Having recently celebrated its first birthday, the PlayStation Vita can look back on a year filled with.. well, ridicule and condemnation. Everywhere you turned, game journalists, bloggers and anyone with Internet access was bemoaning the high price-point, the lack of games and limited [read: non-existent] publicity. Like many Sony products, the Vita was birthed into the world as a high-tech, shiny gadget – with little more than a whisper [and a gasp at the price!] behind it.
Now, with just over 4 million units sold worldwide since release, the Vita’s future looks grim. Despite a recent price cut in Japan, which saw its weekly sales numbers jump by 400%, it was still easily beaten by Nintendo’s 3DS. Sony seem unable to turn it around and this annoys me greatly. Why? Because I love my Vita. I use it daily on my commute to the flourescent hell that is my office job, as well as when I get home. I have about 50 games in total for it, including AAA titles like Uncharted: Golden Abyss and LittleBigPlanet Vita, as well as smaller games like Mutant Blobs Attack and Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken. As a piece of mobile hardware, it has yet to be bested. Sony have a gem in the making but seem unable to sell it. What can be done to turn this around? Quite a few things, in my humble opinion, and nothing I believe is too difficult to achieve.
The biggest hurdle is cost. As I mentioned above, there was an immediate uptake in Japan after the price cut; proving that there are many interested gamers waiting on the wings, ready to buy, held back primarily by the cost. I cannot be alone in thinking that this is not just a Japanese phenomenon. Most of the comments I see posted here and across the Interwebs suggest a gaming public waiting for something (other than Half-Life 3). As a console that prides itself on its downloadable catalog of titles, it would also be advisable to sharply cut the prices on the Vita’s memory cards. As soon as they were announced to be proprietary, many would-be Vita owners hesitated, fearing the cost. They were proven right of course, with Vita cards costing almost four times their microSD card equivalent. This craziness must stop! /slams palm against the desk
One of the recent trends Sony needs to come out and back more vigorously is the influx of indie games to the platform. Retro City Rampage‘s creator Brian Provinciano recently posted the following on Twitter:
“Indies should definitely jump onto the PS Vita. RCR’s sold much more on PSN than XBLA and more on PS Vita than even PS3.”
He also spoke about the support he received from Sony and how easy the Vita was to develop for. The news that the highly-rated PC title Hotline Miami, is making its way to the PlayStation Vita further suggests a shift by indie developers to make use of the platform. If I were in Sony’s shoes, I would be contacting anyone who has ever written a ‘Hello World’ statement to start making games for the machine – more games equals more sales.
The introduction of PlayStation Mobile, like everything else Sony does, has been slow and, worse, quiet. Games like Super Crate Box and Dan’s favourite feline-frolicking funhouse, Aqua Kitty – Milk Mine Defender, need to be put front and center on the Vita’s Store, with sales and other promotions used to get people to notice it. This will in turn entice more developers to use the platform, inexorably (thank you, The Matrix Reloaded) leading to further sales – MORE GAMES EQUALS MORE SALES!
In the end, there is one thing holding the Vita back, and that is Sony. They hold all of the trump cards but seem reluctant or unable to play them. Perhaps their focus is being pulled by the PlayStation 4, or perhaps their financial troubles make doing anything I listed above next to impossible. In either case, to paraphrase Zapp Brannigan, if Sony play their cards right, the rest of the dominoes should fall like a house of cards. Checkmate.
Tags: MORE GAMES EQUALS MORE SALES!, PlayStation Vita, Sony, Sony Computer Entertainment
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