There’s been an abundance of articles directed at Sony and their latest handheld, the Playstation Vita, and most of them are showing what most people are – idiots.
So here’s my two cents, and I before I start I am not a “fanboy” of any console, I’m not a fan of consoles, I’m a fan of video games.
Sony made a bit of a balls up with the PS3, granted. Coming out after the competition and costing more than most could afford was a bad move. We all know that, so lets get that out of the way.
The armchair analysts just love to point to this as being the reason that Sony is up a certain creek without the proper equipment and with Microsoft upstream and pissing into the water, splashing it all over Sony’s sorry face.
Well guess what? It’s actually wrong. Sony have had strong sales with the PS3, and considering its been out a year less than the Xbox 360, it’s only a couple of million behind. Nothing wrong with that, and its a great console to boot.
Sony have also made sure their business is secured for the future, does the recent acquisition of Gaikai tell these fools nothing? Sony is investing heavily into next-gen and even further on. With Gaikai, the possibility to stream console games to your phone is incredible. Not the most practical thing, gaming on a phone, I will be the first to admit that, but the technology is astounding and the potential future uses are endless.
Now the Playstation Vita. Well, before we start on the PS Vita, we must first go through the PSP, the console before it.
Although the PSP was pirated to death and most of the consoles ended up being secret treasure caves of pirates plunderin’, the console was still a success. The technology of the PSP when it first arrived back in 2004 was praised as being the future of handheld gaming and even had nintendo looking worried. The PSP still continues to sell today, and is an especially dominant force in Sony’s native Japan.
It had its drawbacks, everyone will tell you that it needed a second analog nub, and that the nub should have been more of a stick. Not to mention the expensive memory cards and poor storage of games. Those UMD’s just couldn’t keep safe. Each and every console has its shortcomings, but ultimately the PSP was not a failure. It sold more than 70 million units, and nobody knows how many used consoles have switched hands through various methods, ebay, amazon, GAME, Gamestop etc
Now the PS Vita. The console being called a failure before it’s even gotten started. Left and right you will hear people say, “well its only sold a few million” and “it’s too expensive” and the one that gets on my nerves the most “there’s no games for it.”
From the top, a few million is good. It’s better than none, or a few thousand or a few hundred thousand. They are selling, slowly, but they are definitely selling and they are only going to keep selling in greater numbers. Sony has a plan for the Vita, whatever it is, they are sticking to it and it will work.
Price. That’s an issue that I have to admit I can agree on to some degree. In the US you can expect to pay anywhere between $200-299 depending on what bundle you get, and in the UK around £219 will net you a WiFi PS Vita with a game and memory card, while other offers at higher prices ultimately reflect better value.
Sony isn’t ripping anybody off, they aren’t. They are just trying to make a bit of money on something that they have worked hard on, and to be fair the end product is worthy of its price. You can’ t blame Sony for being reluctant in cutting the price, because the more they cut the price the less profit they make, and in business profit is the reason you do what you do. That’s not to say Sony don’t have love for their consoles, it shows in how well made and how genuinely impressive the Vita really is. The fact that it is basically (I use this next term loosely) a portable PS3 which is offering a great user experience. I own a Vita and I took the plunge of getting one within the first month it came out (well that’s not entirely true, I had to beg the other half for a month before she caved in and let me have my man toy.) I can honestly say I have never once regretted getting it. The price may be steep, but it’s the value you get. For those who don’t want to shell out the big money, get one used on ebay or amazon, it will be considerably cheaper.
Games, games, games. This one is the most pathetic attempt to defame the Playstation Vita. It’s got no games, that is something I have read and heard all summer. Why hasn’t a new game come out yet? Where’s the games? Guess what? The Vita had a dry spell over the summer. Guess what? So did the other consoles.
Summer is the slowest time of year for new game releases, with most big name games being released between September-May.
There are games for the Vita, even my blind dog can see that. If you spend more than five minutes with your head from between your legs, you will see there are a plethora of games available for the Vita and there have been since launch day.
The PS Vita’s launch lineup is probably the most impressive, and may just be overdone by the upcoming Wii U which I have to say has a very good lineup.
You had Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Rayman Origins, Unit 13, Fifa Football and more.
What more could you have wanted from a launch lineup? There were over 20 games available on day one, not counting the extensive PSP back catalog.
If that wasn’t enough there have been a few releases throughout the year, Lego Harry Potter Years: 5-7, Lego Batman 2, Fifa 13 (although the less said about that the better) and a fair few PSN titles as well as adding PS1 games to the PSN store there have been more than enough games available.
Obviously more PS Vita games are needed, and Sony knows this, that’s why they are coming out between September-May, the typical release window for major games. There’s a lot to be excited about too, with Ubisoft putting out a brand new and unique Assassins Creed game in the form of Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation, Call of Duty Black Ops: Declassified, Playstation All-Stars Battle Royal, Sly Cooper and so much more.
The games are there, and there’s more coming, and there will be more coming after that.
So the Vita is far from dead and Sony has a plan. Do you really think Sony, a company that has been in the console business for such a long time would release a major piece of hardware without having some sort of gameplan? They aren’t stupid and they know what they are doing. We just have to trust the people in charge to do what is needed, and by the looks of things, that’s whats being done.
With a price drop confirmed for sometime in 2013, it’s the first step by Sony to really push the console into as many gamers hands, and I think we can expect much more aggressive pricing strategies and marketing campaigns over the next 6 months.
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