Is the PS Vita a doomed device?
By: Jeff Rivera
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The Nintendo DS and PSP were the contenders in last generation's handheld war, and for the first time ever, Nintendo is seeing an opponent of theirs answer the bell for a second round as the PS Vita is getting ready to go head to head with the 3DS worldwide. In the past Nintendo has stomped out efforts from Sega, SNK, Atari, NEC, Nokia, and several other companies. The PSP, however, was the first rival handheld that managed to be profitable enough to not only last an entire generation alongside Nintendo's offering, but to warrant a follow up.
While the DS still outsold the PSP quite easily, the PSP still managed to do quite well from a sales standpoint. And from a game library perspective, the PSP had quite a few unique titles and some great remakes. If it wasn't for the rampant piracy and constant firmware hacking, Sony could have made a much better profit from the PSP.
Going into a new generation with the Vita, Sony has resolved to make the handheld much more difficult for pirates to exploit, offer a better media standard for games (carts instead of discs), and to keep third parties more interested in development.
But sales are already stagnant.
Japan has received the PS Vita with little more than a yawn. Games are struggling to chart in the best seller lists, and the hardware is moving under 20,000 units per week on a consistent basis while the 3DS is soaring on the charts. Nintendo has already locked up the next two Monster Hunter games as exclusives for the 3DS, a franchise that literally saved the PSP in Japan last generation.
So what's left for Sony? Well, Sony still has the rise of iOS and Android to contend with, but they also have a device that is still busting with potential. Anybody who takes a look at that 5" OLED qHD screen can't help but to be impressed. The dual analog sticks are great for handling all sorts of genres properly, and the back touch panel should provide from some neat twists in regards to gameplay. There's a platform here that can be much more than what the PSP was, but Sony really needs to figure it out quickly.
The PS Vita is not doomed as long as Sony can get some big games lined up. They don't necessarily have to release immediately, but Sony needs to show gamers that they're prepared to fight for meaningful exclusives, that they have a better commitment to the Vita than they did to the PSP, and that after a short time the handheld isn't going to fizzle out. If E3 rolls around and Sony can show significant support from both 3rd parties and their own development houses, I think it would go a long way toward restoring consumer confidence.
I'm a little concerned that the Vita launches in less than a month and advertising has been fairly light on all fronts. We should be getting bombarded with TV ads, we should be seeing ads for the Vita before many online videos, our sidebar ads should be dominated by Vita. Step it up, Sony.
When it comes down to it, I think that the Vita will be fine in the long run. I don't think it has any hope of competing with the 3DS in regards to sales, but I do think that the Vita can be better than what the PSP was. Sony has definitely learned from some of their mistakes, despite the early gaffe brought on by the required memory card to play certain games.
As for the launch, I do predict a bit of a lackluster start, despite a fairly good launch lineup. The biggest issue is that there's nothing aside from Little Deviants or Gravity Daze (coming soon after launch) that doesn't look to be an overly familiar experience. But if we're being fair, the 3DS launched with the same issues, and it's rallied to become a huge success.
So when it comes down to it, no, I don't believe that the PlayStation Vita is doomed. I think there's tons of promise in the handheld, we'll just need Sony to leverage that promise and give us some great games to take on the go.
