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Not even Wake-Up Club can save the Vita
- Thread starter Square Triangle
- Start date
Kenshin001
Member
As I said it's more suitable for kids since it's smaller, easier and cheaper. If a kid wants a tablet, they get a tablet. The point is Sony should be making those kids want a Vita and making the parents want to get one for their kids. Base price of a Vita is cheaper than an iPad, cheaper than an iPad mini. Advertising all the hidden costs is not how you sell a product. I can tell you would be terrible at marketing.
1.25 million 3DS sales is not relevant? Lol! Sony execs would be popping the champagne if they had those sales.
I said the 3DS sales were irrelevant to the point about kids not accepting a Vita as a substitute for a tablet, not that they were irrelevant full stop.
I completley disagree with your assessment that the Vita is "cheaper" than an iPad mini. I'm a parent. If my kid asks me for an iPad mini or a Vita at this or any other point in time, I buy them an iPad mini. Why? Because the value proposition of an iPad mini at £269 with games at free/69p/£1.99 or whatever is so, so much higher than a Vita at £199 with £30 for a decent sized memory card and £30-£40 per game before you even get started, with subsequent games at £30-£40 each in future. As a value proposition, they're not even compareable. As a parent, my kid would get so, so much bang for their buck (and get to play many, many more games) with an iPad mini than they would with a Vita.
And in the case of a Nexus 7, the base price is cheaper anyway.
Whether you advertise those costs at a marketing level is irrelevant, they exist and consumers are thankfully smart enough to know they exist nowadays.
At the end of the day, your scenario about the Vita being a suitable alternative to a tablet has no bearing in the real world. Absolutely nobody (or at least, irrelevant numbers of people) is rushing out to buy Vita's so their kids can play with them instead of tablets, hence the Vita's absolutely atrocious sales worldwide week in and week out, from month to month, ever since it was launched. Meanwhile, tablet sales soar. Your point has absolutely no validation or justification in the real world, I'm afraid. Absolutely none.
Deadpandas
Member
as soon as God Eater 2 comes out. then they can let the Vita die
outunderthestars
Banned
The two Walmarts in my area have both cleared out their Vita sections. They also have almost all of the accessories on clearance. I asked about it at one store, and the clerk said that she had never seen a single console or Vita game be sold while she was working.
BoilersFan23
Member
It's Wal-mart, they barely stock many games to begin with compared to the older days. Wal-mart really only wants to sell what does big. If you go to Best Buy for instance, their Vita/3DS shelf space is about the same with not a big difference in games. Most Wal-Mart stores I've been to had a few Vita games, but they tend to be launch games only (some Wal-Mart stores still carry launch PS2 games).
fabfour64xx
Banned
Damn. I should check what my local WM stores have.
Kenshin001
Member
You can't dismiss the sales of the 3DS though since it's also an alternative to a tablet in the marketplace ie. spend the money on a tablet or a 3DS. It's also a worse value proposition than a tablet just like Vita. 1.25 million sales in the US alone says people are rushing out to buy something for their kids to play. It is what kids want or what their parents think they want. The difference is 3DS is marketed to kids, unlike the Vita which is marketed to manchildren.
I know parents are not rushing out to buy Vita's so their kids can play with them, I never said they were. That's the problem, innit.
grimshawish
Banned
Yep. The value proposition changes when the £30 game is of very high quality and will bring a lot of joy to your kid. It remains true that 3DS has some very high quality games (some of Ninty's highest - just look at 3D Land).
I think this is a problem for WiiU; why buy that when a 3DS is cheaper and offers...the same.
Vita has the issue that going after Nintendo's market is basically a suicidal charge. Only Activision with Skylanders and Mojang with Minecraft; has managed it post-PS2 era.
Honestly Sony should put more efforts into making the PS4 with a good family orientated list of games. Kids buy a 3DS and they buy a Playstation. It'll be like old times again.
Vita was just the wrong direction for Sony. Its selling worst than Dreamcast in Japan...and its a fucking handheld...no one cares. The 3DS offers everything the Vita does and could offer and then a whole lot more.
I'm not even sure if this will be controversial, but frankly the 3DS has some gorgeous looking games. Artistically the Vita is let down in this department imo.
I just don't see the 'Vita is the most amazing piece of hardware ever' thing.
Its just sort of 'there' and to me its been wholly unimpressive.
outunderthestars
Banned
I think Sony grossly overestimated the market for a $300 portable playstation.
They added too many features, crammed in too much tech, and it ended up being a bloated system with no market.
I forget who said it, but i always liked it: "Sony went out and made the most amazing gaming machine for a 2004 marketplace that no longer exists."
Who is going to spend $300 or so on a Vita and memory card when an ipad mini costs about the same and does so much more?
They added too many features, crammed in too much tech, and it ended up being a bloated system with no market.
I forget who said it, but i always liked it: "Sony went out and made the most amazing gaming machine for a 2004 marketplace that no longer exists."
Who is going to spend $300 or so on a Vita and memory card when an ipad mini costs about the same and does so much more?
grimshawish
Banned
Please stop posting such out of date graphs.
I know theres a more recent one of the second somewhere but I could not find.
StreetsAhead
Member
That chart is old, old, old. Pretty sure Vita is below the Dreamcast line now.
Ein Bear
Member
I kind of agree with this. The Vita is unquestionably more powerful than the 3DS, yet in a way it feels 'underpowered'. The thing with 3DS games is that I rarely even think about the tech side of things - the games on the platform are all built with the limitations of the device in mind, and as a result look great and run well.
When I play on my Vita, however, the games I play tend to be muddy, sub-native res and suffer from framerate issues. The whole 'console experience on a handheld' principle sounds great in theory, but doesn't seem to work out brilliantly in practice. Just an example off the top of my head, but Nintendo's attempt at bringing 3D Mario to a handheld was 3D Land - a variation on the formula better suited to the tech and play style of the 3DS. It played to the platform's strengths instead of being a bastardised version of Galaxy. UbiSoft's attempt at bringing Assassin's Creed to a handheld was AC:L, which was basically just a smaller, worse looking, poorer performing version of the console games.
"The games you can play on consoles, only worse" isn't really that much of a selling point, and undermines the power of the device. I really think Sony need to re-examine their strategy here - their two big games for last Christmas were AC:L and CoD, both of which are experiences available in better forms on other hardware.
That's fair enough, to a point. I think there's suffecient evidence to say tablets have impacted the 3DS too, although the 3DS is able to stand on its own two feet on its own merits. Its alright lumping the Vita and 3DS into a box and squaring them off against tablets, but for all their similarities I think the Vita and 3DS are different enough.
Certainly at a marketing level, I dont think you can market the 3DS and the Vita the same. The 3DS appeals to Children because it has a large amount of good quality, age appropriate software with the brand recognition and heritage of selling to younger audiences. That's fine. It means the 3DS can and will find an audience entirely seperate from a tablet.
But your original point wasn't about what the 3DS was doing, it was about the Vita. I don't believe the Vita can co-exist with tablets in the same way a 3DS can, and I think any attempt to market it either as a tablet or as a tablet replacement - even to kids - is going to draw too many comparisons to actual tablets where the Vita has no chance of looking more desireable.
No sympathy since Sony has no one to blame but themselves.
Even with the GC, Nintendo didn't just give up.
They still a least tried to push the thing.
I know the dynamics are different here, but you don't release a product and then practically forget it exists. What did they expect?
Even with the GC, Nintendo didn't just give up.
They still a least tried to push the thing.
I know the dynamics are different here, but you don't release a product and then practically forget it exists. What did they expect?
Uh can I ask where did you see that Sony gave up?
Wal Mart's game collection in general is a joke. I went there back in December to look for Persona 4 Golden and they didn't even have it. They had a bunch of the shitty Vita games like the lego stuff and mostly launch games.
They didn't do that though. Unless you're one of those people who say they didn't support it when they released like 10 first party games and helped fund COD and AC's creation while advertising the hell out of them too. They did everything they could short of forcing people at gunpoint to buy it.
They didn't do that though. Unless you're one of those people who say they didn't support it when they released like 10 first party games and helped fund COD and AC's creation while advertising the hell out of them too. They did everything they could short of forcing people at gunpoint to buy it.
Incoming goalpost moving comment "well...they didn't release anything that I care about!"
VGChampion
Member
Well, Sony gave up. Pack it in folks. All the remainder releases are just overflow.
ArtHands
Thinks buying more servers can fix a bad patch
That was the period when they haven't found out the memory card price. Sony was sneaky not to talk about the memory storage when they announces the price on stage.
Yes, I know they have released games for it, that's not what this is about but if you think that Sony did enough to get the thing off the ground then I don't know what to tell you. What major push did Sony try here? They haven't done anything close to what they did with the original PSP. Look, I know there are a lot of butthurt fans in here but don't shoot the messenger.
When we didn't see shit in Sony's E3 2012 conference.
as much as i love Sony, and wanted Vita to do well, their marketing of this device was absolutely atrocious - and should be a heads up for PS4. Hell, i'd go as far to say that Sony's marketing has been the biggest contributors to their most recent failures. PS3 almost sabotaged itself for godsake.
I saw plenty at E3.
3ds price drop happened...
When the vita price was announced you could get a 3ds for 250ish dollars... back then even an infant would take a vita instead of the 3ds, even because on the 3ds there weren't any good game so vita was the logical choice but then nintendo understood that the price was too high and soon after that some games started to come to the nintendo system hence people would not consider the sony console a great value anymore...
myself too, i bought it only because i managed to get one at 70€.
Then u were hallucinating
Cod and liberation are not exactly good games
That matters how exactly? When was the last time casuals supported a good game?
Blood Diamonds
Banned
WOW guys what's wrong Vita has P4G it should be selling a lot.
fuck this.
fuck this.
Me too. Now, what about Sony's Conference?
Everyone likes quality.
Coin Return
Loose Slot
fluffydelusions
Member
Kinda sad. I mean Walmart still selling shake weight so that must be selling more than Vita
http://www.walmart.com/ip/As-Seen-on-TV-Shake-Weight-for-Women-with-Workout-DVD/14205725
http://www.walmart.com/ip/As-Seen-on-TV-Shake-Weight-for-Women-with-Workout-DVD/14205725
outunderthestars
Banned
The iPad mini says hello. The ipod touch then walks over and asks you "where you been?"
Neither were Black Ops 2, or Assassin's Creed 3. that didn't stop them from selling.
Persona is never going to be a big hit in the US, regardless of platform.
outunderthestars
Banned
dp.
grimshawish
Banned
You think Far Cry 3 sold really well based on the marketing?
It sold well because it got some of the most phenomenal reviews we've seen for a while; everyone was excited and surprised whilst other games around it did mediocre.
People need to get past this stupid assumption of 'who' the casual gamer is.
A Human Becoming
More than a Member
Could you make a colorblind friendly version?
Don't be naive. Marketing and word of mouth are far more influential than reviews.
Like I said, when's the last time they supported a good game? I *know* they buy bad games, you don't have to prove it to me.
grimshawish
Banned
Reviews were part of word of mouth, unless you don't think reviews are word of mouth?
Marketing was decent, e.g. once the game appeared good the marketing helped suck in even more people but its hardly had huge exposure.
Instead word of mouth sold it. Based on quality.
Fair enough
outunderthestars
Banned
The demo kiosk at my local GS has been broken for months. It is also shoved into the back corner of the store.
A Human Becoming
More than a Member
They're not the same thing. The perceived value of what a game "journalist" says and people in a circle of friends are no equivalent to the average Joe.[/quote]
I don't know how well Ubisoft marketed FC3, but if it was a highly calculated marketing blitz like the AC games I wouldn't be surprised.grimshawish said:
test_account
XP-39C²
3 shelves for Vita is surprising in my opinion. Would have thought it would be less.
AlexMeloche
Member
At the Walmart where I work (Canada), we just received a demo unit. It's still living!