After the Nintendo 3DS price cut, it’s hardly unexpected to find analysts and commenters assuming Sony will do the same. Regardless of your thoughts on mobile gaming, Apple have changed the market, forever.
Compared to the PS3 (and, indeed, the 3DS) PS Vita is actually priced quite competitively, but that hasn’t stopped people urging Sony to reduce it further. “Gamers are increasingly anticipating Sony to lower prices, especially after the 3DS cut,” said Hideki Yasuda, a Tokyo-based analyst. “Sony is under major pressure to cut the price of the Vita or risk a major failure,” he said, as picked up by Bloomberg.
[drop2]Sony Consumer Group president Hirai is defiant, though. “We have a very good product at a very affordable price, he said. “There’s no need to lower the price just because somebody else that happens to be in the video game industry decided they were going to.”Sony’s main competitor in the market isn’t just Nintendo, though – it’s Apple, who have sold more than 200 million devices capable of playing more than 100,000 very cheap games. “The market opportunity for specialist devices is shrinking rather than growing” aid Piers Harding-Rolls, analyst at a research firm IHS, and it’s all due to convergence.
Koki Shiraishi, analyst at Daiwa Securities Group, agrees. “The environment for portable game players has become more difficult because of smartphones,” he said.
Gamesindustry.biz’ Rob Fahey is of the same opinion. “What you can’t do,” he says, “is make smartphones and tablets go away… It’s smartphones and tablets that will have the largest impact. Multifunction devices may not play games quite as well as dedicated devices (yet), but they play them well enough for most consumers.”
“And [that has] led many consumers to see handheld games as something that should be free or very inexpensive, casting huge doubt on the market for £30 software.”
“The money being pumped through the iOS revenue system, contrasted with the failure of the 3DS to ring the tills at retail, is proof positive that [this is] already happening on a large scale… 3DS and PS Vita will, quite simply, never scale the heights of the previous generation of handhelds – but if Nintendo and Sony are fast, and clever, and more than a bit lucky, there’s a good chance that they can carve out a viable, if smaller, market.”
Of course, Vita’s main draw is the PS3-quality gaming, which from what we’ve seen is absolutely a reality, rather than the more ‘disposal’ games that the iPhone is, often wrongly, understood to concentrate on. With games like Uncharted and WipEout the Vita will certainly appeal to existing PS3 fans. But is this enough?
“One thing is certain – dedicated handheld gaming devices are now in rapid decline, and barring an extraordinary technological advance, they’re not going to come back. Birthed with the Game & Watch, this sector is going to end with the 3DS and Vita. All that remains to be seen is whether it ends with a whimper, or a bang.”
What do you guys think about this?
MayContainEvil
I was kinda on the fence about getting a Vita, but seeing as this might be the last proper handheld I will ever have the chance to own I feel a splurge is in order!
Watchful
Sony’s problem is that I suspect that the Vita’s hardware costs are almost certainly much higher than the 3DS. I’d be surprised if Sony are making much margin, if any, at the Vita’s currently announced prices.
You can bet that the 3DS was priced to make a healthy instant profit on the hardware when it launched, as that’s what Nintendo do, and is probably now (well after the 11th) priced at a level that is more or less ‘at cost’. That’s why Ninty’s shareholders are upset, the new 3DS price means no instant profit from the hardware sales.
TheChaosGamer
It would be good if the price was dropped, but I highly doubt it with Sony.
Personally I think Mobile Gaming is a waste time and money, on pretty much every game I get bored within 5 minutes.
cam the man
The big plus point with the Vita is the screen, OLED is so much better than anything else currently available. Watching videos of it on a HD screen doesn’t do it justice.
colmshan1990
Isn’t OLED just a brighter HD screen?
cam the man
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/oled.htm
Rocket_345
I think the problem is that people who aren’t hardcore gamers will just dismiss the Vita as being too expensive as they aren’t interested in the proper games. I think if Sony knock the price down 20/30 pound and have some good cheap casual titles available for launch, then advertise the hell out of all the features, hardcore games and casual games that the Vita will have people who aren’t necessarily gamers will take notice. Also they need to have units to play in store to convince people to buy one.
Gaztee
As I posted somewhere yesterday (I think!) I think the Vita is dead in the water. The landscape has changed & outside of the core people (like most of us here!) I think it will struggle. There should have been one model (3g) to make it cheaper from the get go. The pricing of games needs to be nearer £25 tops rather than £30-£40. I want to be wrong, but have a bad feeling, especially as its been confirmed its gonna miss Xmas here!
Mutt
People will buy the PSV at the current price. It’s pretty good value (even if I’ll be waiting for a price drop, but that’s more about how much I’d used it). Maybe Sony will have to drop the price quickly after that, maybe not, but it’s a very different product even if the 3DS and PSV are both mobile gaming devices.
Kennykazey
Can’t we all be friends and have multiple devices with gaming capabilities? I’m going to try and get a cheap phone, or hold on to the one I have so I can get a Vita (or a 3DS if the Vita turns out to be crap… yeah, right!). Gaming on a mobile-phone or a tablet for that matter doesn’t feel the same, it just doesn’t feel right.
Dange
Agreed Kenny, I have a very decent spec phone but have not bought one single game for it. These 50p-£1 games just don’t interest me. I want something I can get my teeth into, like an uncharted or what have ya, Vita all the way for Dange thank :)
Totodile
Sony, wait a go!
You’re marketing strategies are SMASHING!
Congrats! xD