think western developers will likely make more games for a handheld than ever before, because of easy ports and reuse of assets from iOS, Android and the HD consoles and PC. There are already iOS game developers making games for Vita, as well as console/PC game developers making games for Vita. As for why I said sales don't matter as long as Vita is doing enough for software to sell, lets take Wii for example, it sells much more than PS3, but PS3 gets more software support, same could happen here, 3DS may sell more but western developers may prefer to make Vita games because they can make games reusing PS3/360/PC/iOS/Android assets that 3DS can't. There are already rumblings of Mortal Kombat, Rayman, Sonic, Disgaea, SFxT, BlazBlue ports for Vita.
Popularity of online gaming
No doubt, online gaming has become hugely popular since the start of this console generation. And it seems Vita online gaming will be even better than PS3. With the Vita you have alll the same basic features PS3 has with friendlists, invites, messaging, trophies and etc. But it takes it to the next level, with Vita every game has it's own startup page where it shows the latest information about the games (DLC, announcements, tournaments and etc), there is also a feed of what your friends have done in the game, basically it is like a facebook wall for each specific game, where it shows what someone has achieved in a game, and it also shows comments which you can reply to. It is obvious th eonline aspect of Vita will be big, however the 3DS online seems to be quite bad (no messaging, friends code). Here is a nice video reel of the online features for Vita
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMqoNDB6OeI
Popularity of shooter games
It is obvious shooters have become immensely popular since the start of this console generation. Vita having 2 analogs is quite huge because no other handheld system has this. Not only are there 2, but they are actual full analog stick and not nubs. Why this is important is because the shooter genre of games is huge, and to be able to replicate the controls on a handheld is huge. I am not saying a shooter like COD will have the same success on Vita as it does on consoles, but it will be a huge helper, not only COD, but other shooters that will appear on it. With the 3DS good shooters won't be possible due to not having dual analogs, I am surprised Nintendo went with only one analog, after all the complaints for PSP.
A good companion to PS3
Because Vita has cross compatibility with PS3, many PS3 owners may be attracted to the Vita. When you are online with a Vita, you can see and communicate with all your PS3 friends from your Vita. Also trophies will likely be shared between Vita and PS3. Cross online play between Vita and PS3 is the big feature. This way we can use the same profile, and keep the same ranks, stats, perks and etc between both versions of a game. You can play online against your PS3 friends with the Vita versions. What this means is that the online community isn't split for the same game between both versions, instead the online community is combined making a bigger online community where both Vita and PS3 players can play against eachother. People may argue who would want to buy both versions, some will and some won't, however even if you don't buy both versions of a game this is still an advantage as you know you are getting to play against both Vita and PS3 online communities with one version of a game. What we don't know that if you have to pay full price for both versions of a game. I think we will see different publishers do different things, some publishers may sell a cheaper bundle deal with both versions. Some may even give Vita version away for free. I do think though cross compatible PSN games, you may get both versions for one price. The cool thing about PSN is quite a few things are shared between systems such as minis and PS1 Classics (maybe this will happen with some new PSN games). Unfortunately with 3DS this is not the case (VC games from Wii don't work on 3DS).
Touchscreen
Forget the backtouch, camera and gyro. The front touchscreen is the most important feature to get many people to even consider getting a Vita. Yes the 3Ds has a touchscreen, but it isn't like the Vita's capacitive touchscreen. With smartphones and tablets, majority of people are accustomed to capacitive touchscreens. Simply navigating a menu with your finger is something many people are used to with handheld devices. This is something Vita has over 3DS. On the 3DS you have to use a stylus, and it is only for the bottom touchscreen and not the main 3D screen (for obvious reasons as it will fuck up the 3D effect). This is quite bad as most of the main gameplay takes place on the main 3D screen so you cannot touch the game environments on the main screeen. So games like Kirby Canvas Curse, Zelda Phantom Hourglass can'r work as you need to touch the game environments. Yes you can make up for it by using the bottom touchscreen as a cursor but this loses the appeal of directly touching the game environments. With Vita you can do this similar to many iPhone games, hell maybe developers can use some of the iPhone games design of touching environments, but this would be the first time we will have these controls in bigger budget meatier games and not just 99 cent appstore games.
Casual appeal
No doubt Vita's main audience is not the casual audience but the teen/adult/gamer audience. However it does not hurt to get some casuals aboard. The PSP was lacking casual appeal. As said above, the touchscreen that is similar to iPhone is going to help a lot with casual appeal, as you can get casual games on the device whether it is through PS Suite or a full retail game. Other controls like backtouch, gyro and AR can appeal to casuals. For example, on PSP we had AR on a game like Invizimals, which was quite a success in europe, but now you don't have to buy a camera add on as every Vita will have 2 cameras built in, and the AR is going to be superior with Smart AR. Here is a videos of Smart AR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4KTljBQovk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkMboeHJQoY
Here is a video of the succesful Invizimals game
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbTJw_2E-Ww
Of course 3DS has AR,but it is obvious Vita's AR is going to be superior. And again, capacitive touchscreen is more accessible than Nintendo's old resistive touchscreen which is not even used for the main screen so you can't interact with the game enviroments as well. However lets be honest, 3DS casual appeal destyoy's Vita, as the device is less fragile, cheaper, and there are games like Pokemon and Mario. But all I am pointing out is Vita has a better chance at casual appeal than the original PSP due to touchscreen, gyro and AR. Hell just look at their trailer reel. It seems as accessible as a iPhone with it's touchscreen and gyro.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUqD8zJJCZ0&feature=channel_video_title
Of course many times these extra controls seem gimmicky, such as Uncharted having touch and gyro controls. Or WipeOut having gyro controls and etc. But as long as we have a option to play with traditional controls, it's okay for Sony to try and sway another audience of gamers, as first and foremost, Vita will always be a hardcore gaming system, these extra control options allows to have more casual appealing games like Angry Birds, Layton, Petz and etc.
Do I want 3D, also is 3DS the next system
Another problem that 3DS had is that it was marketed horribly. Firstly 3D can be a selling point for the system, however it can also be a negative for many folks. I spoke to many people who said they are not getting a 3DS because they heard it fucks up your eyes. This is quite a big problem, not only doesn't 3D fuck up your eyes, but you can turn it off. However maybe casuals are too stupid to know this. Maybe when they hear 3DS they think mainly a 3D system. When they hear Zelda 3DS, maybe they think the game is only available in 3D. Maybe Nintendo need to re-market 3DS and put a little note saying can be played in 2D as well. Another problem with 3DS is many folks don't even know this is the next iteration. They, think it is just a DS with 3D support, basically another DS revision. This is Nintendo's own fault as they saturated the market with so many DS revisions (DS, DS Lite, DSi, DS XL and now 3DS).
Now before I wrap up, let me answer the obvious replies I will get
LOL, this is PSP vs DS all over again
No it isn't, yes there are some similar things like Vita being more powerful than 3DS, or Vita having a larger and higher res screen than 3DS, or Vita is much more expensive than 3DS. These are all similar things, but there are many differences for people to even say it's the same thing all over again. Firstly the Vita having touchscreen is quite huge, with the DS it was one of the first touchscreen handheld devices, and luckily touchscreen has become so huge with handhelds it has nearly become a standard, PSP not having touchscreen was a huge blow as it couldn't have games like Layton, Petz, Brain Age and etc. Secondly DS had innovation with the system with it's 2 screens and touchscreen, with the 3DS, this is not the case, in fact there are potentially more gameplay possibilities on the Vita. It's like with Wii when it was the first motion gaming console which made it become huge, but now competitors can easily immitate this feature (Kinect?) and it isn't a defining feature any more, you need something more. Another reason why it isn't the same as PSP vs DS is that Sony is finally using cartridges instead of the dreaded UMD format. The PSP obviously suffered from loading times which is awful to have on a handheld. Other reasons why this isn't PSP vs DS all over again is because of all the points I made in the thread so far. Piracy also was a big deal with PSP, yes it was with DS also but with PSP it was worse as you do not need to buy a flashcard to pirate, also the PSP audience is more tech savvy than DS, so they will know how to pirate more than the casual DS audience.
Why would I want to play insert game, when I can play it on the PS3, I'd rather play console games on consoles
This is a silly argument, just because a game has pretty graphics doesn't mean it had to be only played on consoles. In fact for PSP many of the games such as God of War, GTA and etc were it's best sellers. Hell Zelda OoT is a console game yet it is the best seller for 3DS right now. Also I think this is a good time to have console quality games, due to smartphones taking the marketshare for small pick up and play games. Also many Vita games translate well as handheld games (LittleBigPlanet, Modnation Racers, WipeOut, Sound Shapes, Hotshots Golf and etc). The reason why PSP failed with some of it's console type games is because it couldn't even imitate console games properly due to the shitty nub.
3DS is cheaper, plus Mario and Pokemon
Of course 3DS will be successful, I didn't say Vita will destroy 3DS, no doubt the price drop will help. And Pokemon and Mario are huge sellers. All I am saying this isn't going to be the same scenario where Nintendo destroys Vita in the west. I think Nintendo fans will get a 3DS and the kids who like Pokemon, but I reckon many of the teen/adult/gamer market may get a Vita. Remember PS3/360 market is quite huge with plenty of gamers who buy software at a regular basis compared to Wii audience, maybe Sony can lure that audience with Vita's defining features like next gen graphics, dual analogs, and online feautures, but at the same time keep to the standards of the handheld market with touchscreen support.
