There's a lot of talk of buyer’s remorse among PS Vita owners,
but don’t jump ship just yet, the vita could have a bright future ahead of it.
The console’s obvious problem is a lack of games. After launching with one of the strongest lineups in portable console history, which included the blockbuster Uncharted: Golden Abyss, new software has been a very rare commodity for Vita owners.
Although sales figures should have no impact on how much one
enjoys a product, a highly successful platform will draw increased investment from
high quality developers and publishers.
In terms of sheer potential the Vita is equipped to be a major
player in the handheld industry. The hardware is exceptionally designed to
stand the test of time. Graphically it’s more powerful than the competition. Integration
with the PS3 is definitely a draw, especially the ability to start the game on
one and continue the same save on another.
What the Vita needs is focus. It shouldn’t be sold as a multimedia
device; things like Netflix and Twitter should be a bonus, not a priority. We
already have other devices that do all these things better. What it needs to be
is the best place for triple-A quality, handheld gaming.
Vita’s success lies completely in how well it can be leveraged to
provide experiences that consumers can’t get anywhere else. Sony has a history
of providing high quality, innovative software for their consoles; games like inFamous,
Uncharted, Killzone, Resistance, Little Big Planet, MLB The Show etc. If they
can continue this trend on the Vita we have a lot to look forward to.
I was thinking of writing something along these lines - except only in a negative light. I am one who felt buyer's remorse with the Vita - I was expecting advertised features to be out of the box- instead some of those features were saved for E3 (?????). There's a general consensus that if PSP, PsOne, and minis were fully functional and not half-assed from the start, people would be spending more time with their Vita's while waiting for games to be released (like Gravity Rush and the upcoming Assassin's Creed, etc.) I agree wholeheartedly that the console - not just a handheld - has great potential and their mistakes with the PSP (focuses on everything else but gaming) will be the deciding factor on whether people will abandon ship. Should be about the games, not the apps!
ReplyDeleteThe PS3 launch was a major debacle for Sony. They seemed to have learned with the launch of the vita. It had an excellent software lineup and and a compelling price point, but it seems they cant avoid the mistakes that others committed in the past. The vita needs games, and it needs them now.
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