How low can you go?

Despite the PlayStation Vita showing serious signs of life during Black Friday week, industry analyst Billy Pidgeon has admitted that Sony may need to “drastically” slash the price of the device in order to resurrect its fortunes. The pundit pointed to Nintendo’s 3DS price drop, adding that if “the [system's] install base remains below five million units, the platform will not be viable for publishers”.

Pidgeon continued that the company should also consider lowering the cost of the console’s memory cards. “The proprietary memory cards for Vita are prohibitively expensive,” he said. “There should be more downloadable software, including inexpensive or free games, and these must be higher quality than popular iOS and Android games. It would in fact be helpful if the best and most popular smartphone and tablet games were also available for download to Vita.”

In a refreshing twist, though, the analyst admitted that there could be a bright future ahead for the Vita – assuming the platform holder keeps the device well supplied with quality software. “Vita sales are improving, but could be much stronger,” he concluded. “The software library is improving – there are some very good third-party exclusives like Persona 4 Golden and Assassin's Creed III: Liberation, and there are some very good downloadable titles like Sound Shapes and Escape Plan – extending PlayStation Plus subscriptions to Vita also helps to add value.”

Yesterday, publisher Activision claimed that the Vita “faces challenges” from the emerging mobile market. Sadly, these quotes are not going to go away until the platform’s situation dramatically improves.

[source nowgamer.com]