PS vita: Success or failure.

General and high profile video game topics.
Leo1
Posts: 2325
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

PS vita: Success or failure.

Postby Leo1 » January 3rd, 2012, 7:53 pm

[QUOTE=Oltobaz]Piracy with the PSP was pretty much widespread anyways, and, by the time
the Vita hits western shores, sales will decline even more. Maybe this plan
was designed with piracy in mind, but it's not gonna stop what's already happening...[/QUOTE] 

It wasn't ever intended to stop what was already happening. But just because a small percentage (I really doubt more than 5% of those 70 million or so PSP's out there ever had custom firmware installed) of PSP owners have been routinely pirating software doesn't mean Sony's just going to make it as easy as pie for every consumer out there to do it in an officially condoned and impossible to stop manner on their latest handheld. And like I said, even if they were willing to do so, there isn't a 3rd party publisher of any size out there that would ever agree to it for obvious reasons.

There's no way to render a UMD useless since the disc isn't rewritable. There would be no way to break it from working short of physically damaging the disc. And, as far as I'm aware, we still don't have 3rd party UMD devices for the Go. So I highly doubt we'd ever get any for the Vita, although I fully expect it to be cracked someday with it easy to put any UMD disc image you want on to it (Ala PSOne disc images on the PSP).

Sony was stuck between a rock and a hard place where PSP compatibility is concerned. I think they did about as well as could be hoped for (Giving UMD owners a break where possible on cost, and making it fully compatibility with digital PSP purchases).

Oltobaz1
Posts: 1605
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

PS vita: Success or failure.

Postby Oltobaz1 » January 4th, 2012, 2:23 am

That's right, I forgot about the non rewritable aspect of UMD, still, such a
device could let you read games on your Vita the same way we are with a
regular UMD PSP, no need for actual transfers or copying. Chances are we won't see anything of the sort from Sony, as such an accessory would be deemed expensive, that'd be nice though, I'd welcome such a move, and I'm sure a lot of people would. Besides, how expensive would it retail? 50/60 bucks? A bargain, considering all the games it would give you access to. Their plan might be geared against piracy, very well, such an accessory wouldn't be a pirate tool or anything. It would be the equivalent of the Master System adaptor for the Genesis. Of course, the accessory could hamper the system's portability a little, not an issue when playing on your couch, and I'm sure designers could come up with some clever designs. Hey, they created the walkman.

Luke

PS vita: Success or failure.

Postby Luke » January 4th, 2012, 3:20 am

I'm still kinda surprised that Sony never figured out a way to connect a PSP to the PS3 through a USB or Bluetooth connection and have the PSP be the slave device while the PS3 is the master and plays and reads all the content on the PSP and displays it on your home television at full screen. Sorta like Remote Play, but in reverse?

A lot of people liked the ability to play their PSP games on their home tv through use of a component cable on the later PSP models. But being restricted to using the PSP as the controller was kinda inconvenient and cumbersome. Also, the PSP video only filled about half of your tv screen which the majority of people complained about. You could use the "stretch" feature on your tv (if it has that option) to help fill the screen, but of course many of the people who did this said that the video looked very poor afterwards. So a lot of times they would just leave it at its normal, smaller box size.

The ability to connect your PSP to your PS3 and use the PS3's controller and hard-drive for game saves would have really invigorated PSP system and game sales though, which in turn would have helped kept the UMD format alive.

Hopefully, Sony will find a way for the Vita to interface 100% with the PS3 via USB or Bluetooth. Then I think sales will skyrocket

Leo1
Posts: 2325
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

PS vita: Success or failure.

Postby Leo1 » January 4th, 2012, 4:46 am

[QUOTE=Oltobaz]...such a device could let you read games on your Vita the same way we are with a regular UMD, no need for actual transfers or copying.[/QUOTE]

I'm not sure many people would really want a bulky add-on for a handheld (Especially here in North America where the PSP is already barely a blip on people's radar). And at that point, it really starts to become questionable over just what benefit you're gaining over just keeping something like a PSP3000 around for the occasional PSP game. I'd rather have two slim and comfortable handhelds than a single handheld that does both but is bulky and uncomfortable.

Still, I suppose they could. Rumors swirled a few years ago over just such an accessory for the Go. Wish it had happened so I could've used a PS3 controller and tv-out with my UMD collection instead of resorting to buying downloads to accomplish it. But at least I have dowloadable games to stick on to a Vita someday thanks to it...

[QUOTE=Luke]I'm still kinda surprised that Sony never figured out a way to connect a PSP to the PS3 through a USB or Bluetooth connection and have the PSP be the slave device while the PS3 is the master and plays and reads all the content on the PSP and displays it on your home television at full screen. [/QUOTE]

Not sure if there would be adequate bandwidth over USB. And even if there was with a Bluetooth connection (Which I doubt, I've only ever seen it used for things like controller signals and voice communications), the PSP1000/2000/3000 lack BlueTooth capabilities. I'd rather they improved the PS3's PSP emulator. So far, it's only capable enough to play PSP Minis. If they worked to improve that, I'd love to able to play my other PSP downloads on my PS3 someday. But sadly, they appear to have no plans to continue to work on it.

[QUOTE=Luke]But being restricted to using the PSP as the controller was kinda inconvenient and cumbersome. [/QUOTE]

While it doesn't resolve the scaling issues (Not to mention the different pixel proportions on a PSP screen which results in making it impossible to maintain the correct 16:9 aspect ratio of a PSP game on a tv since tv's have differently shaped pixels than a PSP's screen), the PSP Go does offer PS3 controller support thanks to its BlueTooth capabilities.

Using a controller with tv/out is precisely why I own a Go and several downloads. But if these touch screens work out like Sony hopes they will, I don't think we will ever get tv/out capabilities on the Vita (Which is why I'm hoping they get about as much use as the SixAxis motion capabilities of a PS3 controller have).

Oltobaz1
Posts: 1605
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

PS vita: Success or failure.

Postby Oltobaz1 » January 4th, 2012, 9:04 am

Yeah, I can see Sony coming up with such a device as a Japan only
release, with no immediate plans for the rest of the world. Of course,
both PSP and Ps Vita are region free, which means you could potentially
import the adaptor and use it on a US/European Vita. Of course, there's nothing
coming up right now, let's what happens, if anything at all.
While it would definitely make the system a little bit bulkier, I don't think the
adaptor would end up being very big. The adaptor would consist of passive circuitry mostly, and would somehow clip on the Vita like the Master Gear adaptor does with the Game Gear, only much thinner.

Stephen

PS vita: Success or failure.

Postby Stephen » January 14th, 2012, 12:46 am

They have alot to to complete with, mario kart, mario, sonic generations, and many more great games.

0-Storm

PS vita: Success or failure.

Postby 0-Storm » January 14th, 2012, 8:08 pm

[QUOTE=Roger Maddox]

Undermining of retail games sales with sametime downlaod sales - why would a retailer even want to sell it? They might never see a return sale. And the download games are still expensive and often require additional payments to play online or to get the 'full' game.
[/QUOTE]

Sounds like exactly what I DON'T want.

I love my Gamecube Gameboy Player. I love using the Gamecube controller to play GBA games. I can't understand why Sony didn't take advantage of having a Console & Portable out at the same time. They could've integrated the PSP with the PS3. It could've been like having two systems that could interact with each other. It could've been awesome & something that Microsoft couldn't compete with. Too bad it didn't happen.

Luke

PS vita: Success or failure.

Postby Luke » January 14th, 2012, 9:01 pm

Sony shipped 500,000 units and they've sold 500,000 units.

Where does the failure part come in?

Oltobaz1
Posts: 1605
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

PS vita: Success or failure.

Postby Oltobaz1 » January 15th, 2012, 12:46 am

I was perusing through some hardcore parisian video games stores
the other day, some had actually imported the Japanese Vita. Right now,
if you want one, you've got to shell out 399 €, and it's yours. I noticed
one store had one for sale at 600€, even! Think I'll wait till the official release
date, though I suspect they'll eventually lower these prices as February 22nd
is drawing near. It does look super attractive, the game boxes look like small
and slim Blu Ray cases, it all feels ultra sleek!

JWK1
Posts: 904
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

PS vita: Success or failure.

Postby JWK1 » January 15th, 2012, 9:46 am

This is a part of every console's launch period; the system doesn't set the world on fire immediately and everyone-- EVERYONE-- does the doom and gloom thing and says the system will never recover.  Heck, we still have people on this forum-- on this very THREAD-- that are saying the 3DS was and is a failure.  That makes me laugh quite a bit that they are able to type that with a straight face (well, maybe they aren't keeping a straight face... how would we know, right?).  Here's the facts; The 3DS has sold almost 15 million units worldwide, according to the most recent sales info on VGChartz.  (Here's the link:  http://www.vgchartz.com/ - look at the top, it shows 15.1 M currently).  They do fudge some of their numbers but they've never been off by more than 0.5 million units when it comes to console sales.  Worst case scenerio, it has sold 14.6 million worldwide to date and it hasn't even been out a year.  So, where are the "doom and gloom" guys now?  Either they are happy in their ignorance or they're all currently eating crow.  15.1 M in 10 months is better than any console launch from 2005 until now... yes including the Wii, 360, and even the mighty DS.  We had this conversation starting back in November/October 2010 how the 3DS was going to be the Virtual Boy 2 and downfall of Nintendo and those implications continued until Summer 2011.  I'm not going to be an "I told you so" kind of guy, but.... well... I don't know how to finish that sentence.

So where do we go from the 3DS?  We doom the Vita to failure.  I'll admit that anything can happen, but since when is selling 500K units at $250 a pop PLUS a memory card between $30 and $100 a pop PLUS games between $30 and $50 a... BAD thing?  Oh yeah, and that's in a single region of the world.  Oh yeah, and that's with a lineup that's geared more toward the West than it is its native Japan.  It may take a price drop like the 3DS (I hope so, that would be awesome!), but I think the system will be just fine.  Yes the economy is down, but there IS a market for the system.  If Sony can survive a $600 launch of the PS3, they can survive a $250 handheld (same price as PSP).  

And concerning the original poster, no the PSP was not a failure.  If you take the sales of every other non-Nintendo handheld system in history and double it, that's how much the PSP sold (actually, it's more than that).  It was outsold by the DS by 2:1, but does that mean Sony didn't make any money on the system?  Think about it.  It's not a failure in any stretch of the imagination.  And if you look on that VGChartz link again, you'll see the PS3 has sold 60 M units compared to 360's 64 M.  So much for collecting dust.  I'm wondering how much people research or even think about what they're about to say before they post it here.


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