The PlayStation Vita didn’t change the world.
It might boast the fanciest screen or the most powerful technology, but Sony’s stoic adherence to what made the PSP so successful has ironically resulted in a successor that continues to struggle to gain much traction. Alongside its big brother, the PS3, the perception could easily be that the PS Vita languishes with too little attention and too many hand-me-downs, and next to the 3DS it’s widely considered – at least in some territories – a bit of a joke.
The PlayStation Vita was (and is) probably too expensive. The machine itself costs too much, the memory cards are too pricey and the games are frequently ridiculously set at a level that often corresponds to forty iPhone games. Forty. Even if you’re somehow allergic to games that require nothing more than a touch screen, that kind of mathematics just doesn’t make a great deal of sense.
[drop]Of course, this was Sony’s attempt to truly replicate a console experience on the go. For both good and bad, there’s been some convincing work in that regard – the Vita’s got enough grunt to make passable ports a reality and there’s apparently enough of an incentive for Sony’s first party developers to come up with side-stories and new entries (like Golden Abyss and 2048) that play exactly like a main living room console game would.And for all the loading times in WipEout and the frustratingly sub native resolution of Uncharted, the Vita has managed to tick off a few checkboxes in offering up the ability for users to take PlayStation 3-esque games on the go. In some cases it has even let you start a PS3 game at home and then – via cloud saves – continue your game at work, on the train, on the toilet. Such titles are few and far between, but the technology is sound.
And there have been some true gems since the console’s Japanese launch, twelve months ago today. We’ve mentioned two, but there’s LittleBigPlanet Vita – probably the best LBP since the first one; a decent port of Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3; Rayman Origins still looks outstanding on that OLED screen; the portable pleasures of MotorStorm RC, and the sterling work BluePoint did with Battle Royale, to name a few.
But there have been some stinkers, too. The much derided Call of Duty followed the poorly received Resistance: Burning Skies, pointing to an uncertain future for first person shooters; a couple of truly substandard 3DS ports in the form of the LEGO games and the launch F1 title and the nonsense that surrounded ModNation Racers’ lack of an online mode. All consoles have their weak points, and the Vita is no exception.
But it’s in the sales of the unit itself that the most shocks have been found, with one week in November offering just 4,000 Vita sales in Japan, the portable being outsold by the outdated PSP by a factor of three. There’s apathy in the East, with mere flickers of hope emerging on the release of a big game or, recently, the introduction of a couple of new colours. You’d think the Vita would have an easy ride in Japan, but that’s not the case at all.
Indeed, Sony now lists the Vita mixed in with the PSP when reporting sales figures, the PS3 in with the PS2. This makes it almost impossible to figure out where the trends are going worldwide, the only real information coming through with press releases when a milestone has been hit. In August the official figure was 2.2 million, a figure the 3DS XL (an updated, released this year revision of the 3DS) has already hit and passed – the 3DS itself is sitting at roughly ten times that of the Vita.
With floundering numbers, then, it’s encouraging to see that Sony are still pushing the handheld hard. In the absence of a true price cut, bundles were recently introduced and although this year’s E3 showing was an embarrassing silence for the Vita, SCEE’s Gamescom press conference showed a renewed focus and faith in the machine, with several big name titles on show, including a unique entry in the Assassin’s Creed series and a return to the Killzone canon with a new first person shooter from Guerrilla, along with Tearaway, Media Molecule’s latest project.
But can a smattering of top tier games really make that much of a difference? Hopes for Black Ops: Declassified to do the same are now the stuff of legend, numerous message boards playing host to claims that once Call of Duty lands everyone will want a Vita – how that’ll pan out this Christmas remains to be seen, but the game failed to make much of an impact in the charts, and the Vita version of Battle Royale crashed even harder.
The real gem has been PlayStation Mobile, and it’s taken Sony a little while to realise. Now the official channels are making a big deal of certain key PSM titles, people will hopefully start to take notice and the much more digestible financial outlays should hopefully go some way to illustrate that not every game on the machine costs the sort of figures we’ve already discussed. With several big publishers and a brave set of indies behind Mobile, hopefully big things will come.
[drop2]In a hardware sense Sony have done little wrong – that screen is lovely (at least, when games run at the proper resolution), the analog sticks are fine once you get to know them and the availability of tilt control and the rear touch panel mean that developers at least have plenty of options. It’s a capable piece of kit, too, and we’re still only really in the first generation of titles – next year’s big games will no doubt really start to flex its muscles, at least in the right hands.A price cut needs to happen, though, and bigger (and cheaper) memory cards need to a) land in Europe and b) be part of the initial package. Publishers need to stop trying to charge crazy ticket prices, and more need to get on board to expand a library that whilst impressive at launch has dwindled slightly over the following months. There’s still confidence in the Vita at Sony, but they need to get the public on their side and buying into it before its too late.
It’s been a year of ups and downs for Sony’s latest device, and it’s only now starting to come through on early promises (like the PS3 cross controller functionality – more on that soon). Sales in Japan are dire, but as the system is advertised more and more here in Europe at least there’s brand awareness coming through. And whilst it’s still next to impossible to get anything but the main four or five titles in the supermarkets, Sony’s commitment to ensuring the Store is well stacked bodes well for the next generation of TV-based consoles.
Let’s hope the next year is kinder.
cam_manutd
The Vita is a great piece of tech but because of that finds its drawbacks in its price for both the hardware and games. Games wise, Uncharted, WipEout, LBP, Fifa football, MGS, Sound shapes and Motorstorm have been the best games. I think that even if COD and Resistance were mirrored in quality to its console brethren it wouldn’t make an earth shattering difference. However, stick a Final Fantasy or a Monster Hunter and things will change.
jimmy-google
“Final Fantasy or a Monster Hunter” would make a massive difference in Japan. Don’t think it’d impact Europe or the US much. A new GTA and GOW would.
colmshan1990
This is my favourite console out of all I’ve owned.
I can only hope it does sell more units or it will also be the shortest-lived one, no matter how much I’ve enjoyed it and a nicely varied library of games on it.
Severn2j
The thing that killed it for me, apart from the cost, was Sony locking it down to just one user. Me and my wife both play games so only one of us beng able to play was a deal breaker for me. It’s a shame because there was no need for Sony to do that, except as an attempt to make people buy multiple units per household, and that was never going to happen.
jimmy-google
Its all about trophies and keeping them secure. Unless you’re desperate to earn trophies two people could quite happily play most games. Many give you multiple saves.
Severn2j
I’m not bothered about trophies, it’s more a problem of progress. Case in point was Rayman Origins. If I spent a few hours on it, then when my wife came along to play it, she can’t start a new game, only continue mine, so I miss out on any progress she makes and vice-versa.. Maybe they’ve changed that now, but it was enough to make me sell mine after a month or so.
In my opinion, it’s a recurring problem with Sony, they make great hardware, but then spoil it with crippling software designed more to protect their content than serve their customers.
ron_mcphatty
I had a Vita for two months and thought the console was a beautiful looking, well built and pleasingly powerful thing. I couldn’t afford the games, so I sold it, but I will get another when I can. I get excited by the idea of home console integration, like The pan-platform Autolog, transfarring of saves and the LBP Vita controller gimmick. For me, this sort of use is where the Vita’s strengths lie and where it will beat the Wii U and Xbox + Surface combos in the coming years.
The Von Braun
Sorry for my long 1st post/rant…..
Thing is, as an ex-Lynx owner (had both the mk1+mk2 plus stack of games), it was soul destroying to see the sheer potential of the hardware squandered, all Atari ever did was promise the the slew of triple-A titles was just around the corner and rather than a flood, we had a dribble.Console was ‘relaunched’ back into spotlight with the revised mk 2 model and talk again of it getting another crack when the Jaguar launched (dunno IF anyones seen the AVP beta on Lynx, stunning for the hardware).
Then, history repeated itself for me as a PSP owner, names changed, tech improved (battery life was still a bitch mind), Gran Turismo promised in the v.early days (mocked up shot time), talk of exclusive Devil May Cry, then skip to the PSP GO (shudder….) oh, rest assured an exclusive Resident Evil title.None of which appeared, what did appear was:The Slim, The 3000, The GO, the..cheapo, no wi-fi model, the camera, the GPS add-on and a lot of hot air.
PSP owners were begging for a damn site more than dual sticks, better screen+lots of control options for the next gen PSP and initally Sony talked the talk as if they had learnt harsh lessons, device was powerful, easy to work with, Sony seemed to be securing the essential 3rd party support, going after indies etc.
Yet where are we now? Monster Hunter squandered, Last of the Psygnosis Wipeout (sad to see them reduced to a Wipeout production line), Uncharted and Resistance done by others, as it appears original teams finished with the franchises, keen to move on, Killzone looking the most promising future Sony brand title, but some way off, other than Ubisoft, who’s really supporting PS Vita outside of Sony?
Sony:you needed to really push the benifits of being both a PS3+Vita owner to me, make it look like an essential purchase, the demo.of it being used in Dust 514 was exactly the sort of thing that i took interest in, not ohhh you can play this game on PS3 and play same or near as damn it version on Vita as well.
Basically, your not filling me with confidence that PS4 will have learnt from mistakes PS3 made .Last time i spoke to Sony, regarding PS3 Blu-ray drive issue, they sneered at forums, said they were full of people telling lies!-Try reading them Sony, you’ll soon find out why people are turning away from your systems, you ARE becoming the NEW ATARI.
XisTG
I’ve been a Vita owner from day one, and I never felt the console price was off the mark. Sure, one year later we should expect a price reduction (already happening around here, but marketed as a “until christmas only” type of thing), but what really sucks are the memory card prices. They’re incredibly expensive. I don’t have that many games for the Vita, and I still find myself juggling available storage and always having to make the decision on which game should I take with me. Gravity Rush is still on my PS3, waiting it’s turn.
It’s sad they opted to do this. Choosing to make their own proprietary cards is one thing, charging so much for them is another. And as much as I would like to buy one more card, that is not going to happen.
ignorbert
I for one.. am still happy with the purchase of the Vita. I can now play some games while the family is in the room.
There are some PS3 games I would have guessed would be ported to the Vita sooner.. (or at all)
+ The screen (when there is something to view) is really nice.
+ Uncharted, played it all the way through while the PS3 version I stopped at 22%.
+ Escape Plan..
+ Rayman, brings back memories.
+ Gravity Rush.. (little hyped, but playable)
+ Little Big Planet, have 1 and 2 for PS3 but only playing this version.. Will try the patch ofcourse..
+ RRRRRidge racer, sorry also like this title..
+ StarDust not as addictive as the PS3 version…
+ Playstation Plus
+ Future plans for second screen kind of game interactions.
Minus
– the OS is made by the My First Sony crew, with the stupid round icons.
– Could not play any of my game-cards the first day, because I did not had a vita memory card, I read (also on this site the game cards would reserve 25% of the size for save data and game patches….)
– I have the 3G version and without a sim it will tell me there is no sim even with radio off.
– Uncharted and Gravity Rush now free for plussers (ouch)
– Unit 13, when language set to UK/US and location NL I get France language! Had to set my Vita to Dutch!
– Battery/Gaming time could be better..
– Annoying blue light in PS button should be able to be switched off. When playing in the dark it becomes really annoying..
rossthebassist
The only thing with the vita, is i never carry it on the go….
I have my iphone in my pocket so my vita stays at home for when i cant have the TV.
Sony make mobile phones…. so i dont get why the playstation mobile phone cant become a reality. im not talking about the xperia play, although something like it with PSP / Vita capability’s would be closer to what i mean.