The Sony Vita has officially been released for a little over a week now here in the States, and we won’t know how well it’s doing for at least a month. It’s no secret that Sony has been struggling as of late, between the overall disappointment of the PSP, the failure of the PSP Go and massive company wide losses. Launching the Vita puts them in a position to turn things around on the handheld gaming side of things, especially with the potential the system holds. In this guy’s view however, there are some big changes that the Vita has to make compared to its predecessor.
First, build its identity.
What can buyers expect with the Vita? Is it a game system? Is it a multimedia device? While it’s obvious to gamers who have followed the progress of the system that the Vita is the follow up to the PSP, I don’t feel Sony has made that apparent in the way that it’s been presented in the eye of those who don’t refresh gaming news pages 50 times a day. Especially with the option for a 3G subscription, you have to make sure that parents, kids and the overall average joe knows that it’s a gaming system first, because if all they want are apps and 3G subscriptions, they can get that on their phones.
Focus on the games!
While adding DVD playback to the PS2 made a big difference when it came to sales, the PS3 flat out sold itself as a blu ray player that happens to play games at certain points during its life span. Hell, that’s pretty much how they tried to justify the initial $600 price point. Sony cannot make the same mistake with the Vita by focusing on its supplimental features over its core function: playing video games. As long as the Vita has great games that you can only find there, Sony will have a consistent base of gamers purchasing the system throughout its lifespan.
These matter more than a faulty GPS.
Make it unique.
The PSP’s marketing made a major mistake that hurt it throughout its lifespan, and I don’t think Sony necessarily sees it as one. Sony advertised the PSP as a portable PS2, much like the Vita is being shown off as a type of PS3 in your pocket. To gamers and non gamers alike, why should we be expected to pay up to $300, a subscription fee and $50 on memory when I can already play PS3 games on the PS3 sitting at home? A damn near $400 commitment is too high of a premium to be able to play the same games “on the go.” Games like Wipeout are also available on the PS3 and while Uncharted: Golden Abyss is a Vita exclusive, no matter how impressive it was, I was constantly reminded throughout game play that I was playing an inferior version of Uncharted. Considering that I could of just popped in any of the three console versions at home, why did I need a Vita again?
I feel like I’ve seen this before.
That’s where Nintendo has always done well when it comes to their handhelds, and it wouldn’t hurt Sony to follow suit. When most games are on the DS, 3DS or Game Boy, they stay there, usually taking parts of what made the console versions great while keeping the portable version unique. Whether it’s Mario 3D land’s take on 3D platforming with shorter, more focused levels, Zelda: Phantom Hourglass’s unique control and puzzle elements that couldn’t be done on consoles or each Mario Kart entry that finds ways to feel different from the last with a change up in mechanics, I’ve rarely played a portable Nintendo game and felt that it would have been just as good or better on consoles. If it were up to me, Sony would use games like Uncharted to get their foot in the door while heavily pushing games like Sound Shapes and Gravity Rush. Those are the money makers when it comes down to it. As long as the great exclusive content keeps flowing, you’ll have more adopters, fewer people regretting their purchase and an overall happy fan base.
You can’t tell me Gravity Rush doesn’t look awesome.
No gimmicks for the sake of gimmicks.
Now here’s an area where Nintendo fails at times. While I say Sony should make the games unique, that doesn’t mean that they should force features in that don’t fit. Once again, in Gravity Rush, using the gyroscopic controls completely works, but it also gives you the choice of using traditional controls. This is what the Vita needs to do more often, making the most out of the two touch pads, the motion controls, the cameras and the augmented reality features without making them required or forced. To use another example of what not to do, the demo of Uncharted I played had some awkward, forced touch control that disrupted the flow of the game. To cut through a curtain, I had to stand in front of it until a menu came up for side equipment that was only accessible during touch screen sections. THEN, I had to tap the knife and make predetermined swiping patterns over the screen to cut through. Keep in mind that all of this could have been accomplished by pushing a button in front of the curtain and having Drake cut through it on his own. It slowed the game down, was fairly tedious, added nothing to the experience and felt completely unnecessary.
Stop alienating gamers.
During the Vita’s reveal at E3, it was mentioned that the game cards had their own memory. Save files and DLC could be saved to the card, potentially eliminating the need for memory cards. Then they announced that the Vita would launch with close to 30 “titles.”
Everything sounded all well and good until it turned out that not only would memory cards be needed, but they’re unique to the Vita and are fairly expensive, (so you can’t even use your old Memory Sticks.) Some games will store the data on the game card, but those games can’t have their data moved to the memory card, taking away that freedom, (which is also one of the big problems with the 3DS and its SD card support.) Oh, and out of those 30 “titles,” it turned out that a big chunk of them were apps, not actual games. On top of these slaps to the face, Vita’s are locked to one profile per system, so if your brother, sister, husband, wife or life partner want to play with their profile, guess what? You’ll have to throw Sony another $250 or wipe the original Vita clean. Oh, but that’s right. There’s really no other real choice since no self respecting adult would play a 3DS in public according to Sony Computer Entertainment of America’s CEO, Jack Tretton.
These kind of practices won’t sit well with the average gamer, and while there will always be Sony loyalists who defend every decision they make as ones we should “get over,” most will abandon ship rather than turn the other cheek. At the end of the day, gamers are what the Vita needs the most, and if they keep pissing them off, there’s no way it can be a success.
And no self respecting businessman would be such a douche.
And lastly, games, not graphics.
For almost as long as I’ve been a gamer, graphics have always been a huge selling point. I remember the Genesis being so popular because it looked so good, all the way up to the PS3 and 360 making such a heavy push for HD. But the truth of the matter is that graphics can only get you so far. Think about it, despite us being told that graphics are the measure of how far games have advanced, the best looking system is hardly ever the best selling one. Just look at the PSP vs the DS, or even the consoles of this gen. If the Wii proved anything, it showed that people will buy for the enjoyment they get from the games, not how it looks in 1080P, (and I think some of the backlash the Wii gets is due to it challenging this idea that great games equals great graphics, but that’s beside the point.)
Right now, Vita is focusing on how powerful it is. That’s all well and good for its debut so we can see at first glance how much more advanced it is than the PSP, but that can’t be the focus for too long. When I played the PSP the most, it was with simpler looking games like Locoroco, Patapon and Prinny, which were a lot more fun to me than pretty games like Crisis Core or Kingdom Hearts. And going back to my two favorite examples, Gravity Rush and Sound Shapes aren’t going to break any records for their high polygon counts, but from what I’ve played, I’d much rather spend my money on those than another nice looking Uncharted game that will last me all of five hours.
Sound Shapes might not look the best, but it’s damn fun!
Whether or not the Vita will be a long lasting staple in our gaming libraries or an HD flash in the pan won’t be seen for a long while, but Sony can’t keep making the same mistakes. All I know is that for this new handheld to be successful, this gaming giant will need to take a different approach than they have in the past. Gamers will flock to the system if it’s made to seem like a must own machine that provides unique experiences at a great value. But most of all, it needs to be FUN! It’s in gaming’s best interest for the Vita to be a strong competitor because in the end, competition will bring out the best in everyone involved and it’ll be gamers that win. It’s just up to Sony to step up their game. At this point, they don’t have much choice.