back to article Sony admits PSPs will not fly off shelves, says phones and PS3s will

Sony has said that it doesn't think it will be able to sell as many of its portable game devices - PSP and Vita - as it had hoped. In August, the Japanese electronics firm said it reckoned it could shift 12 million game devices this fiscal year, but it reduced its forecast to 10 million in its quarterly earnings announcement …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Here's a thought - if they want to sell more vitas then why not give customers what they really want: cheaper consoles.

    Instead of which they bring out pointless new colour schemes...

    1. wowfood

      And proprietary memory formats. I refuse to pay £60 for a 32gig memory card when I can get a 64gig microSD card for less than that.

      Hell I can get a 32gig UHS-1 memory card for £20

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        LOL

        More clueless idiots.

        The reason they don't use standard memory cards, the SD (and MicroSD) formats don't support on card hardware encryption/decryption.

        The cards used in vita are a variation on MagicGate, which supports encryption and decryption.

        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MagicGate

        Without it, anyone would be able to clone SD cards and get free games. And that's bad from a commercial point of view. Sorry if it conflicts with your freetard, "everything should be free" view.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: LOL

          believing things should be cheaper != thinking they should be free

          As for using standard cards Nintendo seem to have found a way of doing it with SD cards. Sony's inability to do the same really should not be our problem.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: LOL

            And look at the piracy rate on Nintendo handhelds...

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: LOL

              Compare the sales figures of 3DSs to Vitas.

              If you concentrate on anti-piracy too much and ignore the impact on customers then you'll end up creating a system or game that few people will want, regardless of how much of a good idea you think your course of action might be.

              And no, I don't expect stuff for free, but I don't expect to be shafted each time I go looking for a new memory card either.

  2. Buzzword

    Who needs a portable games console these days, when your cheap Android smartphone provides a similar experience at zero marginal cost? App store games are much cheaper than PSP games too.

    1. DragonKin37
      Holmes

      The decline is staggering indeed, unless Sony is willing to do what Nintendo did with the 3DS then the VITA is doomed like the PSP-GO. Tablet gaming is becoming a more viable option, but the real profit and money for the game devs still come from their sales of games on 3DS'es and VITA's. My opinion handheld consles in the near future only attract the hardcore gamers, for example Neo-Geo owners.

    2. MJI Silver badge

      Games

      OK, my favourite games series include Uncharted, where is the phone Uncharted game?

      Where is the phone Killzone game? Little Big Planet game?

      I would rather play a game with a Nathan Drake or a Sack Boy in it.

    3. wheelybird

      Just not true

      The whole point of the Vita is that it's a portable console with proper controls. You can't compare playing Temple Run or Angry Birds to playing Assassin's Creed or LittleBigPlanet on the Vita. Trying to control a game using virtual controls is awful, and I'm sure you can't get joypad peripherals for your phone, but they're not widely supported or are ever likely to be.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      and 1/100th of the size/quality.

      Pretty naive to think a 99p game is even close to what the Vita delivers...

      The Vita plays full console games, with many hours of gameplay.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: and 1/100th of the size/quality.

        "The Vita plays full console games, with many hours of gameplay."

        While that maybe true, I'm not sure having hours of gameplay is something the average user wants. Generally they want something to fill the odd 5 - 10 minute gap, which a bit of Fruit Ninja or Angry Birds can do (not that those sorts of games are my cup of tea). I don't think people want to lug a bulky Vita or 3DS around these days when their phone can do a fairly decent job.

        1. MJI Silver badge

          Re: and 1/100th of the size/quality.

          Well boys would want something more interesting when on a long trip, or early evening when the TV is in use, or I am on the PS3. Or on holiday before bed.

          Five minute games, they do not interest me either, I want to either sit in front of the TV, or a PC, not a touch screen phone.

          Last portable game I played myself was Killzone Liberation, quite fun, 5 minutes or so a level, not a long time, same device was a godsend when I was in hospital last year with Motorstorm Arctic Edge.

          My mobile is OK as a camera, but I would not fancy playing a game on it, even though it is a touchscreen smart phone.

  3. wowfood

    All they need

    Launch sony phones with a set format (similar to apple) for a few years keep the same screen dimenions, and external dimensions.

    Launch a microUSB adon that wraps a d-pad and face buttons around the phone.

    Hey look, it's a psp!

    I just hope that their "PS certified" phone platform gets approved for use with OUYA. Doubtful but we'll see.

  4. Mike Brown

    Ive got a Vita

    and its great. Really great. Console quality graphics, on hand held, with real controls. Dosnt get much better.

    I really hope sony do somthing cool with the cross play stuff, and remote play, the potential is there.

    1. wowfood

      Re: Ive got a Vita

      I remember playing it at eurogamer last year. I will agree the console itself is amazing. Both the hardware and even the games on it. It's just the cost that puts most people off.

      Why pay £200 for a handheld console and memory card, when you can get a decent mobile phone for the same price which not only plays games, but also makes phonecalls?

      And why buy a handheld console for £200, when the main console costs less? A handheld shouldn't cost more than the home console. It just doesn't work.

      Look at DS, it was hugely popular and launched at half the price (near enough) of the main console, which came out 2 years later. And I'm pretty sure it was similar with the gameboy etc.

      But having the handheld more than the main console, just doesn't work. Even though you know the hardware is on par / better the mind just won't accept it costing more.

      Now if they'd launched it for christmas this year at a slightly lower price point, and at the same time announced the PS4 launch and expected price, it would have probably done much better, since they (customers) will start comparing its price to the new console, rather than the old one.

      1. Shonko Kid
        Alien

        Mobility costs

        What planet have you been living on? Are the laptops there cheaper than similar spec desktops?

        Plus the hardware in the Vita is pretty much bleeding edge, the PS3 is a dinosaur compared to it. if it's any consolation, when the PS4 does show up it will cost more than the Vita.

    2. Matt_payne666

      Re: Ive got a Vita

      the vita experience is head and shoulders over any phone, and I was truly envious with a friends device.... but the game support has been typical sony handheld... dire! the headline games are still pretty much the headline games from launch!

      1. MJI Silver badge

        Re: Game for Christmas

        Well we already have listed to get the following

        Uncharted Golden Abyss

        Gravity Rush

        LBP Vita

        AC III Liberation

        Little Deviants

        (That B&W game)

        Unit 13

        That is enough to get for now

  5. MJI Silver badge

    Perhaps Christmas will help

    Currently saving up for the Twins Christmas presents, no birthday presents this year.

    What are we getting?

    Two Vitas

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Perhaps Christmas will help

      I hope that they're patient gamers. Have you seen how long levels in some games like Wipeout take to load?

      Where kids are concerned a 3DS is probably a better option IMO - better game selection and more new ones coming out all the time. Compare that with the dire situation where the PS Vita is concerned.

      1. MJI Silver badge

        Re: Perhaps Christmas will help

        3DS doesn't interest them now, they are nearly 13 and rarely touch anything Nintendo now (DS and Wiii)

        They have tried Wipeout, UC:GA, and a few others in Game.

        They would rather play LBP than SMB

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Perhaps Christmas will help

          Then perhaps a PSP rather than PS vita is a better choice? Better prices, better range of games, better battery life and it plays LBP...

  6. Michael Habel
    FAIL

    S0NY need to press the format harder to the Devs something they never did for the PSP, cause they were to busy playing catch-up to Microsofts X360. e.g. the PS3 to actually care about the PSP. People got tired of waiting and hacked the PSP to ya know play Nintendo Advance Games on the PSP. Perhaps ~some of the best Games~ that System ever saw. Side effect PSP Game piracy, adding more Fuel to an otherwise inferno. Absolutely no incentive to stay clean what so ever, and practically everything to gain.

    Is it any wonder why the massive throng of non fanboy PSP owners refuse to touch the Vita?

    Or, the Third Party Devs again for this matter.

    1) Lower the price.

    2) Hardware revision to use standard Memory.... (NOT GONNA HAPPEN!)

    3) Start to promote the damn thing. (Again... Not gonna happen.)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      3) Start to promote the damn thing. (Again... Not gonna happen.)

      It is interesting that pretty much any Game shop has a 3DS on display and in a playable state (and often an xbox 360 too), but I have yet to see a PS Vita on display anywhere in one of their shops. In fact the only place I've seen this on the high street is HMV, and you can't really do anything with them once they're switched on which kind of defeats the purpose of putting it there in the first place IMO.

      1. MJI Silver badge

        Our Game has a Vita on display

        And it sells them too - met a few customers while browsing

        1. asdf

          Re: Our Game has a Vita on display

          >met a few customers while browsing

          And not while buying? Hmm.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Our Game has a Vita on display @MJI

          Having the stock to sell isn't the problem.

          Persuading people that actually buying one is a good idea is however an issue, and is something that Sony seem to have a problem recognising.

          You'd have thought that after the likes of Betamax that Sony would at least understand that the technological superiority of a product does not necessarily guarantee it's success. VHS won that marketing war in that case, and whilst handhelds in general might be floundering Nintendo still seems to be doing better than Sony. Sony really aren't doing themselves any favours by making the cost of ownership higher by apparently trying to gouge customers on the cost of memory cards.

          And out of curiosity which store was this? I've been to a number of Game/Gamestation stores and none of them had Vitas on display.

  7. Wanda Lust
    FAIL

    Soneementia

    The men from Japan just don't get it.

    The core platform might be sexy good but everything around it is just bad, really, really, bad.

    The website: playstation.com or .net or whatever. An appalling morass of incoherent junk.

    The "strategy” of pricing for memory cards (not the game cards, just the add-on storage). Sorry, punters really don't like being taken for dicks. EPIC fail.

    I tried to help my son get some music onto his Vita this week: another EPIC fail. Obviously the memory card can't be plugged into any other PC like system; OK try mounting the device via USB, nope, not recognised; no way I'm installing a load of Sony bloat ware; revert to PLAN B - let's just put the music on your Android phone.....

    The men from Cupertino win, I think there's a couple of iPad Minis headin this way come the big roly poly scarlet besuited one.

  8. asdf
    FAIL

    long live the velveeta

    Lets take a minute and congratulate the Vita for selling 3k more units worldwide than the PSP last week (38k vs 35k). LOL FAIL.

    1. asdf

      Re: long live the velveeta

      By comparison the somewhat lackluster 3DS shifted 215,764 units. Almost 7x times more. Hahaha.

  9. Spotfist
    FAIL

    The Problem

    The problem with Sony is that they always seem to be a good few years behind the competition, they used to be on top during the Ps1 and Ps2 years but it's all just gone down hill from there. People were gagging for a portable playstation and Sony said no "we don't do that!" nintendo release the DS and boom Sony have a change of mind, far too late!

    People have been gagging for a phone to play PS1 games, again Sony say no "we don't do that", the mobile gaming market starts up and sony rush a crapy half baked phone. Now the market is HUGE and still nothing from Sony!

    Im seriously suspicious that my dad runs Sony as these are all the rubbish decisions a grumpy old man would make! My dad once told me that "video games are just a fad!"

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