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Topic: what is the future for the Vita and Sony handhelds in general?

Posts 21 to 28 of 28

sub12

Zelda is not the Wii U's saving grace........Smash and Mario Kart are much more system sellers in comparison to Zelda titles. If those two games couldn't make a drastic shift in 2014, nothing will.

That being said, the Wii U will be alright, maybe it will only have 4 years on the market, more likely 5, but reguardless, Nintendo will continue to support that console. It's a testament to Kyoto thay it's software alone can carry a system.

Edited on by sub12

sub12

themcnoisy

The vitas boss (apart from the memory cards), it should be more popular but isn't. It will join the GameCube, Dreamcast and the Atari-st as great bits of kit that just didn't take off. It happens in every industry and the cream doesn't always rise to the top. Its not fashionable or socially accepted to have a vita - but it is fashionable to play mobile games on a phone. There's no logic, but that's fashion. It could have a second wind with the sales figures from Japan hopefully encouraging some big games developers to build some exclusives. But we all probably know in the UK it will remain niche. (but I'm ok with that)

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sub12

themcnoisy wrote:

The vitas boss (apart from the memory cards), it should be more popular but isn't. It will join the GameCube, Dreamcast and the Atari-st as great bits of kit that just didn't take off. It happens in every industry and the cream doesn't always rise to the top. Its not fashionable or socially accepted to have a vita - but it is fashionable to play mobile games on a phone. There's no logic, but that's fashion. It could have a second wind with the sales figures from Japan hopefully encouraging some big games developers to build some exclusives. But we all probably know in the UK it will remain niche. (but I'm ok with that)

Smart phones and handhelds can co-exist....in Japan the iPhone is more popular than in the US, believe it or not, yet the 3DS and Vita continue to do well.......in the west it might be more niche than ever, but you'll always have a market for somekind of dedicated mobile gaming device.

With that being said, I think Sony handhelds will live on, but it will be more of a dedicated streaming device instead of your traditional handheld console.

sub12

rastamadeus

sub12 wrote:

Zelda is not the Wii U's saving grace........Smash and Mario Kart are much more system sellers in comparison to Zelda titles. If those two games couldn't make a drastic shift in 2014, nothing will.

That being said, the Wii U will be alright, maybe it will only have 4 years on the market, more likely 5, but reguardless, Nintendo will continue to support that console. It's a testament to Kyoto thay it's software alone can carry a system.

Mario Kart, Smash and Zelda are Wii U's holy trinity. Or Triforce. Two have arrived and helped the machine. The big one (as it is much more of a system seller than the other two combined) is still to come. Regardless of whether it 'saves' the console or not every single person knows Nintendo will drag their heels and support the system, no matter what the 'experts' (hello Patcher) say. That's why people still buy their consoles, even when they're struggling. The Gamecube, technically, failed yet we still got Metroid Prime (game of that generation), Wind Waker, Pikmin, Animal Crossing, F-Zero GX, Animal Crossing and Eternal Darkness.

It's also the polar opposite with Vita and Sony and why now even staunch Vita owners who've buried their heads in the sand are coming up for air and admitting defeat. Sadly at the moment when we look back on the Vita in ten years people will go "Persona 4 Golden was amazing! The rest...?" There's still, three years on, no defining 'you must own a Vita for this game!' game. That's what has held the console back from day one. Even P4G has a very small, but passionately dedicated, fanbase. If Sony at some point in those three years had got of their arse and made a game, any sodding game, to sell the Vita it wouldn't be in this position as a colossal failure. It's a shame.

Edited on by rastamadeus

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Caryslan

rastamadeus wrote:

sub12 wrote:

Zelda is not the Wii U's saving grace........Smash and Mario Kart are much more system sellers in comparison to Zelda titles. If those two games couldn't make a drastic shift in 2014, nothing will.

That being said, the Wii U will be alright, maybe it will only have 4 years on the market, more likely 5, but reguardless, Nintendo will continue to support that console. It's a testament to Kyoto thay it's software alone can carry a system.

Mario Kart, Smash and Zelda are Wii U's holy trinity. Or Triforce. Two have arrived and helped the machine. The big one (as it is much more of a system seller than the other two combined) is still to come. Regardless of whether it 'saves' the console or not every single person knows Nintendo will drag their heels and support the system, no matter what the 'experts' (hello Patcher) say. That's why people still buy their consoles, even when they're struggling. The Gamecube, technically, failed yet we still got Metroid Prime (game of that generation), Wind Waker, Pikmin, Animal Crossing, F-Zero GX, Animal Crossing and Eternal Darkness.

It's also the polar opposite with Vita and Sony and why now even staunch Vita owners who've buried their heads in the sand are coming up for air and admitting defeat. Sadly at the moment when we look back on the Vita in ten years people will go "Persona 4 Golden was amazing! The rest...?" There's still, three years on, no defining 'you must own a Vita for this game!' game. That's what has held the console back from day one. Even P4G has a very small, but passionately dedicated, fanbase. If Sony at some point in those three years had got of their arse and made a game, any sodding game, to sell the Vita it wouldn't be in this position as a colossal failure. It's a shame.

That is the reason why I sold off my Vita. After having the thing for over a year and a half, I just realized it was never going to get better. The reason why? Because Sony does not give two flips about saving it.

When the Wii U lost support from third-party developers, Nintendo stepped up their game. Not only did the Wii U get games like Smash Bros 4, Mario Kart 8, Mario Platformers, but it also got some good games like Hyrule Warriors, Captain Toad, and Bayonetta 2 that while not the most mainstream titles in the world, made even the jaded gaming press that had spent the last year and a half bashing the Wii U step back and admit the Wii U might be worth it after all.

2015's lineup for the Wii U is pretty good in its own right with Star Fox, Zelda, Xenoblade and other games dropping this year.

My point is this, when the going got tough for the Wii U, Nintendo did not throw their hands up in the air and walk away. They threw everything at the system to make people notice it. And while nobody is under the illusion that the Wii U will beat the PS4(or even Xbox One) this gen, it will carve itself a nice little place in history as an underrated system that everyone ignored the first time alongside the Saturn, the Dreamcast, and its big brother the Gamecube.

The Vita and the Wii U share the same story in the sense that both followed immensely popular predecessors and both sold poorly shortly after their debut.

But where Nintendo tried to save the Wii U, Sony simply walked away and left it in the hands of their third-party developers. Granted, this approach has appeared to work in Japan, but everywhere else in the world, the Vita is the forgotten system that sits in the corner of the Playstation section with even less shelf space then the Wii U.

And while the Wii U has rebounded somewhat due to Nintendo's efforts, the Vita is virtually dead in every market besides Japan.

As I said before, I owned a Vita. I tried to see the potential in the system, but I never could. There were some great gems on the system. Gravity Rush was awesome, as was Uncharted, Assassin's Creed, and Killzone. Those were games that showed off the Vita's potential and could have sold it but they were not enough.

Sony has never bothered to build the Vita brand. We are three years into the Vita's lifespan and Sony has pretty much washed their hands of the system. No God of War outside of a port of the PS3 remasters of I & II, No Gran Trusimo, No Gravity Rush 2. Virtually all of Sony's major IPs are missing or are simply on the system as PS3 ports.

The PSP has a good number of Sony's franchises. Why has the Vita been left to die?

I bought a Wii U because I liked the game selection and because I saw Nintendo putting their best effort into saving the system. Some of the best games I have ever played are on the Wii U.

But the Vita, it gathered dust with each passing month. I'm not into JRPGs, so what games the Vita did get often did nothing for me. Eventally, I gave up on the thing and sold it off to get Smash Bros for the Wii U.

I enjoyed the PS1, PS2, and PS3. I still play my PSP and PS3 to this day! The Vita stands as the only Sony console I have ever sold off.

The Vita had the hardware. What killed it was Sony not caring to save it or really support it.

Caryslan

Tasuki

The thing it seems to me is that the reason Sony had the Vita was to enter the handheld market against Nintendo and Mobile gaming. They couldn't keep up with Nintendo first and third party wise and people who game on tablets and phones saw no reason to get one so Sony just said F it. The PS4 is at the top of console world let's just deal with that.

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sub12

I will agree with the above that it's still somewhat sad, because at a basic hardware level, the Vita is pretty solid. The Vita may have never reached PSP levels, but I don't think 20 to 40 million would have been unrealistic if they had continued strong first and second party support. The thing is, the Vita was never truly a lost cause, it was not the Jaguar or Virtual Boy, so it's a bit harder to swallow Sony's decision.

I will say, Nintendo does do a great job of tailoring it's software for the handheld arena, more so than Sony. But I do enjoy Sony's variety in genres.

Edited on by sub12

sub12

sub12

As far as third party support, the Vita had arguably more so during its first two years than the 3DS thus far, and it arguably still does......hard to use that an excuse because Nintendo suffers from a dirth of support as well.

sub12

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