Journal RogueyWon's Journal: Thoughts ahead of the UK Vita launch
The Sony Vita is out next week, replacing the aging PSP. Regular readers of my slashdot posts or this journal will not be surprised to learn that I have a pre-order.
Before going any further, let me set out my stall and make two things clear:
1) I think that the Vita looks like a fantastic little machine and I cannot wait to own one.
2) I strongly expect the Vita to be a commercial failure.
To explain the latter point; I think that Apple and others have gone too far in defining people's price expectations for mobile gaming - and the functionality of mobile devices- for another "full priced games" dedicated gaming handheld to succeed. The 3DS is managing reasonable sales figures in Japan (still poor in the rest of the world) on the basis of the sort of massive, swinging price-cut that Nintendo has never had to make before. Its software sales, in global terms, remain pathetic. Indications from Japan are that the Vita is doing even worse. I would suspect that, for reasons of gaming tastes, the Vita will do slightly better internationally than in Japan, but I don't expect it to succeed.
I look at my 3DS games (Pilotwings, Ridge Racer, Dead or Alive, Zelda and Starfox) and consider their price; not one of those games cost me less than £35 and several of them cost me £40. How many of them were, on reflection, worth that? None of them. How many of them were worth half that? Maybe Dead or Alive and Zelda. At a push.
Now, ok, Nintendo don't have the best of records of offering value for money on games (they're often a bit content-light on first-party titles given the price tags), but still... when I can pick up relatively full-featured RPGs, platform games and shooters on my iPad for a couple of pounds, the 3DS price-points seem ludicrous.
Sony have been putting a lot of time and effort - quite understandably - into telling people that it's different with the Vita. That those titles which go out with a £40 price-tag will be direct equivalents to PS3 games with the same price-tag. Maybe they're right. But looking at the prices of their launch titles, I do wonder...
Uncharted is £40. Now that's a title which clearly falls into the bracket of "games supposed to be as good as they would be on the PS3". It's a big budget third person shooter - a genre which will benefit massively from twin analogue sticks and which, despite some hesitent attempts, nobody has managed to make work on a touch-screen device. Maybe they can make a case for that one.
But then Lumines is £35. Really? Because while Lumines on the PSP was great, we're a lot of years on from that now. Moreover, it's a genre where I could find any number of equivalents for just a couple of pounds each on my iPad.
Wipeout is £30. That's a lower price point, yes. But it's still higher than the price that Sony has been charging for downloadble Wipeout games on the PS3. That's always going to feel like gouging.
If I were in Sony's shoes, I might want to be defending the position that full-featured games on a par with their PS3 equivalents could sell at the same price point - that could be useful in encouraging third party developers to put the time and resource they need into making technically accomplished games. But below that top tier, I'd be getting much more aggressive. My view: Wipeout should be selling for £20 and Lumines for £10 or less. At those price points, they'd be starting to get competitive with the competition over in the App Store.
Anyway, enough about why I think the Vita (and 3DS) will ultimately fail. Time for a few thoughts on the machine itself; and why I'm looking forward to getting mine so much.
Dual analogue sticks - at last. This is a really, really major thing. It throws wide open the range of genres that the Vita can now comfortably accommodate. As with the full-sized home consoles, it should be able to provide a perfectly competent platform for pretty much any genre bar the RTS. Actually, no, scratch that qualification. It's by no means impossible that the rear touch-screen could be made into a servicable RTS controller. People have tried first and third person shooters on the PSP - they're awful. They've tried to imitate twin-stick shoot-em-ups. Those are even worse. I know that Nintendo have released an addon for the 3DS that adds a second analogue stick - but frankly, the success record of addons for consoles - let alone handhelds - is pitiful, so I don't expect that to ever be even vaguely relevant.
And those graphics and that screen - the PSP's screen was impressive when it launched. The Vita's is undeniably better. And it's big. The 3DS's screens are an improvement on the nasty ones in the original DS, but they're still far too small, relative to the size of the unit itself. I've had the chance - briefly - to see the Vita's screen in action and oh my word it is nice. The lack of headache-inducing 3D is... so far as I'm concerned, a major bonus.The Sony Vita is out next week, replacing the aging PSP. Regular readers of my slashdot posts or this journal will not be surprised to learn that I have a pre-order.
Anyway, I'll post some thoughts after picking the machine up next week.
Before going any further, let me set out my stall and make two things clear:
1) I think that the Vita looks like a fantastic little machine and I cannot wait to own one.
2) I strongly expect the Vita to be a commercial failure.
To explain the latter point; I think that Apple and others have gone too far in defining people's price expectations for mobile gaming - and the functionality of mobile devices- for another "full priced games" dedicated gaming handheld to succeed. The 3DS is managing reasonable sales figures in Japan (still poor in the rest of the world) on the basis of the sort of massive, swinging price-cut that Nintendo has never had to make before. Its software sales, in global terms, remain pathetic. Indications from Japan are that the Vita is doing even worse. I would suspect that, for reasons of gaming tastes, the Vita will do slightly better internationally than in Japan, but I don't expect it to succeed.
I look at my 3DS games (Pilotwings, Ridge Racer, Dead or Alive, Zelda and Starfox) and consider their price; not one of those games cost me less than £35 and several of them cost me £40. How many of them were, on reflection, worth that? None of them. How many of them were worth half that? Maybe Dead or Alive and Zelda. At a push.
Now, ok, Nintendo don't have the best of records of offering value for money on games (they're often a bit content-light on first-party titles given the price tags), but still... when I can pick up relatively full-featured RPGs, platform games and shooters on my iPad for a couple of pounds, the 3DS price-points seem ludicrous.
Sony have been putting a lot of time and effort - quite understandably - into telling people that it's different with the Vita. That those titles which go out with a £40 price-tag will be direct equivalents to PS3 games with the same price-tag. Maybe they're right. But looking at the prices of their launch titles, I do wonder...
Uncharted is £40. Now that's a title which clearly falls into the bracket of "games supposed to be as good as they would be on the PS3". It's a big budget third person shooter - a genre which will benefit massively from twin analogue sticks and which, despite some hesitent attempts, nobody has managed to make work on a touch-screen device. Maybe they can make a case for that one.
But then Lumines is £35. Really? Because while Lumines on the PSP was great, we're a lot of years on from that now. Moreover, it's a genre where I could find any number of equivalents for just a couple of pounds each on my iPad.
Wipeout is £30. That's a lower price point, yes. But it's still higher than the price that Sony has been charging for downloadble Wipeout games on the PS3. That's always going to feel like gouging.
If I were in Sony's shoes, I might want to be defending the position that full-featured games on a par with their PS3 equivalents could sell at the same price point - that could be useful in encouraging third party developers to put the time and resource they need into making technically accomplished games. But below that top tier, I'd be getting much more aggressive. My view: Wipeout should be selling for £20 and Lumines for £10 or less. At those price points, they'd be starting to get competitive with the competition over in the App Store.
Anyway, enough about why I think the Vita (and 3DS) will ultimately fail. Time for a few thoughts on the machine itself; and why I'm looking forward to getting mine so much.
Dual analogue sticks - at last. This is a really, really major thing. It throws wide open the range of genres that the Vita can now comfortably accommodate. As with the full-sized home consoles, it should be able to provide a perfectly competent platform for pretty much any genre bar the RTS. Actually, no, scratch that qualification. It's by no means impossible that the rear touch-screen could be made into a servicable RTS controller. People have tried first and third person shooters on the PSP - they're awful. They've tried to imitate twin-stick shoot-em-ups. Those are even worse. I know that Nintendo have released an addon for the 3DS that adds a second analogue stick - but frankly, the success record of addons for consoles - let alone handhelds - is pitiful, so I don't expect that to ever be even vaguely relevant.
And those graphics and that screen - the PSP's screen was impressive when it launched. The Vita's is undeniably better. And it's big. The 3DS's screens are an improvement on the nasty ones in the original DS, but they're still far too small, relative to the size of the unit itself. I've had the chance - briefly - to see the Vita's screen in action and oh my word it is nice. The lack of headache-inducing 3D is... so far as I'm concerned, a major bonus.The Sony Vita is out next week, replacing the aging PSP. Regular readers of my slashdot posts or this journal will not be surprised to learn that I have a pre-order.
Anyway, I'll post some thoughts after picking the machine up next week.
Thoughts ahead of the UK Vita launch More Login
Thoughts ahead of the UK Vita launch
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