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PlayStation Boss Sees Limited Potential for Handheld Gaming
- Thread starter fluffydelusions
- Start date
i agree.
they have patents for tons of stuff. i mean they probably have an entire department in charge of coming up with concepts for things. doesnt mean its something they actually bother with half the time
they have patents for tons of stuff. i mean they probably have an entire department in charge of coming up with concepts for things. doesnt mean its something they actually bother with half the time
J
JeremyEtcetera
Unconfirmed Member
If he is just talking handhelds only then I agree.
If he also thinks that the concept of a hybrid isn't a good idea then PSP, PS TV, and Vita must have him shook pretty hard.
If he also thinks that the concept of a hybrid isn't a good idea then PSP, PS TV, and Vita must have him shook pretty hard.
Twilight Princess
Member
Vita was a mistake
MegaManTrigger
Banned
Why would the PSP shook him? That thing still sold 70-80mil. It's only a disappointment if you measure it to the DS.
J
JeremyEtcetera
Unconfirmed Member
They didn't give up on it. They supported it way longer than they should have, Monster Hunter moved to Nintendo, and also the market as a whole moved on to phones. Hybrid is the only way to go. Making a handheld only game system in today's market is a fool's errand.
You're right, the PSP had a better lifespan and questionably better library(which is debatable). PS Vita and PS TV both felt like missteps headed towards the right direction(Hybrid). They just never combined the two.
SinCityAssassin
Member
JoeyJungle
Banned
Whooaaaaa I did not realize PSP did that much better than Vita. This is outside of Asia sales, so it's not even Monster Hunter effect vs console without Monster Hunter.
I still think it was the fucked up high price/low storage proprietary mem cards that doomed the Vita.
valkillmore
Member
Sony hasn't really been about 'Blue Ocean.' Their bread and butter is generational-leaps in dedicated home console gaming, save their ventures into handheld w PSP and Vita which, while technically competent, have never really been a pillar of their business model. Nintendo has always been a company about portable gaming truthfully, even dating back to their playing/trading card origins. It's in their DNA. That's why the Switch is such a landmark and important console for them, and why it wouldn't really make sense for Playstation to emulate.
DownWithTheShip
Member
Could anyone other than Nintendo have pulled off the Switch?
I doubt it.
I doubt it.
spindoctor
Member
Sony's lack of imagination is no surprise, but to say something like this at a time when Nintendo is having trouble keeping Switches on store shelves is really something...
DevilWillcry
Member
Good. Sony gave the handheld market two tries and it seemed like the PS handhelds were just pulling resources from the PS consoles rather than growing the entire division. Id rather see Sony focus all of their resources on PS4 and eventually PS5 rather than waste money and resources on another handheld.
J
JeremyEtcetera
Unconfirmed Member
Microsoft could have merged their Surface line and Xbox line into a hybrid.
If Sony found a way to squeeze their console's graphical capabilities into a tablet I'm sure they would have tried as well.
Oh, I'm sorry. How many big budget Vita games did Sony make after Killzone: Mercenaries? I must have missed those new releases.
PSP sold 70 million compared to Vita selling a little over 10 million. PSP was a success where Vita was a failure comparable to Wii U.
That's not really the question being asked though.
He explained that he doesn't see the Switch as a pure handheld. It's a hybrid, a whole new type of platform.
It's not that complicated.
Mass Effect
Member
this
Earthbound64
Banned
What was that quote from someone at Sony like a dozen years ago, about how the people who bought Gameboy were just the Pokémon market and Sony wasn't going to chase that or something?
gundamkyoukai
Member
Why ?
Yes Nintendo having trouble keeping switch in stock but it will take time to see how well it will really do .
Plus it's a hybrid and not only a handheld system .
This is a company that least selling home system did 85 million they will not do another handheld only .
MegaManTrigger
Banned
Who mentioned 3ds?
outunderthestars
Banned
I get really tired of this narrative. Sony spent a ton of money getting almost every major AAA ip onto the platform. The market simply didn't care. Sony did just about everything they could, but no company can continue to burn money...
The PSP came out 2-3 years before the first iPhone. At the time, a lot of people liked watching movies on the PSP.
J
JeremyEtcetera
Unconfirmed Member
Oh C'mon man, you know there's more Sony Published/Developed games on Vita than Killzone M. You really going to make me go google/wikipedia search over this?
Nah it was just mobile.
It's context for how well PSP did and how the market for a very successful handheld today can do.
Callibretto
Member
I think it's more that making a new hybrid device serve no different purpose than dedicated handheld device when Sony already have PS4.
I mean, there's no reason why PS4 couldn't play any games that the hybrid device can offer. I think some people will actually be upset if the hybrid device actually have any exclusive games and not be playable on PS4.
so without exclusive games, the only reason people want this game would be for it's portable form. not saying that I wouldn't want it. I love my Vita, especially for playing indie games on the go. but we have to admit, that's a niche market compared to PS4. certainly not enough for Sony to spend resource to R&D, produce and market the thing.
Isn't the 3DS really close to passing the PSP?
Edit: Shit not even close god damn the PSP had better legs than I thought.
I'm not sure I understand your point? Are you saying that it was inevitable that Vita would only go on to sell between 10 and 15 million units?
Kind of?
I don't think people here remember, but the Vita launched with quite possibly one of the strongest list of launch games for new hardware and even then, everyone joked about how the Vita was dead on arrival in the age of smartphones.
Even the Vita OT was something like "Why are you buying this? It's already dead"
MegaManTrigger
Banned
While also disregarding the difference in context within the market between the time the PSP released and the 3DS. PSP was marketed and sold as a multimedia handheld device which was a boon before more powerful iPods and smartphones became the norm. The 3DS has had to compete with that.
But the point is... How many big budget games did they make after Killzone: Mercenaries?
The reason I ask is because that was the last big game Sony made for the system. Then they shit on people like me who supported the system. Yeah, I even had the early release version of th system and Sony shit on me by saying they weren't going to make any more big games for the Vita after Killzone: Mercenaries.
So yes, they absolutely gave up on the Vita. Yet Sony gets a pass for that. If Nintndo or Microsoft said they would stop making big budget games for their system a year and a half after launch then GAF would roast them alive. But Sony gets a pass.
chrominance
Member
Given that Sony seems unlikely to drop the mainline Playstation console, short of a Wii U-level disaster, it kind of doesn't make sense for them to pursue a hybrid console as well. Every time Sony tries to split its attention between two devices, one of them inevitably suffers.
Lord of Ostia
Member
Eh, that's only half true. Sony did abandon the device after 2013, no major first party games were released after that (just localizations of Japan Studio games) and even the titles that did come out in 2013 received very little marketing. The games they did get from the AAA space outside of their own developers were only AAA in name, the actual studios and budgets for those games were obviously very small. One look at Call of Duty Black Ops Declassified makes that abundantly clear. A.C. Liberation wasn't great, COD was awful, Bioshock never materialized, Ridge Racer was a bare-bones vehicle to sell DLC. The first party games were good, but they were few and far between, and then most of those studios were quickly shuttered or the teams sent to work on something else after one game. Sony did not do a good job with the Vita, they are responsible for its failure.