Are you a Vita Gamechanger?

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

SCEA's new Vita campaign is a #gamechanger - NeoGAF



Oh god.... Sony will do everything but do what needs to be done to help the Vita. Basically, this "initiative" is asking you to do all the work for Sony in selling the PS Vita, if you convince your friends to get a Vita and they refer you, you both get a $20 PSN gift card.

Sounds nice in theory, but its asking customers to become salesmen and does nothing to lower the price of the Vita, its atrociously-priced memory cards or bolster its anemic library. Were I to get a Vita, sure, I would refer a friend that owned one - the problem is I'm still being asked to pay $300 to $350 upfront before games for a handheld with adequate memory.

That and finding a friend that owns a Vita. So far, I know Icemage owns one and he dissuades people from investing til there are more games.

This time last year, for 3DS, Kid Icarus and Resident Evil Revelations were just on the horizon and people were enjoying a new Mario game. Right now, for Vita there is nothing of note the horizon and very little with a solid release date - and this is Sony's answer to the problem. Its treating a broken leg with a band-aid. Sony really is in their N64 phase now - tight-lipped, arrogant and acting like there isn't a problem in the world with them.

[Armando]

Re: Are you a Vita Gamechanger?

[Ketaru]

Re: Are you a Vita Gamechanger?

I can't even call that kind of desperation "thinly-veiled".

[Malacite]

Re: Are you a Vita Gamechanger?

And they wonder why they're hemorrhaging money...

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Are you a Vita Gamechanger?

I don't think they wonder, I think they just don't believe the Titanic hit and iceberg.

This really isn't what they should be doing right now. While 2012 wasn't mindblowing for 3DS by any stretch it was a big turnaround. Right now Vita is up against a 3DS that's getting some really heavy hitters and great niche titles this year - and niche developers like Atlus and WayForward are starting to make it clear they're favoring Nintendo.

Just look at this list:

CV: Lords of Shadow: Mirror of Fate
Ace Attorney 5
Fire Emblem Awakening
SMT: Devil Summoner Soul Hackers
Etrian Odyssey IV
Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon
Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate
Animal Crossing New Leaf
Shin Megami Tensei IV
Project X Zone
Dragon Quest VII
Pokemon X/Y

This is a slaughter.The only Vita games I can think of right now on the horizon are Soul Sacrifice, Sly 4, PSO2 and Dragon's Crown - and three of those are undercut by PS3 and PC versions.

And who knows what else Nintendo themselves have up their sleeve for the second half of 2013? They said on Nintendo Direct Smash Bros. would be playable for Wii U and 3DS by E3. We know they've been pondering Majora's Mask 3D. Wind Waker Reborn happened, after all.

I'd love to have a Vita, pretty much just on the merit of access to all but one Persona game and a slew of downloadable PS1 and PSP RPGs. Sony just doesn't want to do what's needed to get people like me to bite. Its do or die time and they're still dicking around and trying to avoid a price drop on hardware and memory.

[Firewind]

Re: Are you a Vita Gamechanger?

I don't get why people are freaking out about a referral system. Mobile phone stores and providers do stuff like this all the time in Europe. I actually made back half of the cost of my iPhone by referring friends to the store I bought it from when their contracts were up. Fanboys will be fanboys I guess.

You also forgot the upcoming Ratchet and Clank which is a PSN exclusive in the US with no EU or JP release date. And also Persona 4 Golden for the EU. I didn't actually import that because I want to support NISA, who are publishing the game over here and I far prefer them to handle it than Ghostlightshite (Look at the P4 Arena debacle) or Square-Enix (who always neglect third party titles from a rival company). I don't mind dodging a couple of superficial post-game spoilers if it means I can upport a company that is actually competent at publishing games and is more than willing to ship its games to the EU and use those import figures to judge the success of a game in the EU. NISA is awesome and I love importing games from them.

Also that list of games you posted for the 3DS aren't coming out in the EU for a while and the console is region locked. I think out of those, only Monster Hunter is coming out there I think. The only 3DS game we have coming out that is even decent soon will be Devil Survivor Overclocked (two years late thanks go Ghostlight!). There is a good reason why both platforms are getting slaughtered by the modile market here and the lack of upcoming releases for the 3DS does reflect that. While the Vita doesn't have that many more games coming out, it is still region free and importing is far, far cheaper. The problem that they both have is that Mobile gaming and Steam are even cheaper still. Square Enix does seem to be learning though and they are really pushing their games on Steam and on iOS which to be honest, both Sony and Nintendo should be doing.

And the price for the Vita isn't bad in the US, a quick Amazon search turned one up at $250 with is stupidly cheap compared to over here where we are paying $325 for one without memory or games. Amazon does have the Bundles though which are nice where you get a memory card and a game download code. Sadly it's only a 4GB card though so you can only get 2-3 Vita games on there.

The main problem with the Vita is the price of memory, the Vita has a great base for digital distribution but the price for memory cards really does need to come down. It's a shame because there are so many great games on the PSN store and if you sub to Playstation Plus, Vita games go up there for free all the time. A fair few PS3 games are also coming out with download codes to get the Vita version for free too. There's a ton of great PSOne classics and also access to the entire PSP Library. Having Persona 1-4 (as soon as 4 comes out here) and FFIV-XI, FFT, Vagrant Story, Wild Arms, Valkyria Chronicles 2 and a massive chunk of the Metal Gear Solid series on one handheld console? That is fucking amazing and current blows what the 3DS is offering over here out of the water (shovelware that you can get on iOS for less, yet another Mario Kart and yet another "New" New New Super Mario Bros).

Unfortunately Sony is suffering from poor execution. They have a great console in the Vita and the library is there if you check PSN. The problem is is that they should really allow third party companies to make the memory. The 32 GB card is $90 in the UK and for a Class 4 SD card that is a shit price to be honest. Allowing someone like Sandisk to make them will push down the price and Sony will still collect royalties on the patent anyway. Even taking a loss on the cards is viable, the 32GB cards can hold a lot of games since Vita, PSP and PSOne games are very small. Selling one of those cards for £40 ($60) wouldn't impact profits too much (since most of that is probably mark up anyway) and it wouldn't take long before those downloaded games start making up for any (debatable) losses that they would make.

Problem is is that Sony really seems too afraid to actually compete so I don't see this happening.

[Ketaru]

Re: Are you a Vita Gamechanger?

Resident Evil: Revelations is not a Vita gamechanger, apparently.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Are you a Vita Gamechanger?

That on top of the fact Capcom USA quashed all fan-made rumors of Monster Hunter 4 coming to Vita.

Capcom doesn't seem to want to touch the thing. Revelations is even coming to Wii U and that's hardly seen any third party traction yet.

[Ketaru]

Re: Are you a Vita Gamechanger?

When did people stop producing exclusively for one system or another? Around the ending of PS2's hay day I suppose. Multiplatform releases is the norm rather than the exception these days. Odds are every person owns at least one of those systems other than the Vita so the outrage isn't from possibly being denied the opportunity to play it.

Kind of funny since we're talking about Ni no Kuni in the other thread, which is a PS3 exclusive. Sounds strange, but the possibility of Ni no Kuni being released domestically was one of the factors that influenced my decision to get a PS3 early last year. Can't say whether the game will find success or not yet, although I hope it does. It would take something exclusive like that to make people want to buy a system.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Are you a Vita Gamechanger?

Oh, I'm not saying exclusives don't matter at all, but as I look back at all the 360 and PS3 games I've owned, maybe one or two between them were first-party at best. Halo 4 and Ico/SotC collection. The Last Guardian I would have counted, but that's pretty much vaporware now.

I guess you could say outside of those IPs, not much MS and Sony do speaks to me. Its probably something to do with growing up with Nintendo and Sega, but I can't help but feel stuff like Fable and Uncharted are rather bland. Well, OK, I do like No Heroes allowed on PSP, but that's Sony Japan being allowed to be weird and Sony America is run by cowards (I'd hurl the same accusation at NOA, but they don't make games there)

Everything else I bought on those systems was third party so, yeah, I'll just work on building a PC to go with a Wii U and 3DS, possibly Vita. Gamestop has some fairly decent trade-in deals going on today so maybe I'll just take a shot at getting a Wii U or Vita or just pay off more 3DS games. I'm having a little SMT MaraThon right now anyway.

[Ketaru]

Re: Are you a Vita Gamechanger?

Yeah. I just believe that if anything will save the Vita, it would have to be exclusives. People are getting all riled up because a multiplatform game won't be on the Vita. Resident Evil: Revelations not being on Vita certainly doesn't help the cause. But it's omission is hardly going to adversely affect the system, seeing as anybody who wants to play it isn't going to run out to buy a Vita just to play it. They'll play it on one of their myriad of other systems they already have. If this did any damage at all, it's that it effectively conveyed that Capcom doesn't have any faith in the Vita, although they won't say it quite like that.

[Icemage]

Re: Are you a Vita Gamechanger?

Even as a Vita owner I discourage people from buying one until there's a better reason to own one. I'm an "omnivorous gamer" and so the offerings on the Vita make me happy, but not everyone is as enthusiastic about virtually all gaming genres as I am, and for anyone with more limited tastes in gaming, there's definitely not enough on offer here unless you supplement heavily with some other device (tablet, 3DS, home console, etc.).

For me on a personal level, Persona 4 Golden, Gravity Rush, and Uncharted: Golden Abyss were good enough to justify my purchase, and everything else was just icing on the cake, but that's obviously going to be a minority opinion. The price of the hardware (and esp. the memory cards) needs to come down, and it definitely needs more software.

This sort of lame attempt at marketing by turning owners into Amway isn't going to get Sony anywhere, and they should have known better, but I'm guessing they figured it was worth a try. LOL.


Icemage

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Are you a Vita Gamechanger?

Well, if a miracle happens and I can swing a PS Vita and pay off Fire Emblem, I'll refer you. Nice thing about being seasonal and having friends at gamestop is they'd do something like let me exchange lolBlack Ops out of its bundle and switch it out with Persona 4 Golden.

Not counting my chickens before they hatch, though. My chances are better of just walking out with a copy of P4G without the Vita. Or Just get a Wii U if the credit is there. Probably best I wait and see if Sony breaks down after this initiative is over.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Are you a Vita Gamechanger?

Meh, turns out i was just shy of a new Vita or Wii U and no used Vitas were in sight, so I just put it all on DS and 3DS stuff.

[Firewind]

Re: Are you a Vita Gamechanger?

Putting off getting a Wii U was probably a good call. I personally think that getting any console within the first 12 months of release is a bad idea, it gives some time for any hardware kinks to be ironed out and the games library to grow a bit.

It's especially true with Nintendo given how many different versions are out and they may well announce some kind of "Wii U Lite XXL Eaglehammerthrust i" or something in 12 months time. Sony and Microsoft do it too but Nintendo is the only one that brings out 3-4 different versions of the same console during the lifetime.