Is A Perfect Storm Sinking the PlayStation Vita?

[DaveS1138]

Bells and whistles isn't the term I would use. But Sony really doesn't know what the consumer wants anymore. The Vita is the kind of product an insular stubborn company makes. Consumers want integrated and innovative products that do everything, and instead Sony makes an expensive gaming only system. And not surprisingly it's a complete disaster and a total fail. Now they have to go into Nintendo mode and cut the price to sell units but make no money. While Apple makes $11 billion in profit a quarter and eats into their market. It's just brutal at this point.

Is it a complete disaster? I thought last months NPD showed it was doing respectible numbers in the US?

As for Sony not knowing what the consumer wants......they made exactly what I wanted. I'm loving the Vita. It gives me a gaming experience worlds away from anything I have tried to play on any "apple products".

[CorruptedDragon]

Is it a complete disaster? I thought last months NPD showed it was doing respectible numbers in the US?

As for Sony not knowing what the consumer wants......they made exactly what I wanted. I'm loving the Vita. It gives me a gaming experience worlds away from anything I have tried to play on any "apple products".

That isn't really saying anything Dave, because you lap up anything that has the Sony name on it.

"They made exactly what I wanted!!! I didn't know it, but when I saw the Sony logo, I knew I wanted it!!!!"

[DaveS1138]

That isn't really saying anything Dave, because you lap up anything that has the Sony name on it.

"They made exactly what I wanted!!! I didn't know it, but when I saw the Sony logo, I knew I wanted it!!!!"

Except it wasn't the Sony logo that made me want it......it was playing games on it at a gamestop demo booth and realising how much better an experience it was than anything I had tried on (for example) an iPhone.
Specifically how Fifa was almost at the level of the console experience.

[hdinred]

Vita needs a big E3 and a price cut this year IMO.

Sony is copying Nintendo in everything else, so just do what they did with 3DS.

[rm082e]

Sony is copying Nintendo in everything else, so just do what they did with 3DS.

Does that include losing four hundred million dollars?

[Badger3920]

Vita needs a big E3 and a price cut this year IMO.

Ugh... I hate when portables cut into E3 press conferences. You can just feel the excitement and intensity of the presser drop by several orders of magnitudes.

Sony is copying Nintendo in everything else, so just do what they did with 3DS.

Unsure what this means, but we've all had the "who copies who" discussions before and it's pretty easy to make the case for any of these companies. Glass houses, stones, and such.

[Averry]

Pretty unsure what you're talking about here. Nintendo and Sony are going to be squeezed out of gaming and MS is going to remain? This sounds like heavy fanboy speculation.

This only sounds like heavy fanboy speculation because you have no idea what i'm talking about.

ARM=Phones and tablets. Neither Sony or Nintendo is going to have a market here where as Microsoft MIGHT succeed with Windows 8. I honestly seen phones and tablets squeezing out and replacing consoles. I do. I totally and wholesomely believe it will happen...and Nintendo and Sony are either going to be there putting out games for other platforms or they won't be there at all. Microsoft might be there.

However, if Microsoft keeps waiting three years to join the party in every case they deserve to be cast off.


I don't know how you don't see consumers making decisions to consolidate their ecosystems. Also...Apple has some how created an upgrade pattern to their products that consoles have never had.....and the games still up and downscale. If consoles are replaced by these sort of devices, whether it's a dock connector with bluetooth controllers, or whatever else we may no longer get mired in these epically long console cycles.

I'm not sure that there's anything I'm going to say to you that you won't think is Fanboy dreamdom, but it's how I see the future of devices. I think Sony is toast...and not thanks to Nintendo and Microsoft....but Samsung and Apple. You want to say that I'm calling out the wrong problems, but even if I am, do you really see Sony bouncing back? How would they do it? What products have to be successful for that to happen?

[hdinred]

Ugh... I hate when portables cut into E3 press conferences. You can just feel the excitement and intensity of the presser drop by several orders of magnitudes.

There was quite a bit of buzz about Vita @ $249 last E3.. some even claimed that “won” E3 for Sony.. but I generally agree with you.

[Onslaught X]

There was quite a bit of buzz about Vita @ $249 last E3.. some even claimed that “won” E3 for Sony.. but I generally agree with you.

E3 was so so bad last year.

$249 was kind of exciting. I think most of us were expecting $300. Then the 3DS dropped to 159.99 and it all felt kind of moot anyway

[Badger3920]

This only sounds like heavy fanboy speculation because you have no idea what i'm talking about.

ARM=Phones and tablets. Neither Sony or Nintendo is going to have a market here where as Microsoft MIGHT succeed with Windows 8. I honestly seen phones and tablets squeezing out and replacing consoles. I do. I totally and wholesomely believe it will happen...and Nintendo and Sony are either going to be there putting out games for other platforms or they won't be there at all. Microsoft might be there.
. . .

I'm not sure that there's anything I'm going to say to you that you won't think is Fanboy dreamdom

Ill agree with your last statement. I think you really went off the deep end there; i didnt understand what you were saying because it didnt occur to me that you were predicting Nintendo and Sony to fail, but MS to live on in large thanks to windows 8 on phones. Good christ.

[Averry]

Ill agree with your last statement. I think you really went off the deep end there; i didnt understand what you were saying because it didnt occur to me that you were predicting Nintendo and Sony to fail, but MS to live on in large thanks to windows 8 on phones. Good christ.

Someday, I'll be proven right, and you'll look back on this a not remember any of this conversation...because I hope you don't....that would be sad.

[Indy_aka_Rex]

E3 was so so bad last year.

$249 was kind of exciting. I think most of us were expecting $300. Then the 3DS dropped to 159.99 and it all felt kind of moot anyway

Naw. It didn't. Everyone knew the 3DS was overpriced junk, everyone except Nintendo. Had ti released at 200 it would've arguably been reasonable. It wasn't moot because even after the price drop the Vita's 250 tag still seemed reasonable given what it's capable of.

[twonunpackmule]

Naw. It didn't. Everyone knew the 3DS was overpriced junk, everyone except Nintendo. Had ti released at 200 it would've arguably been reasonable. It wasn't moot because even after the price drop the Vita's 250 tag still seemed reasonable given what it's capable of.

Minus everything else about the system.

[Badger3920]

Someday, I'll be proven right, and you'll look back on this a not remember any of this conversation...because I hope you don't....that would be sad.

Someday we'll look back and forget this discussion happened because we wont remember what windows 8 was, and MS's repeated and failed attempts to break into mobile phones will taught right along side Sony's management structure in business schools when the students need to learn about what not to do.

[Onslaught X]

Naw. It didn't. Everyone knew the 3DS was overpriced junk, everyone except Nintendo. Had ti released at 200 it would've arguably been reasonable. It wasn't moot because even after the price drop the Vita's 250 tag still seemed reasonable given what it's capable of.

I didn't say the 3DS was priced reasonably, but nonetheless, I don't think we expected them to cut as early as they did, so we didn't even get to see a face off at price parity.

And given Vita's ho hum launch....