Topic: Shuhei Yoshida: Climate "not Healthy" for Vita Successor

@Grumblevolcano: I'm sure Nintendo will try to push it. They want/need Yokai Watch to take off in the west in order to have it be a strong franchise for their handhelds in the future outside of Japan. It doesn't have to take the west by storm the way Pokemon did in the late 90s, but it needs to be at least moderately successful at first.

Thankfully, Nintendo and Level 5 aren't alone. Disney is in on this as they're showing the anime dub on Disney XD, while I believe Hasbro is taking care of merchandise.

Anyways, Shu is completely right when he says the climate isn't healthy. Whether we like it or not, the mobile market has caused the handheld market to HEAVILY contract. The 3DS has sold 55 million units and the Vita has sold 12 million units. That's 67 million combined. Their combined sales are below that of the GBA's lifetime sales (80 million).

The handheld market will probably contract again next generation. What's left of it is Nintendo's. There's just no point in Sony releasing another handheld.

Nintendo is going to have quite the uphill battle with the NX, which is almost certainly an ecosystem.

@IceClimbers: Well... to be fair, this dedicated handheld gaming handheld generation hasn't ended yet. When all is said and done, I'm guessing the combined sales numbers of both the Vita and the 3DS would be well closer to the lifetime sales of the GBA. I wouldn't tie the rope just yet.

How many of those:

• Aren't ports?
• Are aren't shoddy?

If that isn't 'effort', then I do not know what is!

Just for clarification, last game(that I remember, which may place them in a worse situation if it wasn't) they made and published themselves on the platform was Tearaway....back in 2013. Yep there's definitely some effort in that

Regardless of whether the handheld market is shrinking, it still doesn't change the fact that Sony did a poor job handling the console, expensive proprietary memory cards, little support from the console manufacturer, releasing virtually almost every game on the library on the PS3/PS4, etc. It's become an incredibly niche platform, who's main audience has become people interested mainly in JRPGs(which is already niche in and of itself) and indies

I'm still waiting for the memory cards to become cheaper so I can at least have all my games on the system at the same time.

Vita is an impressive piece of hardware. I would have purchased it if they released a streaming product to TVs at launch. It feels like a hand held PS2/PS3 in some games. I hope someone in the next hand held revision makes a system that's powerful and yet can be streamed to the TV. ( I know the vita can with a ps4 but we need something cheaper )

Freedom Wars and Soul Sacrifice Delta were both SCEJ games released in 2014. MLB 15: The Show was developed by the Sony San Diego studio and out earlier this year, though that was multiplat.

List is a little better if you include all games published by SCE though, which you should be. Games don't need to be internally developed or even IP owned by Sony to count as 1st party support. You wouldn't exclude Bayonetta 2 from a list of Nintendo's support for the Wii U, would you?

Normally I don't cite Kotaku, but I feel this is worth putting here - http://kotaku.com/mobile-gaming-didnt-kill-the-vita-sony-did-...

Forgot about those games, though I'm kinda not surprised I did, this kinda just reconfirms my point that Sony did a poor job getting Vita games noticed, especially considering Soul Sacrifice Delta and Freedom Wars already look like "under the radar" games

Also remembered RE Revelations 2 was also published by Sony this year, but by the time it came everyone had already gotten it on every other platform available

@Megas75: Unfortunately, or maybe it was my (incorrect) way of reading your original message, I imagined your meaning of Sony 'trying to support it' was in respect of not trying when the handheld was first out of the gates. From 2014 onwards, yes, Sony begun to shy away from their own product and became an 'indie game' machine from there onwards.

I still maintain that Sony did pretty well in their first year, especially the first six months (I was unaware of the list including ports as I am primarily a Nintendo gamer, you see) as it was strong enough for a Nintendo fan like me to buy it!

The Kotaku article you posted hits the nail on the head in most cases, and it slightly crumbles my opinions of the PS Vita having a pretty health first two years too.

On the other hand, I think that whilst Sony could have done more for the PS Vita, Shu isn't wrong in saying that the climate is 'unhealthy' for a successor because he is right! The era of smartphones and tablets have swiped (ha ha) away a big chunk of a portable gaming audience.

The 3DS continues to do 'okay' in the grand scheme of things, but whatever handheld Nintendo comes up with next time, if they indeed do, it will have a much harder time of things than the original DS and 3DS ever had.

@Peek-a-boo: I doubt it. If anything, Nintendo is fully aware that they need to compete with smartphones so they will do what smartphones can't do.

Here's the thing. The Vita can even have the same graphic power as the PSP and it still wouldn't outsell the 3DS. We saw with sales of the DS that raw power alone won't sell a system. If anything, its how they make it easier to develop games on. The PSP did a stupid thing of adding optical discs and the Vita's main issue is the price. Unless Sony understands how the handheld market works, they can't really make a handheld that can come close to the ones Nintendo makes.

If the NX is to be unified and acts as both a console and a handheld, then Sony will be in big trouble as it literally can't compete with such thought.

Not saying that Nintendo will win but its a mere fact. I mean, how else is Nintendo dominating the handheld market in the first place?

@Morpheel dude, its not worth waiting. While I do encourage consumers having hope in something, the fact that Sony themselves said that they won't support the Vita says otherwise.

By recognizing that people don't buy handhelds to play mediocre versions of console games. The handheld audience and console audience are two distinct groups of consumers. You can't just take your console's greatest hits, source some handheld spin-offs to your B-studios, and market the system to people who already own the console versions.

When the highlight of your launch library is Uncharted: Golden Abyss developed by a studio that hasn't had a notable release since the PS1, released in the wake of Uncharted 3 for console, you're setting your portable system up for failure right out of the gate. The Wii U had a similar problem (replace "mediocre spin-offs" with "poorly optimized late ports"), but at least their dumb Mario game was developed by EAD themselves and there were a couple other notable releases.

Keeping in mind though that Nintendo didn't come up with their handheld killer app until 1996, its 7th year on the market. Before Pokemon, people were buying Game Boys to play Tetris.

@artwark: well, by support I mostly meant let it live a few more years and let other developers make games for it.

Seconded.

@Peek-a-boo: The 3DS is doing 'OK' because of the slow sales it had initially. If Nintendo can prevent itself from making the mistakes that the 3DS had at launch (high price, game drought, etc), I don't see why the next handheld can't easily live up to the sales of the 3DS. Heck, marketing alone could sell the next system (ala PS4 and Wii).

@SpookyMeths: Tetris for Game Boy was something that Nintendo themselves were part of making so they do own that version and they later on decided to make that as a launch title before Super Mario Land thus making it a killer app.

And um...not to say that you're entirely wrong but both a console and a handheld have share of quality and mediocre games.

Also, some console versions ported to handhelds can do well if done right. Sonic Colors for example.

Super Mario Land was a launch game in Japan, Tetris was not.
Nintendo simply realized Tetris was better suited as a portable pack-in game than Mario. While Mario Land was good (if fairly easy), Tetris had more long-term playability and in short term than a Mario game.

Earlier Sega had included Sonic the Hedgehog as a Game Gear pack-in, going the obvious mascot pack-in route (and in making one rather infamous bad ad, compared the two to make GG the "cooler" portable), but even later on they switched it to Super Columns to compete. (though I don't know how "super" Super Columns was over the original, I'd say that while Columns in an alright puzzle game I still like Tetris a little better)