Some small level of vindication for the first-generation PlayStation I bought that had the faulty laser.

cman: No shiat

People are happy with playing games on their mobile phone/tablet

But the 3DS is is selling well. In fact, it's off to a better start than the original DS, which was one of the most successful handheld systems of all time.

The problem isn't that handhelds can't compete or don't have a place alongside smartphones and tablets. The problem is that Sony sucks.

No good games = handheld fail.

Doc Daneeka: cman: No shiat

People are happy with playing games on their mobile phone/tablet

But the 3DS is is selling well. In fact, it's off to a better start than the original DS, which was one of the most successful handheld systems of all time.

The problem isn't that handhelds can't compete or don't have a place alongside smartphones and tablets. The problem is that Sony sucks.

Even nintendo had issues till a $70 price drop. The vita could really, REALLY use one as well. It's a damn fine handheld, but it's hard to recommend it at the current price point.

dopeydwarf: It would help if they didn't stick with proprietary memory formats and brought out, oh I don't know, NEW GAMES.

The damn cards killed so much of the hype for it. They really need to get the pice of them down to SD card levels, or as close to it as possible.

Games wise things are slow, but the library is pretty diverse. No monster hunter is killing it in japan though. Currently finishing up Gravity rush and looking forward to persona 4 the golden. After that, i'm really not sure, but that's a problem i'm having on pretty much every platform right now. Beyond Borderlands and gw2, i'm not seeing anything that screams buy me the rest of the year.

I actually just reserved the Assassin's Creed III Liberation Vita bundle the other day.

cman: No shiat

People are happy with playing games on their mobile phone/tablet.

What the consumer wants is for Sony and Microsoft to introduce next generation consoles.

XBox360 and PS3 were released in 2006. Technology has improved DRASTICALLY since then.

Exactly this, every kid has moved on to phones in restaurants when 5-6 years ago every kid had a gameboy or something like that.

Never heard of it.

It's really sad. It's a really great piece of hardware, and that makes me want to support it. But Sony REALLY dropped the ball on marketing this thing to everyone- consumers (including hardcore gamers), developers, and publishers. So now no developers are making games for it, and so consumers like me aren't going to buy it. Even the hardcore really have no reason to buy one at this point. You would think Sony would have learned with the failure of the PSP in the Western markets, but they very obviously didn't, and now Vita is failing even in Japan.

I really don't understand what all the fuss was about this thing. It was basically the PSP with a few new bells and even fewer new games. At this point, it feels like Sony is only in this for the sake of a fight. They got their pound of flesh with Blu Ray and now they're just getting lazy.

...er

Toshiro Mifune's Letter Opener: Some small level of vindication for the first-generation PlayStation I bought that had the faulty laser.

Me too, but I also had a day-1 PS2 that is still working. It's a little loud and can't read dirty games as well, but still function. I think because I rarely used it as a DVD player, which killed so many before their times.

Sony is a horrible company, run by greedy, crooked idiots. They have taken their fans for granted too long.

As a PS1 and 2 owner, I never once considered a PS3 or PSP. After the root kit, they can diaf.

They and countless game makers are killing themselves though. We are overdue for a huge videogame crash. They will blame the economy and handheld games (which are a small part for certain), but ultimately they did it to themselves.

dopeydwarf: It would help if they didn't stick with proprietary memory formats [..]

Doc Daneeka: The problem isn't that handhelds can't compete or don't have a place alongside smartphones and tablets. The problem is that Sony sucks.

Those. I've gotten tired of Sony as a company. It's unfortunate that there are actually a few interesting looking games for the Vita, because I've resolved not to buy it before it hit the store.

Nemo's Brother: Me too, but I also had a day-1 PS2 that is still working. It's a little loud and can't read dirty games as well, but still function. I think because I rarely used it as a DVD player, which killed so many before their times.

Ahhh... that would do it. I stopped gaming after the PS1, but I can see why DVD playing would do a number on the PS2s.


Nemo's Brother: Sony is a horrible company, run by greedy, crooked idiots. They have taken their fans for granted too long.

As a PS1 and 2 owner, I never once considered a PS3 or PSP. After the root kit, they can diaf.

That's the impression I got. I mean, I quit gaming anyway, so it was a moot point, but... meh.


Nemo's Brother: They and countless game makers are killing themselves though. We are overdue for a huge videogame crash.

I hope it's brought about by an update of the E.T Atari game.

You know, for that full circle thing.

Poor sales because people have decided in droves to instead spend their time actually doing something useful, perhaps even making a friend, rather than waste their existences killing imaginary leprechauns using their fingers. Durrr.

Dumb-Ass-Monkey: hej: dopeydwarf: It would help if they didn't stick with proprietary memory formats [..]

Doc Daneeka: The problem isn't that handhelds can't compete or don't have a place alongside smartphones and tablets. The problem is that Sony sucks.

Those. I've gotten tired of Sony as a company. It's unfortunate that there are actually a few interesting looking games for the Vita, because I've resolved not to buy it before it hit the store.

like TFA said, the 3DS has sold 20 million units. It may not be the overwhelming success that the DS initially was, but there is a pretty damn big user base there. Throw in backward compatibility, don't go apesh*t with the proprietary bullsh*t, and you'll get the sales.

Considering the previous units sold like 5 times that amount then even the 3DS is close to a failure. If I go to a boss and say our new product is only going to sell 1/5th of what the last one sold he will either fire you on the spot or send you to a psychiatrist for observation.

Antimatter: dopeydwarf: It would help if they didn't stick with proprietary memory formats and brought out, oh I don't know, NEW GAMES.

The damn cards killed so much of the hype for it. They really need to get the pice of them down to SD card levels, or as close to it as possible.

Games wise things are slow, but the library is pretty diverse. No monster hunter is killing it in japan though. Currently finishing up Gravity rush and looking forward to persona 4 the golden. After that, i'm really not sure, but that's a problem i'm having on pretty much every platform right now. Beyond Borderlands and gw2, i'm not seeing anything that screams buy me the rest of the year.

The Colonial Marines by Gearbox looks amazing too, just saying....

Toshiro Mifune's Letter Opener: Nemo's Brother: Me too, but I also had a day-1 PS2 that is still working. It's a little loud and can't read dirty games as well, but still function. I think because I rarely used it as a DVD player, which killed so many before their times.

Ahhh... that would do it. I stopped gaming after the PS1, but I can see why DVD playing would do a number on the PS2s.


Nemo's Brother: Sony is a horrible company, run by greedy, crooked idiots. They have taken their fans for granted too long.

As a PS1 and 2 owner, I never once considered a PS3 or PSP. After the root kit, they can diaf.

That's the impression I got. I mean, I quit gaming anyway, so it was a moot point, but... meh.


Nemo's Brother: They and countless game makers are killing themselves though. We are overdue for a huge videogame crash.

I hope it's brought about by an update of the E.T Atari game.

You know, for that full circle thing.

That would actually be pretty poetic. I'm sure Hollywood is itching to 're-image' ET. Maybe it will still happen. I'm hoping a Michael Bay movie translation ultimately does it.

My handheld gaming console also makes phone calls and lets me check my email.

Nice Sony hit piece. The Vita isn't even core business and this guy acts like Sony should just pack it in for their gaming division altogether.

cman: No shiat

People are happy with playing games on their mobile phone/tablet.

What the consumer wants is for Sony and Microsoft to introduce next generation consoles.

XBox360 and PS3 were released in 2006. Technology has improved DRASTICALLY since then.

That's not what the consumer wants, that's what the consumer believes based off what they're being told by everyone.

There's been all sorts of FUD spread by gaming/technology news about how the consoles are well past their prime and that the games are derivative and that somehow a new console will fix all their woes.

Here's a small sampling of excellent games, mostly top of the all time lists for that console or console games in general that came out well in to what people are considering the "twilight" years of a console:
-God of War came out 5 years after the PS2 launched, and God of War 2, which is considered in the top 5 games released for the PS2, came out 7 years after the console debuted.
-Metal Gear Solid came out 4 years after the release of the PSX
-Gran Turismo 2, probably the best console racer not named WipeOut XL ever, came out almost 5 years to the day after the release of the PSX
-Shadow of the Colossus came out 5 and half years after the release of the PS2
-Okami came out 6 years after the release of the PS2

Poor sales because maybe people are finally getting sick and tired of the crap these developers spew at them again and again. I watched my brother buy a Vita and watched it collect dust in the basement along with the other sony garbage he bought into. It makes me sick to see the big money game designers like EA and Activision reduced to such garbage these days. I still look fondly at the good old days of the late 80's and early 90's game development when designers weren't afraid of such feeble 8 and 16-bit graphic restrictions and created their own masterpieces regardless of the current trends. And better yet, the people who made the decisions actually gave them a chance to sell that game abroad instead of editing the fark out of it and taking surveys and focus grouping and statistics and ultimately deciding not to fund the game.

Nemo's Brother:
Sony is a horrible company, run by greedy, crooked idiots. They have taken their fans for granted too long.

As a PS1 and 2 owner, I never once considered a PS3 or PSP. After the root kit, they can diaf.

They and countless game makers are killing themselves though. We are overdue for a huge videogame crash. They will blame the economy and handheld games (which are a small part for certain), but ultimately they did it to themselves.

This, but I'd put it in even broader terms for the entire industry. It's just changed so much now, I just can't deal with the crap they spew out that they call video games these days. Over half of the DS video games are casual pink-labeled garbage and the rest are Zynga ports. There has been a few gems here and there, but the variety and quantity that filled video game stores in the past just arent there any more. All Miyamoto has to do is collect all the old NES or SNES licenses and release a handheld that contained all of the NES or SNES games ever produced, and I'd buy twenty. The Supaboy was a good start, but with todays tech we could easily have them all built in, instead of having to find the old cartridges. But alas, we live in a world with lawyers.

steamingpile: Considering the previous units sold like 5 times that amount then even the 3DS is close to a failure. If I go to a boss and say our new product is only going to sell 1/5th of what the last one sold he will either fire you on the spot or send you to a psychiatrist for observation.

Comparing the lifetime cumulative sales of a system that's been out 8 years to one that's been out for 18 months isn't rational. The 3DS is tracking very close to where the DS was at this point. It's likely to fall behind the DS unless some new Brain Training/Nintendogs phenomenon takes hold, but sales are hardly disappointing.

As has been said, Sony just sucks because they couldn't migrate the modest PSP userbase to the Vita at all and 3rd parties are starting to jump ship.

cman: XBox360 and PS3 were released in 2006.

Oh god, has it been six years since the PS3 came out? WTF father time?

BudTheSpud: All Miyamoto has to do is collect all the old NES or SNES licenses and release a handheld that contained all of the NES or SNES games ever produced, and I'd buy twenty.

Let me clue you in to a reason the 3DS is selling...

/turns off fark, goes back to playing Mario

Doc Daneeka:
The problem isn't that handhelds can't compete or don't have a place alongside smartphones and tablets. The problem is that Sony sucks.

Sony doesn't suck. They just can't seem to understand that commercial viability is completely different than quality.

Nintendo has had some of their greatest commercial success with shiatty game systems (Wii/DS/3DS).

I really really really want to have a farking Vita. There are like five or six good games that completely justify its existence and a couple more coming out soon. My PSP is sitting somewhere gathering dust though.

Toshiro Mifune's Letter Opener: Nemo's Brother: They and countless game makers are killing themselves though. We are overdue for a huge videogame crash.

I hope it's brought about by an update of the E.T Atari game.

You know, for that full circle thing.

In totally unrelated news, Sony has announced a release date of 23 October for PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royal, a fighting game for the Vita and PS3 which is in absolutely no way, shape or form whatsoever a cheap knock-off of a certain popular franchise on one of their competitors' systems.

WTF? Is that supposed to resemble a blow-up doll? 'Cause, it does, and it's creepy.

Nemo's Brother: They and countless game makers are killing themselves though. We are overdue for a huge videogame crash. They will blame the economy and handheld games

Don't forget to blame the used game market as well.

The used game market that even existed back in the NES days with funcoland and its ilk.

If they didn't kill gaming from the NES era through the SNES, N64 and Gamecube eras, why are they an issue now?

Playstation fans complain to Sony constantly via the PS Blog about the things they want, and most of these things are pretty reasonable. But Sony's always had a too cool for school approach to things, and they act like they know better and refuse to listen to anything consumers have to say. Hell, if they'd just authorize the entire library of already-released PS1 and PS2 games to run on the Vita and price them around the same prices at the mobile games (0.99 to 4.99), they'd make a killing.

Sony's biggest problem is that they release platforms and then find themselves competing with other areas of their company. The Playstation console brand itself is pretty insular, but the Vita is competing with the tablet division, the cell phone division and the licensing division for attention. Sony won't pour its resources into things that would make the platform attractive (like free/cheap mobile media, free games or non-proprietary memory sticks) because they're a company that's built to wring the money out of everything they own. They want to be a premium brand, but they're in a world where the name SONY doesn't mean much anymore and where they're trying to charge too much for too little.

I mean, the very fact that every PS1 game on the PSN isn't 99 cents despite being long past the point of premium profitability tells you something about the way Sony thinks. If they'd lower their prices on the software, all of the Playstation faithful would load up on the classics just to have them and they'd make a ton of money.

lordargent: Nemo's Brother: They and countless game makers are killing themselves though. We are overdue for a huge videogame crash. They will blame the economy and handheld games

Don't forget to blame the used game market as well.

The used game market that even existed back in the NES days with funcoland and its ilk.

If they didn't kill gaming from the NES era through the SNES, N64 and Gamecube eras, why are they an issue now?

To be fair, it only took $1M and a few months to pop out NES classics. A big time AAA game can cost as much as a summer tent pole movie and may take a few years to make.

I've had a strong hatred for the Playstation handhelds ever since Valkyria Chronicles got taken away from the PS3 and marooned on them.

I loved the DS, but I'm holding off on the 3DS until a re-release that has both better battery life and a second stick built-in. Hopefully they'll have a good library by then, too.

SevenizGud: Poor sales because people have decided in droves to instead spend their time actually doing something useful, perhaps even making a friend, rather than waste their existences killing imaginary leprechauns using their fingers. Durrr.

My Vita is kinda collecting dust as well. I have some of the worth buying titles, but for some reason, its just not appealing to me. Its great that you can play PSP games on it. But the fact that its like the PSP Go, its farking greedy unless you've never owned a PSP to begin with like myself. Whats pissing me off the most is that all the PSOne Classics aren't playable on it. Granted with a coming firmware ver 1.80 it'll supposedly be possible, but the current is 1.69. And who the hell knows when they'll hit 1.80 or if they'll push it back even further. Thats one of the biggest gripes that people had at launch and theres no reason why it couldn't have been included then as well rather than a stance of "we don't know when or even if we'll put that compatibility on the Vita"

Doc Daneeka:

The problem isn't that handhelds can't compete or don't have a place alongside smartphones and tablets. The problem is that Sony sucks.

Handhelds are a niche market, so are "hardcore gamers". Overlap is even less. Doesn't take a genius to realize the target for hardware like the PSV is going to be very small, and it needs to be priced just right to even have a chance.

Sony really dropped the ball. They should have had their own PSN gaming app store up and running (allowing anyone to create for it) similar to android/apple marketplace. The device should have also been 100% integrated with the PS3 from the start, zero % propitiatory, and able to do what the WiiU is planning on doing, in addition to doing 100% mobile gaming of PS3 titles.

Sony is Japanese, and the Japanese hardware entertainment industry apparently doesn't understand web 2.0, social media, or how to synergize technology across company divisions.

As far as I care to see, the market for the PSP/Vita doesn't even exist. My brother-in-law bought me a PSP a few years ago; I had no desire to even open the box. I eventually gave it to his kid, so no money wasted, I guess.

Back in February, i got a big bonus from work, had some $$ burning a hole in my pocket, and grabbed a Vita as an impulse buy. Played it for a month (mostly Hot Shots Golf) but haven't even turned it on since May. It's basically a $300 doorstop at this point. I even tried to sell it on Craigs List and the best offer I got was $125 for the system, 4 games, and an 8GB memory card.

Shame, as it's actually a pretty cool system but there are simply no interesting games. At all. I was hoping there would be a few things announced at E3, but it was pretty much silence there as well. The PSP had a similar slow start and ended up with some truly fantastic games during its lifespan. I'm holding out hope that the Vita can do the same, but my guess is that the Vita will just die a slow death.

red5ish:

The article is all about buzz and marketing when the heart of the matter is that consumers want new, drastically improved, next generation consoles. They don't care if the console has a slimmer profile or if it's a surprise. It just has to be more powerful and well built. It's just hardware and it's been six years since the last upgrade.

Nah.

Hardcore gamers who obsess about graphics and are feeling put down by taunts from the master race, want that.

But the numbers are in, and most people are fine with the good enough graphics out there now. COD didn't become a $3 billion dollar franchise this generation because it had the best graphics. The biggest issue right now is Dev costs, and moving to a new platform isn't going to help that much unless there's a drastic change in support from MS/Sony. Dev costs have been bleeding the industry dry, and likewise it's been leading to a lot of cookie cutter copycats. secularsage: Playstation fans complain to Sony constantly via the PS Blog about the things they want, and most of these things are pretty reasonable. But Sony's always had a too cool for school approach to things, and they act like they know better and refuse to listen to anything consumers have to say. Hell, if they'd just authorize the entire library of already-released PS1 and PS2 games to run on the Vita and price them around the same prices at the mobile games (0.99 to 4.99), they'd make a killing.

Sony's biggest problem is that they release platforms and then find themselves competing with other areas of their company. The Playstation console brand itself is pretty insular, but the Vita is competing with the tablet division, the cell phone division and the licensing division for attention. Sony won't pour its resources into things that would make the platform attractive (like free/cheap mobile media, free games or non-proprietary memory sticks) because they're a company that's built to wring the money out of everything they own. They want to be a premium brand, but they're in a world where the name SONY doesn't mean much anymore and where they're trying to charge too much for too little.

I mean, the very fact that every PS1 game on the PSN isn't 99 cents despite being long past the point of premium profitability tells you something about the way Sony thinks. If they'd lower their prices on the software, all of the Playstation faithful would load up on the classics just to have them and they'd make a ton of money.

Not to mention the Sony/BMG media lawyers are the ones that run the company now. Sony took a dive once they started influencing the other areas of the corporation, trying to figure out how to incorporate their models into the hardware areas. It's been disastrous. The Playstation division was the only area of the company to report profits last year, and they've been kicking it around into other divisions to make losses seem better.

bhcompy:

That's not what the consumer wants, that's what the consumer believes based off what they're being told by everyone.

There's been all sorts of FUD spread by gaming/technology news about how the consoles are well past their prime and that the games are derivative and that somehow a new console will fix all their woes.

Here's a small sampling of excellent games, mostly top of the all time lists for that console or console games in general that came out well in to what people are considering the "twilight" years of a console:
-God of War came out 5 years after the PS2 launched, and God of War 2, which is considered in the top 5 games released for the PS2, came out 7 years after the console debuted.
-Metal Gear Solid came out 4 years after the release of the PSX
-Gran Turismo 2, probably the best console racer not named WipeOut XL ever, came out almost 5 years to the day after the release of the PSX
-Shadow of the Colossus came out 5 and half years after the release of the PS2
-Okami came out 6 years after the release of the PS2

Yup. The hardcore want it, but it's only because the PC master race has been pointing to their tech and calling the console hardcore names.

Some big publishers are pushing for a console reboot, because it does wipe the slate clean. The idea being they have a chance to "be it" next gen, ala get a IP rocking like COD that entraps a whole console generation of consumers. It's not about making better games, just being the first to have "it". Being the first to the new Goldeneye/Halo/Gears/COD.

Devs absolutely don't want it. They drowning as is in costs, and new consoles are just more dev costs. The technology jumps ain't going to be worth it, and they're just now finding a nice balance with current gen. Publisher's meanwhile are ordering up too much copycat shovel-ware, and flooding the market with too many titles. They think following Activision is a good thing. A new console ain't going to help.

Two big things need to happen next gen, or there's most likely going to be a industry crash. They need to find a way to create a marketplace where regular joe's can create entertaining games and sell them, and they need to heavily invest in much better development tools and standardization. Building engines and education programmers and needed thousand of more man hours in asset production is not cheap. Prices are going to rise, or console manufactures are going to have to step in to help.

secularsage: . Hell, if they'd just authorize the entire library of already-released PS1 and PS2 games to run on the Vita and price them around the same prices at the mobile games (0.99 to 4.99), they'd make a killing.
.

Seriously, I just bought Legend of Mana off PSN for $4.99, and I'd pay for Tenchu 1 and 2 if they were available. Thinking about FFVII, but it eats up an insane amount of memory and we all know that's not free.

Still, i like the fact that I can play PS1 RPG's on my PSP while watching baseball/football (or recently, the olympics). once the Vita's capable I might look into it.

King Something: In totally unrelated news, Sony has announced a release date of 23 October for PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royal, a fighting game for the Vita and PS3 which is in absolutely no way, shape or form whatsoever a cheap knock-off of a certain popular franchise on one of their competitors' systems.

*snert*

That sounds about par for the course, doesn't it?


lordargent: The used game market that even existed back in the NES days with funcoland and its ilk.

OH GOD, FUNCOLAND

I remember that joint.

*shudders*


Nemo's Brother: That would actually be pretty poetic. I'm sure Hollywood is itching to 're-image' ET. Maybe it will still happen. I'm hoping a Michael Bay movie translation ultimately does it.

Uwe Boll, man.

If you're going to cause a collapse of stylistic suck, you might as well go all in.

I've got a psp.

I don't use it. I would love to be able to hook it into my ps3 and play games on the big screen, because I don't do enough traveling to use the bloody thing otherwise, and I'm not going to sit fiddling with the 1 inch screen while I have a 50" TV or a 30" monitor to do other things on, and can be much more comfortable in the process.

The vita just looked like a mass collection of features from other handhelds I've tried and hated, with proprietary memory and lockdown in the bundle. I might get one when they drop to 10$, but really, I'm just not interested in the thing. But I loathe touch screen games that attempt to be 'real' games and still use the touchscreen. I also loathe motion games that make me wiggle a stick etc. so I've avoided the Wii. Great mechanics for certain types of games (sports, angry birds, etc.) but I typically veer more to the rpg/shooter/action aisle, which means the touchscreen nonsense, and the wiggle a stick to spin attack hoopla, just irritated the piss out of me. I spent more time fumbling for my stylus, taking my hand off the control to do something and getting smacked for it, clearing grease stains off touchscreens because it's 100+ out and I'm sweating like a stuck pig but the iphone can't read my touches because of the salt/water I'm leaving, etc. than enjoying the game.

Maybe I'm just too set in my ways. I'm not railing against the dieing of the industry, I'm just getting older, and finding less interest in games as a whole. Especially when they require constant updating, subscriptions, DLC, and always want to find ways to nickel and dime me with stuff.

steamingpile: Dumb-Ass-Monkey: hej: dopeydwarf: It would help if they didn't stick with proprietary memory formats [..]

Doc Daneeka: The problem isn't that handhelds can't compete or don't have a place alongside smartphones and tablets. The problem is that Sony sucks.

Those. I've gotten tired of Sony as a company. It's unfortunate that there are actually a few interesting looking games for the Vita, because I've resolved not to buy it before it hit the store.

like TFA said, the 3DS has sold 20 million units. It may not be the overwhelming success that the DS initially was, but there is a pretty damn big user base there. Throw in backward compatibility, don't go apesh*t with the proprietary bullsh*t, and you'll get the sales.

Considering the previous units sold like 5 times that amount then even the 3DS is close to a failure. If I go to a boss and say our new product is only going to sell 1/5th of what the last one sold he will either fire you on the spot or send you to a psychiatrist for observation.

The 3DS is selling better than the original DS was at the same point in its life cycle.

The 3DS is far from a failure.