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Discussion: Is It The End of the Road for Vita?


Uncle Dokuro
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Today I was reading an article by GameInformer staffer Mike Futter. You can find a link to his opinion piece here.

Now I agree with him on some points like overpriced storage and the lack of anything bigger then 32GB (unless you import the 64GB, which he left out or does not know about.) But I disagree with him on his point that Vita does not have exclusives, because it does, it just happens most are niche titles with anime visuals. What I think hurts the Vita is when publishers like Bandai Namco, Sega and Tecmo Koei go straight to digital with their big games. Few people will know about them and if they can't see the box on a store shelfs Vita and the games will not cross shoppers minds.

The argument of "there are no new western triple A games in development" or SCEA bullshit excuse of "triple A games don't work on Vita" are weak. At the end of the day I don't think Sony or western third parties know what to do with the device software wise. What I think they miss is handhelds don't need console type games to be a hit just look at the DS and 3DS with it's treasure trove of JRPG, Platformers and Animal Crossing type life sims. Maybe SCEA/SCEE should take a look at that instead of blaming the consoles.

Lastly I do think western triple A games could work but it comes down to the developer of the title and if it has unique ideas that only handheld can do. Resistance, Call of Duty and Boardlands 2 (Which is not as bad a the reviews say it is) were not bad due to them not working, but due to who Sony, Activision and 2K picked to develop the games. Iron Galaxy and Nihilistic would not have been my first studios to take on those projects.

Chris McQuinn of Drinkbox was right when he said to gamesindusty that "people don't understand the purchasing power of PS Vita owners". PS Vita owners buy games on that platform like video games are going out of style. I think SCEA, SCEE and western thrid parties are passing up easy money by falling back on poor excuses for not supporting the platform. PS Vita is not doomed to fail like Mike thinks. E3 2014 will not be the nail in Vita's coffin. The handheld market has always been a niche market. I think Vita will be around for a long time due to support from Japan and indie studios.

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I don't know how to fix the Vita.

Currently it seems to be treated as a companion piece to the PS4 by Sony, a very expensive peripheral and there isn't too many reasons to get one alone. PS+ was the the number one reason for me to pick up a Vita but that means I'm not that likely to actually buy games. I have bought a few indies but I'm yet to buy a 'full' retail-like game and I can't see myself doing so in the foreseeable (the only one that comes to mind is that Persona dancing game which I think is next year...)

So I guess I don't entirely agree with Vita owners 'buying games like they're going out of style', at least not from my personal experience. Maybe other Vita owners are a lot less broke than me.

I dunno what would make me actually by a full Vita game. I think there just needs to be something more exciting coming from Sony, like something ball grabbing. Like I said, I'm pretty stoked for the Persona dancing game so maybe a new Parappa or Lammy game would make me actually reach for my wallet... maybe. I just think going back to those kind of titles is what they should be doing. I know that didn't really do much for the PSP but that didn't have a backbone of indie support.

I guess they already did things like with Katamari and Everybody's Golf and the like but I'd like to see more.

And I also think they shouldn't continue to do B-tier AAA games, for lack of a better term. I am someone who doesn't get much out of AAA style games on a handheld so I couldn't be less interested in Vita versions of Uncharted, Killzone and Borderlands 2; I really could not give any less thumbed in fucks about them. But I think WB had the right idea with Arkham Origins: Blackgate by taking a AAA style game and doing something different with it that suited the system. Yeah, it turned out that a game wasn't that good (going by some tings I'd read) but I'd be more interested if the next Killzone Vita game was a different spin like a 2.5D shooter, or not that, definitely not that, but something like that.

But that's just what I think. Cheaper memory cards, too.

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the Vita's problem is that it's every inch the sequel to a well made terrible idea. There was a market for the psp, portable versions of mainstream games, not as good as the home console versions, but portable. There is a market for that, 10-12 year old boys and Ed, that's too small a market. People used to say they wanted those kind of games on a handheld, but they really didn't, and it didn't take long for them to realise it. Why on earth would you want to play Resistance on a handheld, it's going to be a lesser experience, just like Uncharted was. Even if they make it a decent game it's just not going to get people excited at the prospect. Meaning no offence, given the strengths of the game, and that it's been out 2 years on stronger hardware, and that the Vita version is apparently less than great port, I don't understand why someone would get Borderlands on the Vita

When they launched the vita it was a nice machine, expensive but nice, with handheld versions of Uncharted :mellow: Wipeout :mellow: Fifa :mellow: LittleBigPlanet :mellow: They're all decent franchises in their own right, but they aren't games that are going to get you to buy a handheld. Sony's problem is that they don't have the games to get you to buy a handheld, Nintendo do because they've been making handhelds for years, they've learnt what works and built up franchises. I'd say the closest Sony have got is Tearaway, but I don't know if we'll get another one, and there's rumours it's going to get a ps4 release, although there's Gravity Rush too.

What's been pretty cool/interesting is how the audience has forced the Vita to change. People started buying the indie games and now that's the platform's strength. The problem I have with it, and with the more zealot Vita fans, is that often the Vita isn't the first place they appear. People love Hotline Miami, I've even seen people claim it as a Vita exclusive, but it was out on PC for a year before. Not an indie, but Persona has the same problem, the game had been out for about 5 years before the Vita got it, it's a ps2 game ffs. The likes of OlliOlli and TxK are what the Vita needs, even if they end up going to other things later, not another version of Walking Dead, but even then they aren't going to shift consoles.

I agree with PV that the vita has some good exclusives, and that they're just not where people look. Demon Gaze isn't the greatest game ever, but it's a good rpg that's getting next to no coverage. I also agree with DC that if you're going to bring your series to a handheld I'd rather you do something different with it. Castlevania wasn't the greatest on 3DS but I'd rather that than a very bad version of Lords of Shadow, same with that Batman game

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I agree with DC I really dislike that the Vita is being treated like a companion piece to the PS4 and I think PS Now will be cumbersome on Vita due to it missing two shoulder buttons. If they find a work around for that (like Borderlands 2 using the touch pad) great, but I don't see developers going back to make PS3 games work on Vita.

I agree and disagree (kinda) with Danger that most of the indie games on Vita I have owned for years on Steam, but I've never seen anyone claim Hotline Miami and exclusive to the device. ever.

I also agree with danger that Demon Gaze is not getting enough coverage as it should and would go further that most Vita games don't get the coverage they should.

So do you guys think Sony can right the ship? Or is Vita dead in the water in your opinion?

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Make the memory cheaper. Promote the PSN downloads. I hear people avoiding buying downloads because they can't be arsed juggling data on their memory cards, I know I don't want to have all my games across different memory cards. if that happen I'm thinking Sony will sell more games/DLC in the long run to make flogging the memory cards at a cheaper price valid.

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Make the memory cheaper. Promote the PSN downloads. I hear people avoiding buying downloads because they can't be arsed juggling data on their memory cards, I know I don't want to have all my games across different memory cards. if that happen I'm thinking Sony will sell more games/DLC in the long run to make flogging the memory cards at a cheaper price valid.

The juggling data issue with memory cards is kinda BS. Just install the Vita's Content Management Assistant on your PC. When you need to make room for something new just move the games you're not playing to the CMA it backs up your stuff so you don't have to re-download it. If you decide you want to play it again just copy it back onto your vita. But I do agree memory should be cheaper.

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It's fucking about though. People don't want to fuck about, they want ease of use. Whichever way you look at it, you're still juggling data, something you wouldn't need to do if the memory for PSV's weren't astronomically priced.

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I agree and disagree (kinda) with Danger that most of the indie games on Vita I have owned for years on Steam, but I've never seen anyone claim Hotline Miami and exclusive to the device. ever.

:lol: that's just a personal bugbear of mine, I saw someone claim it as an exclusive as it's a 'handheld exclusive'

and no, the Vita will never be a success for Sony (imo), and the only way a followup will be is if they make it less or a technology beast, which is counter to what sony handhelds are known for, so it's a catch 22

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if they made a lot more of the PS one games available, I'd happily sink a bunch of money rolling into a nostalgia trip, but like sly says, memory card juggling is a bit of a bind. I'm trying to save for a PS4, but it's tempting to sink £60 on importing the 64Gb memory card.

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  • 4 years later...

It's an odd little system. Like the PSP it should be great, but there is something about it that holds it back. It has a pretty solid library of games as well. I'm not sure what Nintendo bring to handhelds that other consoles somehow manage to lack as all the Nintendo handhelds I've had, I've played the heck out of, whilst the Vita and PSP gathered dust.

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Yeah i think that's an element to it. I also think it's the classic handheld problem of over complicated machines trying to emulate something you'd play at home (see also Game Gear, Lynx et al), whereas Nintendo have always played to the strengths of protable gaming and have arguably waited until the Switch until pushing for that home gaming experience in portable form.

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Nintendo have their own handheld franchises. The Switch is looking like it's going to be the end of that, but there has always been stuff on the Nintendo handhelds you can't get elsewhere. Sony have never managed to establish those franchises on the PSP so the Vita had nothing to fall back on.

 

I do like the Vita though, this is such a backhanded compliment, but I regularly think about using it. Whenever I've got to go somewhere I toy with taking it because there's a bunch of stuff on it I'd like to get back to

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I love my Vita. I was playing it yesterday in fact.

 

I think Sly’s on the money though - buying memory for it is stupid expensive unless you go second hand.

 

The forced touch gimmick too had a negative effect on developers early on. No one wanted to make anything for it until Sony stopped insisting they use the touch pads, and that hurt the first couple of years, which is a real shame.

 

I do love mine though. I use it for PS1 classics, indies, and RPG’s, and for that it’s perfect. But it’s also another symptom of why the thing failed.

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7 minutes ago, radiofloyd said:

Thinking of getting a Vita for that purpose, don’t tempt me...

I'll sell you mine if you want it? No idea how much it is worth, the screen is a bit scratched. Make me a reasonable offer and I'll almost certainly accept it.

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