Author Topic: Sony out of the handheld business (Read 10580 times)

jamesensor · « **on:** September 29, 2015, 05:56:32 pm »

Check it out.

Quote

In case you're wondering, Sony has no intention of making another dedicated gaming handheld.

SCE Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida told the audience at EGX this weekend that, while he is a huge fan of PlayStation Vita, dedicated handheld gaming devices market is "not healthy" at the moment due to the overwhelming dominance of mobile devices.

"People have mobile phones and it's so easy to play games on smartphones," he explained, noting that it is hard for pricey PSP titles to compete with smartphone games which are mostly free or free to start.

"We worked really hard on designing every aspect. Touch-based games are fun. There are many games with really good design. But having sticks and buttons make things totally different," said Yoshida. "So I hope, like many of you, that this culture of playing portable games continues but the climate is not healthy for now because of the huge dominance of mobile gaming."

Source: http://megagames.com/news/sony-will-no-longer-make-gaming-handhelds

So I guess the market is somehow "sick".

lemmywinks · « **Reply #1 on:** September 29, 2015, 10:47:33 pm »

Hardly surprising, Sony still don't know the handheld market and without the 3rd party support the PSP had the Vita was doomed. Nintendo are doing well globally but they have great first party system sellers and some great 3rd party support due to the large install base. It's easy to blame the mobile market but if you're not making games that people want to play then they have no reason to buy your handheld, especially when you price gouge the essential memory cards and ditch support at the first opportunity.

SONY · « **Reply #2 on:** September 30, 2015, 12:26:25 am »

No surprises here.

jamesensor · « **Reply #3 on:** September 30, 2015, 06:23:40 am »

Such a closed device, no emulation, no homebrew easy to get, expensive, no great support I guess... specially in the app front, like browser compatibility, flash and etc like android or ios have every day.

And a hack free device wasn't the formula many thought to be needed for consoles achieving greatness in $$$ numbers at all. I don't believe silly quality games, as majority are in these os's, to have derailed the Vita too.

SONY · « **Reply #4 on:** September 30, 2015, 06:51:25 am »

R.I.P. Sony handhelds forever

Girl · « **Reply #5 on:** September 30, 2015, 07:52:22 am »

thank you for posting this half sad news

it would have been sadder but since these days any android phone can be turned into a gaming handheld, i'm not ultra sad over this

SONY · « **Reply #6 on:** September 30, 2015, 07:55:35 am »

Same here. Sony blames mobile gaming, but ultimately they killed PSP and Vita...imo.

lemmywinks · « **Reply #7 on:** September 30, 2015, 01:03:08 pm »

Well the PSP did pretty well and was near the end of it's life, they should have learned from the mistakes of the Go though - comparatively expensive digital distribution, large game sizes and hideously expensive proprietary storage is a poor mix. They saw the Micro SD - Pro Duo adapters and deliberately made it so this was impossible in later revisions, that's one way to make customers feel alienated and ripped off.

They're a company who can't afford a loss leader but instead of cutting the Vita back to what it actually needed they gouged the customer in other areas, ridiculous really as most of the time it's severely underclocked because of the crap battery and things like the rear touch panel are pretty much useless. Giving it weaker (but still capable) hardware and trimming the fat off the "features" would have made it more viable, they could have kept their proprietary storage for increased profit if they had priced it more keenly, like + 25% the cost of an equivalent Micro SD.

Also it needed more PS2 ports, games like Shadow of Colossus, Resi4, Silent Hill 2 etc could have been system sellers in the same way Majora's Mask and Ocarina have been on the 3DS.

SONY · « **Reply #8 on:** September 30, 2015, 04:59:11 pm »

^ I wholeheartedly agree with you, lemmy.
Also, the pathetic 512MB RAM was laughable.

Jayson · « **Reply #9 on:** September 30, 2015, 07:51:50 pm »

I'm just going to pretend that it's because it just couldn't handle existing in the same market as all these android handhelds. At least there were (from what I hear) some pretty awesome games for the Vita!

I think part of the problem they had was the ports of console games. If that's what the majority of people use it for, it kind of shrinks their audience down to people that are specifically looking for that experience.

lemmywinks · « **Reply #10 on:** September 30, 2015, 10:25:15 pm »

It had some decent games and the odd top tier title, the problem is that they weren't the type of games that make people go out and buy the console to begin with. I have no idea what Sony did in other regions but here in the UK they barely bothered promoting it, the only memorable advert was making it look more like a PS3/PS4 accessory for remote play.

It's like once it got past the release stage and didn't exactly take the work by storm they stopped caring about it. I guess Sony can only afford to focus on the PS4 which is their main revenue stream. The 3DS struggled at first but look at the staggered releases of Monster Hunter, the three Zelda games, Mario 3D Land & NSMB3, Smash Bros, Pokemon, Fantasy Life, Luigi's Mansion 2...... They also do very desirable themed consoles released with big games (the Majora's Mask is incredible!) to boost sales and garner attention, it's not like this is some new strategy that took Sony by surprise as they've always done this.

Japan got some sweet special edition Vita's though including the Final Fantasy and God Eater ones, just nothing for the West. Well that's not true actually, I remember the COD:Declassified one which kinda shows what they think of us over here!

SONY · « **Reply #11 on:** September 30, 2015, 11:44:54 pm »

Acquiring a Monster Hunter game deal from CAPCOM would have made a little bit of difference in Japan.

Girl · « **Reply #12 on:** October 01, 2015, 12:50:23 pm »

Quote from: lemmywinks on September 30, 2015, 01:03:08 pm

large game sizes and hideously expensive proprietary storage is a poor mix. They saw the Micro SD - Pro Duo adapters and deliberately made it so this was impossible in later revisions

yes that's ultra mean for them to do that, but i still love PSPs for emulator handhelds i just wish they had better batteries

on ebay i find these huge batteries that stick out ? but , they end up dying after a year no fair!

lemmywinks · « **Reply #13 on:** October 01, 2015, 02:46:26 pm »

Funnily enough the Go still had a poor battery despite having no UMD drive. I still have mine purely for Dracula X Chronicles, Outrun C2C and the odd emulator, it's a nice size for just sticking in your pocket and with 24gb total storage I can fit a ton of games on it.

jamesensor · « **Reply #14 on:** October 02, 2015, 12:45:52 am »

How's the extra size batteries for the old psps? I've seen them selling in ebay... do they actually last longer than regular ones?

I have my 3000 model in excellent state, with silicone protective case since purchase. Still shining inside!

SONY · « **Reply #15 on:** October 02, 2015, 01:23:20 am »

How come a small % of people on the internet seem to think that the Vita can still be saved or revitalised? It's dead!!

jamesensor · « **Reply #16 on:** October 02, 2015, 02:07:18 am »

IT's all your fault Sony!!

Girl · « **Reply #17 on:** October 02, 2015, 07:36:16 am »

Quote from: jamesensor on October 02, 2015, 12:45:52 am

How's the extra size batteries for the old psps? I've seen them selling in ebay... do they actually last longer than regular ones?

well the huge batteries i am talking about don't fit in your PSP 3000 i think ? they are meant for PSP 1000 , they do last longer but they end up dying and never working again after 2 years =^/

i'm still deciding what i should do with my psps, i might sell them or maybe just use this to recharge http://www.amazon.com/ZeroLemon-SlimJuice-Ultra-Compact-ThunderBolt-Blackberry/dp/B00CXZHY2C/

Jayson · « **Reply #18 on:** October 02, 2015, 03:39:15 pm »

Quote from: Girl on October 02, 2015, 07:36:16 am

Quote from: jamesensor on October 02, 2015, 12:45:52 am
How's the extra size batteries for the old psps? I've seen them selling in ebay... do they actually last longer than regular ones?

well the huge batteries i am talking about don't fit in your PSP 3000 i think ? they are meant for PSP 1000 , they do last longer but they end up dying and never working again after 2 years =^/

i'm still deciding what i should do with my psps, i might sell them or maybe just use this to recharge http://www.amazon.com/ZeroLemon-SlimJuice-Ultra-Compact-ThunderBolt-Blackberry/dp/B00CXZHY2C/

You have to keep them! You're already cheating on them, but you don't have to get rid of them! There's just something about the way a PSP feels and looks that is absolutely fantastic. That screen is also really pretty and there's a lot of really cool games that are only available on it.

lemmywinks · « **Reply #19 on:** October 02, 2015, 05:23:36 pm »

To be fair the official PSP batteries weren't particularly good and had a short working lifespan, the cheap eBay ones are of comparable quality I think. All my official PSP batteries started dying off alarmingly quickly whereas I still have an original DS phat and two GBA SPs which all hold a good charge.

Author Topic: Sony out of the handheld business (Read 10580 times)

jamesensor (OP)

jamesensor (OP)

jamesensor (OP)

jamesensor (OP)