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[Qwark]

You don't keep giving a big budget to low selling games. Fifa and Madden sell literally millions more than MLB every year and are probably much more expensive licenses because those sports and clubs are much popular and make much more money.

What's decent sales btw? Do those games even top a million copies?(honestly not sure)

Sales aren't public, but the game is routinely in the top 5 NPD when it releases, which is pretty good for a platform exclusive. With digital sales, they definitely top 1 million each year.

I'll give you that the license for football and soccer is probably more expensive, but I don't think it's that much more expensive. And besides that, I would guess the development costs are similar.

I just believe that the Show would be in a similar budget to Fifa and Madden. But hell, I don't know if I'd consider any of them AAA, I've seen some shoddy Fifa upgrades that were not very impressive. How big of a budget can you really have for a yearly game? Madden is definitely the closest to AAA considering their huge marketing campaign. But none of us know what the budgets for any of them are.

 

[Oregano]

No but I did forget it released in Japan already on account of not being Japanese.

Fair enough. Even then you might be underselling Splatoon a little bit, it's definitely not a Xenoblade or Zelda but it's a much bigger product than Yoshi. On a promotional level it was treated equal to Mario Kart 8.

Sales aren't public, but the game is routinely in the top 5 NPD when it releases, which is pretty good for a platform exclusive. With digital sales, they definitely top 1 million each year.

I'll give you that the license for football and soccer is probably more expensive, but I don't think it's that much more expensive. And besides that, I would guess the development costs are similar.

I just believe that the Show would be in a similar budget to Fifa and Madden. But hell, I don't know if I'd consider any of them AAA, I've seen some shoddy Fifa upgrades that were not very impressive. Madden is definitely the closest to AAA considering their huge marketing campaign. But none of us know what the budgets for any of them are.

I'll admit I don't pay much attention to sports franchises but I think Fifa might actually be bigger than MLB and Madden combined. It's an absolute monster in Europe, they top a million just in the UK.

 

[privitsan02]

Blew my mind that they even released the Vita. It was clear back then that the climate wasn't healthy for a dedicated handheld. They honestly should've gone with a PlayStation Xperia and go all out there instead of the half-baked Xperia Play they launched.

Best wishes.

 

[sindbadthesailor]

Would have been a complete surprise if they had gone ahead with a PSP 3 given how poorly they supported the Vita.

 

[ZhugeEX]

Each fifa game sells over 15 million every year. Just on console.

 

[Milly Osworth]

Kids dont want buttons and joysticks.

 

[RodrigoDorta]

a ps3 + ps2 + psone + psp + vita all in one portable game device would be great though.

 

[Serenity]

Missunderstood you, sorry. It would have been nice to transfer movies from my PC onto my memory card and watch on the go.

But the way it is, you pay an extra price for a ghetto.

Did you actually own a vita seems unlikely because you could do just that. I have have plenty of movies on my vita.

What the hell's the difference if Zelda UNX costs 50 million and Uncharted 4 costs 80? I don't think that's the point. Nintendo's spent a ton of money making games and marketing them for their failed system (btw, in certain regions marketing for games like Splatoon and Mario Maker is absolutely comparable to some AAA titles). The point is that Sony did not put anywhere near the money or developmental muscle on its failed system.

I see you are an insider again.

So now budget doesn't matter and nintendo spends millions making games. Thought they were saving us from the AAA horror future with their low spec systems and "responsible" budgets. The only big budget game from nintendo this gen so far would probably be Xenoblade.

 

[ZhugeEX]

a ps3 + ps2 + psone + psp + vita all in one portable game device would be great though.

It would also cost FIVE HUNDRED AND NINETY NINE US DOLLARS and sell.worse than the Wii U.

 

[Uthred]

It wouldn't make sense. Nintendo owns the handheld market. No need for Sony to keep pumping money into that market since they can't seem to get sure-footing in it. That money can be better spent elsewhere.

I agree, though I'm interested to see what will happen in the next few years with handhelds, I dont think its unthinkable that in three to five years dedicated handhelds could be next to non-existent

 

[Qwark]

I'll admit I don't pay much attention to sports franchises but I think Fifa might actually be bigger than MLB and Madden combined. It's an absolute monster in Europe, they top a million just in the UK.

Oh I agree that Fifa definitely sells a ton, I just don't think the budget for the games is very large, and probably smaller than Madden's. But now this is all just speculation.

Edit: On second thought, marketing does cost a lot and they all have a ton of it. So I'm changing my mind, all 3 series could probably be defined as AAA.

 

[Inuhanyou]

Playstation existed before handhelds, it will exist after handhelds. Long live the PSP and Vita

 

[CamHostage]

What the hell's the difference if Zelda UNX costs 50 million and Uncharted 4 costs 80? I don't think that's the point. Nintendo's spent a ton of money making games and marketing them for their failed system (btw, in certain regions marketing for games like Splatoon and Mario Maker is absolutely comparable to some AAA titles). The point is that Sony did not put anywhere near the money or developmental muscle on its failed system.

Well, that's easy to reason out. Because on their "failed system", those Nintendo games will move 1-3 million copies. The Wii U console may not be a success in the grand scheme (and Nintendo desperately needs to be part of the grand scheme amidst this tectonic market shift in videogames,) but they can still move a lot of software to that market base when it's in the precise strikezone of demographics and audience appeal. (Mario Kart 8 BTW supposedly is owned by fully half of all Wii U owners.) Sony making games for Vita, they'd be counting on one or two hundred thousand in America for a solid performer, maybe 500k or better worldwide, cross that million mark when the price drops... Not great overall. They do have maybe one or two franchises (Gran Turismo and... er, maybe just one) that could still be heavyweights to put the platform back on the radar for a short while, but it'd cost a ton of money and a lot of time to produce those games to hopefully give one last shot at a hopeless target, and for what?

Better they fess up now that they realize they cannot beat a dead horse into coming to life, spend their time making the middleware and QA process as friendly as possible, give indies as much access and exposure as possible to make quality software, ideally double-dip a few PS4 games where applicable (they just did Helldivers on Vita, they still have BigFest, they ported a bunch of their stuff like Unfinished Swan and Resogun... the dream would be to do some Gran Turismo companion when GT7 is finally ready, but a real spin-off/side-game GT Vita option is probably well behind us even if they had the engine to do it, the best I could see now would be a companion app, and even that probably would do better business on a phone than on Vita,) help in any way possible to ensure developers interested in supporting it have the tools they need to make kick-ass games for it, and just not lie to people that they believe its best days are ahead of it.

 

[StevieP]

Did you actually own a vita seems unlikely because you could do just that. I have have plenty of movies on my vita.



I see you are an insider again.

So now budget doesn't matter and nintendo spends millions making games. Thought they were saving us from the AAA horror future with their low spec systems and "responsible" budgets. The only big budget game from nintendo this gen so far would probably be Xenoblade.

Try answering the content of the post instead of attempting to attack the poster. You're also off base thinking that nintendos only big budget game is xenoblade. Mario kart and smash bros, for example, more than likely have budgets that top some AAA titles that aren't GTA or Destiny.

Well, that's easy to reason out. Because on their "failed system", those Nintendo games will move 1-3 million copies. The console may not be a success in the grand scheme (and Nintendo desperately needs to be part of the grand scheme in this tectonic market shift,) but they can still move a lot of software to that market base when it's in the precise strikezone of demographics and audience appeal. (Mario Kart 8 BTW supposedly is owned by fully half of all Wii U owners.) Sony making games for Vita, they'd be counting on one or two hundred thousand in America for a solid performer, maybe 500k or better worldwide, cross that million mark when the price drops... Not great overall. They do have maybe one or two franchises (Gran Turismo and... er, maybe just one) that could still be heavyweights to put the platform back on the radar for a short while, but it'd cost a ton of money and a lot of time to produce those games to hopefully give one last shot at a hopeless target, and for what?

Better they fess up now that they realize they cannot beat a dead horse into coming to life, spend their time making the middleware and QA process as friendly as possible, give indies as much access and exposure as possible to make quality software, ideally double-dip a few PS4 games where applicable (they just did Helldivers on Vita, they still have BigFest, they ported a bunch of their stuff like Unfinished Swan and Resogun... the dream would be to do some Gran Turismo companion when GT7 is finally ready, but a real spin-off/side-game GT Vita option is probably well behind us even if they had the engine to do it, the best I could see now would be a companion app, and even that probably would do better business on a phone than on Vita,) help in any way possible to ensure developers interested in supporting it have the tools they need to make kick-ass games for it, and just not lie to people that they believe its best days are ahead of it.

See Serenity? Like that. It isn't difficult.

And yeah I understand the concept of opportunity cost, but Sony's most prestigious teams haven't shipped any handheld games. That's telling in of itself. Maybe the platform wouldn't have been still born if there was more internal push from the top teams. Especially when the vita was a damn nice piece of kit.

 

[Theonik]

It would also cost FIVE HUNDRED AND NINETY NINE US DOLLARS and sell.worse than the Wii U.

Well at the very least I would buy it! More than I can say about the WiiU!

 

[Abdiel]

Try answering the content of the post instead of attempting to attack the poster. You're also off base thinking that nintendos only big budget game is xenoblade. Mario kart and smash bros, for example, more than likely have budgets that top some AAA titles that aren't GTA or Destiny.



See Serenity? Like that. It isn't difficult.

And yeah I understand the concept of opportunity cost, but Sony's most prestigious teams haven't shipped any handheld games. That's telling in of itself. Maybe the platform wouldn't have been still born if there was more internal push from the top teams. Especially when the vita was a damn nice piece of kit.

Even since launch, no one has been coming into our stores looking for games from Sony's studios on the Vita. It's as Y2Kev said. It was a system designed and marketed for a market/audience that basically didn't exist, so your statement is nonsensical. Having a few more big titles would have basically just increased the weight on Sony's pocket, and pushed perhaps a few hundred thousand units, maybe, but certainly nothing dramatic, to push the needle.

 

[Stone Ocean]

And yeah I understand the concept of opportunity cost, but Sony's most prestigious teams haven't shipped any handheld games. That's telling in of itself. Maybe the platform wouldn't have been still born if there was more internal push from the top teams. Especially when the vita was a damn nice piece of kit.

Having a Naughty Dog or SSM game on the Vita would have changed nothing for the thing while compromising whatever other efforts they have. Also it's not like Sony half assed their exclusives, they were good games, you had Japan Studio and Media Molecule working on games that took advantage of the game's features, what else do you want? TLOU as a Vita exclusive?

It was never about the games. Nintendo put work on the Wii because gaming is their bread and butter so they can't just afford to leave one of the main products of the company to rot, even though they have the money to do so.

 

[James Scott]

Well at the very least I would buy it! More than I can say about the WiiU!

Don't think that means much, not sure what the Wii U has to do with a Vita successor because of the market for portables.
Also, What does Fifa and the budget of console Nintendo games have to do with the Vita?
Tried going back to the first post about the subject but I'm still not too sure.

Having a Naughty Dog or SSM game on the Vita would have changed nothing for the thing while compromising whatever other efforts they have. Also it's not like Sony half assed their exclusives, they were good games, you had Japan Studio and Media Molecule working on games that took advantage of the game's features, what else do you want? TLOU as a Vita exclusive?
It was never about the games.

When someone says ND Vita game I'm pretty sure they don't mean full budget Uncharted/TLOU. Maybe something like Jak and Daxter from a smaller internal team at ND.
When the Zelda team makes a portable game it fits in with the system and has a smaller budget by a smaller team to make sense.

 

[Theonik]

Don't think that means much, not sure what the Wii U has to do with a Vita successor because of the market for portables.
Also, What does Fifa and the budget of console Nintendo games have to do with the Vita?
Tried going back to the first post about the subject but I'm still not too sure.

That's at least +1 sales

 

[Stone Ocean]

When someone says ND Vita game I'm pretty sure they don't mean full budget Uncharted/TLOU. Maybe something like Jak and Daxter from a smaller internal team at ND.
When the Zelda team makes a portable game it fits in with the system and has a smaller budget by a smaller team to make sense.

Well yeah, but that's what I mean, what difference would assembling a small portion of a bigger studio to work on a portable game instead of just handing it to a smaller studio make? It's not like the Vita exclusives were lacking in quality.

All that would accomplish is take away manpower from other projects, and then we're back to opportunity costs.

 

[Leetums]

Dev's should see this as an opportunity to make a game on the vita, or port one of theirs over. If people are really wanting the vita to be a thing and live, it needs more games more apps, etc.

 

[……forgetit]

Dev's should see this as an opportunity to make a game on the vita, or port one of theirs over. If people are really wanting the vita to be a thing and live, it needs more games more apps, etc.

What?

 

[CamHostage]

...Sony's most prestigious teams haven't shipped any handheld games. That's telling in of itself. Maybe the platform wouldn't have been still born if there was more internal push from the top teams. Especially when the vita was a damn nice piece of kit.

Highly, highly doubtful that "top teams" would have saved the day. AAA production values or pedigree talent doesn't really sell handheld games the way it does on console/tv. People always argue that "Nintendo puts its top men on its portables", but...

A) never at AAA budget levels (I'm trying to think what the most produced portable game Nintendo ever made would be, maybe Codename STEAM with all the voices and the new engine production? a Pokemon or Mario Kart will accrue budget costs in manpower over the time designing and polishing, but we don't have a clear answer yet what they actually spend on game designers, I'm guessing those guys are not rich)...

And B) Nintendo's way is a different way to run a company, something pretty specific to Japan that we don't have here. Nintendo is one big office, and people move around; Naughty Dog or Guerrilla or Sucker Punch aren't like that. (989 was a little that way back in the day, with producers working on a few dozen projects up and down stairs and designers and programmers and audio techs working on bits of projects rather than one big master work. SCE Santa Monica has that a little bit because they also operate an incubation group, but their primary focus is God of War or whatever's after; SCE San Diego is a little like that too, with its baseball team but also a lot of sound and mocap and other facilities.) SCE Japan Studio is old-school like Nintendo, and its talents mix up across projects, but because SCEJ is so small now and has struggled so much, you see little out of them overall and have few expectations for where team members should be. (Still, one of their few known names last made Gravity Rush, and Soul Sacrifice and Freedom Wars were not exactly B-team efforts.)

It's a different and a little bit of an old way of doing things that's not as familiar to western approaches, and most of what Sony does that people assign AAA-studio designations to is not compatible. That said, Sony isn't above it necessarily. They had Zipper make a bunch of SOCOMs for PSP and Unit 13 for Vita. They had their own teams make the home and portable versions of PSASB and ModNation; Polyphony Digital took time out of its impossible schedule to finally deliver on its PSP GT promise. MLB and Hot Shots weren't farmed out. Maybe AAA studio Naughty Dog will never make a Vita exclusive (like AAA studio Retro will probably never make a 3DS exclusive... they did make a port, of all things,) but AAA studio Media Molecule did make a Vita exclusive, and let's also not leave SCE Bend out of the "Top Team" discussion because they are extremely good.

You are overall right that Sony does not value its portables the same way Nintendo values its, but a decade in the portable business, Sony has learned (what many might have been able to tell them on day one) that Sony portables require different levels of support than Nintendo portables because Sony brands don't transfer to portables like Nintendo brands. Making console-quality God of War and Killzone and Syphon Filter and Hot Shots and Motorstorm games will not pay off in equal proportions, no matter if they're exactly like the console game or offer totally unique experiences. (With games like Killzone, Sony tried it both ways; both good Killzones, neither blockbusters.) And since Sony is a AAA-oriented company, little games made for portable like Patapon and LocoRoco may be successes but won't draw much recognition. Sony couldn't do things Nintendo's way, they had to do thing's Sony's way, and unfortunately that way only led to moderate success the first time (as far as software sales go) and has lead to a dead end in this generation.

 

[charlequin]

Really? I'd be interested to see this information, as well as the source for 99% of customers not needing a ton of space.

Console average attach rates are typically in the range of 4-8 games -- that is, typical consumers buy between four and eight games ever, in the entire lifespan of a console system. Most customers aren't actually going to have enough content to fill up an 8GB card, much less feel so constrained by it as to avoid the system altogether.

(Now, the Vita specifically, at this point, has an unusually high attach rate, but that's a symptom of being so niche that there is basically no casual or general-purpose market for it at all.)

It's easy enough to say no pricing strategy would work( to clarify, work meaning selling at a respectable rate to justify its existence, not gangbuster sales) since we're long past the point of proving that one way or the other.

This idea that it's impossible to determine anything counterfactual about things that have already happened is silly. We've seen what happened with the Vita when it saw a price reduction, when it got storage packed in, when it got a supporting platform that can output to the TV, when it was advertised around its PS4 Remote Play capability. We have a picture of the gaming market that's informed by the performance of many other platforms, and we have the ability to watch people make predictions based on their analysis and see which ones prove accurate. The failure of the Vita is something we can learn easy lessons from, not some strange mystery for the ages.

 

[dragonyeuw]

This idea that it's impossible to determine anything counterfactual about things that have already happened is silly. We've seen what happened with the Vita when it saw a price reduction, when it got storage packed in, when it got a supporting platform that can output to the TV, when it was advertised around its PS4 Remote Play capability.

Pretty much all of those strategies were implemented beyond the point of no return. The first price cut was Aug 2013, and really the bleeding was far too heavy by that point. Sony was handcuffed by their own design choices, which made it impossible for them to even attempt correcting course early on like Nintendo did with 3ds.

 

[KratosEnergyDrink]

Dev's should see this as an opportunity to make a game on the vita, or port one of theirs over. If people are really wanting the vita to be a thing and live, it needs more games more apps, etc.

Why should other devs care about the Vita when even Sony abandoned the handheld in a relatively short time periode after launch. To be fair, Sony had all kinds of financial troubles (and still has) and probably no money to spend on this very low selling system.

 

[thebisonxrc]

I just got a Vita yesterday and I'm loving it. It's definitely a great handheld. Still, there's no doubt that the market for such a device is very small. I'd love to see another one sometime, but I don't expect it.

 

[4Tran]

Why should other devs care about the Vita when even Sony abandoned the handheld in a relatively short time periode after launch. To be fair, Sony had all kinds of financial troubles (and still has) and probably no money to spend on this very low selling system.

There are plenty of developers still making games for the Vita because it serves their needs very well, and because they're not looking to reach huge audiences. The publishers who would be discouraged by the lack of Vita games made by Sony are the Western AAA publishers who don't really care about dedicated handhelds any more.

 

[ohlawd]

Playstation existed before handhelds, it will exist after handhelds. Long live the PSP and Vita

bruh are you 10 years old?

did you forget that giant ass brick called the Gameboy?

 

[ElectricThunder]

It is an impossible dream, but it would be so cool if, if they are well and truly done with the handheld scene (please no~), they went the Jaguar and such route and set all the enthusiasts of both the software and hardware stripes loose upon it and the PSP---like how everybody hoped SEGA would when they exited hardware before the realization set in that they probably lost everything they ever did that would've been of use for posterity same as with the games to the world's great dismay.

The longer the system lasts, the better the chances for more titles somehow making it out and about the world over outright, so here's hoping.

Christ almighty the handheld scene has been one strange rollercoaster since I came up in the classic GB days---it would be pretty weird for it to be back down to just the one again, though alongside a sea of rapidly multiplying and improving mobile devices like some sort of Borg situation.

 

[autoduelist]

Why should other devs care about the Vita when even Sony abandoned the handheld in a relatively short time periode after launch. To be fair, Sony had all kinds of financial troubles (and still has) and probably no money to spend on this very low selling system.

Plenty of devs care about Vita - it still sells games. Sony has a different role in the lifecycle of the Vita and the fact that it will no longer produce AAA games for the device has pretty much no bearing - we weren't buying the ones they did produce anyway. That doesn't change that we buy other games, which is why Sony did an about face and began pursuing indies and localizations full force.

Those that hyper-focus on Sony produced AAA titles seem to willfully ignore that the AAA titles that Sony did make (Uncharted, Wipeout, Killzone, Tearaway, and more) not only didn't move units, they didn't sell well to existing Vita owners. That doesn't mean other games aren't selling well for developers, it just means Sony smartly stopped making AAA games for the device.

 

[Azzanadra]

I would actually prefer is Sony just put their attention towards their home console. While I thought the PSP was one of the biggest surprises for me in gaming (in terms of the excellent games), the Vita did not follow up on that mark.

 

[Figboy79]

I will never get into mobile gaming, so traditional portables like the Vita and 3DS are my portable platforms of choice.

This is weird to say, since I work in the mobile games industry. I just prefer buttons, with the addition of touch screen functionality, not solely touch screen. Some genres just don't feel right with a touch only interface.

There was no doubt that Sony wouldn't be releasing a Vita 2, however. The market seems more obsessed with bite sized gaming experiences on their phones at the moment. There's a lot of free to play garbage out there that the true gems of the mobile market are hard to discover. Traditional handheld gaming, I think, will continue to become niche, but I still think there's money to be had there. I don't fully think mobile gaming has replaced traditional handheld gaming, however. Like any other industry, these things come in cycles, and eventually the mobile boom will level off and slow down, with the big players remaining, and the smaller ones dying off or being absorbed by the big fish. Handheld gaming will continue as well, and will probably have a resurgence at some point, even if it's not as dominant as it used to be.

As it stands, I currently own about 200 titles for my Vita alone, and there are still plenty of titles on the way that have me excited to own the system. My 3DS is my secondary handheld, and my iPhone is just that, a phone. Outside of work related research, I don't use my cell phone for gaming.

 

[andthebeatgoeson]

Kind of a lukewarm response to Sony leaving the handheld market in here. Was it the same when SEGA left console market after Dreamcast?

I guess the majority of gamers/ casuals does not care about Sony's handhelds future. They didnn't notice the Vita existing and will not notice its successor missing.

A true pity because Sony did so many things right when it comes to handhelds:

- analog sticks
- great performance
- high-end hardware
- pristine OLED screen technology
- cartridge/ UMD and digital downloads
- trophy system

I wouldn't call high end hardware the 'right' choice. The writing has been on the wall for about 10+ years that high end hardware and handhelds are a terrible choice. Specifically, attach rates have always lagged behind.

 

[Windforce]

bruh are you 10 years old?

did you forget that giant ass brick called the Gameboy?

I think he was refering to PlayStation handhelds.

PS1 and PS2 existed and did fine without PSP.

 

[ohlawd]

I think he was refering to PlayStation handhelds.

PS1 and PS2 existed and did fine without PSP.

eh that's reaching. did you forget? Dragon Warrior 1 came out on the PS1

 

[ZhugeEX]

This is weird to say, since I work in the mobile games industry. I just prefer buttons, with the addition of touch screen functionality, not solely touch screen. Some genres just don't feel right with a touch only interface.

I'm with you. I work in the mobile industry as well but I just much prefer buttons over touch screen.

In fact I rarely play mobile games these days. Haven't played one in about a year now.

 

[Alucrid]

Really? I'd be interested to see this information, as well as the source for 99% of customers not needing a ton of space. Those who load up their tablets and phones with pictures,apps, video and music, the Vita's 4/8/16gb offerings are hilariously inadequate.

It's easy enough to say no pricing strategy would work( to clarify, work meaning selling at a respectable rate to justify its existence, not gangbuster sales) since we're long past the point of proving that one way or the other.

on my 16 i think i have like 6-7 ps 1, 3 psp, 2 psv games with still some space left...really not that bad for my uses, of course i also don't need all my female anime face with me at all times

 

[FinalStageBoss]

It's too bad, Sony makes awesome hardware. It would've been cool to see what they cook up.

 

[Hero of Legend]

I also wonder if we might see Sony pull a MS and license their IPs to 3rd-party publishers to release on the NX handheld.

We actually have one example already:

Sony Computer Entertainment own the trademark of Popolocrois. It even says so on the website and the back of the Japanese box! Wrap your head around that!

The game did okay IIRC in Japan.

Edit:

「ポポロクロイス」は株式会社ソニー・コンピュータエンタテインメントの登録商標です。
=
"PoPoLoCrois" is a registered trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment.

 

[clay_ghost]

I also wonder if we might see Sony pull a MS and license their IPs to 3rd-party publishers to release on the NX handheld.

We actually have one example already:

Sony Computer Entertainment own the trademark of Popolocrois. It even says so on the website and the back of the Japanese box! Wrap your head around that!

The game did okay IIRC in Japan.

Won't mind another patapon on 3DS.

 

[neurosisxeno]

That's what happens when you refuse to use clearly superior formats in favor of proprietary. The memory cards killed the Vita. If it had used SD cards that thing would have sold probably 3x as well and Sony would have had a legitimate handheld. Most systems are made or broken on the backs of bad choices when it comes to media--N64 lost out by using Carts, PS1 won by using cheap CDs, PS2 won by using DVDs, PS3 edged out 360 by being an affordable Blu-Ray player, Dreamcast suffered for using SuperCDs (or whatever they called it), UMDs hurt the PSP, and insanely expensive proprietary Memory Cards sealed the deal for PSV--which is unfortunate because that system had so much potential and interest, but adding an extra ~$100 for storage is crap.

 

[Bulbasaur]

Unsurprising. However I think the Vita still has legs for some years. Unless of course the new Nintendo handheld manages to beat it in terms of specs, which I'm still not certain it will.

 

[odhiex]

There are a lot of Android-based handhelds (including the tablets and TV devices with controllers) out there, they are targeted to a special / niche market.

Maybe PSVITA is destine to be niche too. The Nintendo 3DS, with the exception of its several titles, very rarely broke the sales chart (in the US/Europe).

Just forget who to blame on this. No matter what they (Sony) did, the market as Shuhei said is no longer healthy for another dedicated high-end handheld devices.

The NX, if the rumor is true as a custom android-based device, will prove that to you. Ugly I know

 

[Qwark]

I also wonder if we might see Sony pull a MS and license their IPs to 3rd-party publishers to release on the NX handheld.

We actually have one example already:


Sony Computer Entertainment own the trademark of Popolocrois. It even says so on the website and the back of the Japanese box! Wrap your head around that!

The game did okay IIRC in Japan.

Edit:

Which makes me sad, because I loved the PSP Popo. If we get it localized at all I'll be satisfied, but I'd love to play it on Vita. Does Sony own the entire franchise? I thought they only owned part of the media rights, like how Sony only owns the film rights for Spiderman. Could be wrong on that though. Maybe it's some weird Pokemon Company/Nintendo situation.

that Popolocrois 3DS game had its localization announcement months ago

Thanks, I must've missed that

 

[ohlawd]

Which makes me sad, because I loved the PSP Popo. If we get it localized at all I'll be satisfied, but I'd love to play it on Vita. Does Sony own the entire franchise? I thought they only owned part of the media rights, like how Sony only owns the film rights for Spiderman. Could be wrong on that though. Maybe it's some weird Pokemon Company/Nintendo situation.

that Popolocrois 3DS game had its localization announcement months ago

 

[King Gilga]

This is weird to say, since I work in the mobile games industry. I just prefer buttons, with the addition of touch screen functionality, not solely touch screen. Some genres just don't feel right with a touch only interface.

I vastly prefer buttons to.

But I prefer someone convenient that is always on me even more than that, which why my 3DS and vita sit in a drawer 99% of the time.

 

[sörine]

Which makes me sad, because I loved the PSP Popo. If we get it localized at all I'll be satisfied, but I'd love to play it on Vita. Does Sony own the entire franchise? I thought they only owned part of the media rights, like how Sony only owns the film rights for Spiderman. Could be wrong on that though. Maybe it's some weird Pokemon Company/Nintendo situation.

I believe it's a media rights thing, Sony owns all gaming rights or something. Popolocrois was originally a manga by Yohsuke Tamori so I presume he owns the property itself.

Still odd to see a SCE copyright on a 3DS game though. I wonder if they'd ever consider sub licensing other dormant properties for 3DS/NX development? Or maybe get into 3rd party publishing themselves like they did on Wonderswan?

 

[Qwark]

I believe it's a media rights thing, Sony owns all gaming rights or something. Popolocrois was originally a manga by Yohsuke Tamori so I presume he owns the property itself.

Still odd to see a SCE copyright on a 3DS game though. I wonder if they'd ever consider sub licensing other dormant properties for 3DS/NX development? Or maybe get into 3rd party publishing themselves like they did on Wonderswan?

Sony published games for Wonderswan?

 

[Hero of Legend]

I believe it's a media rights thing, Sony owns all gaming rights or something. Popolocrois was originally a manga by Yohsuke Tamori so I presume he owns the property itself.

Still odd to see a SCE copyright on a 3DS game though. I wonder if they'd ever consider sub licensing other dormant properties for 3DS/NX development? Or maybe get into 3rd party publishing themselves like they did on Wonderswan?

My thoughts exactly, obviously you won't likely see the likes of Uncharted or even Ratchet (despite it being a great match ), IPs that are collecting dust should be considered to lend to 3rd-parties, where it'd be all profit for Sony as they'd just get the licensing fees/royalties and whatnot.

IP's I can see working well:

• Jak & Daxter (how Ratchet is still going but not Jak I'll never know as they're like twin franchises)
• Patapon (as suggested above. Pyramid is 3rd-party anyway so they'd be free to do it, I could see Bandai Namco publishing as they work with Pyramid most often IIRC)
• Loco Roco (fun fact, a team member wanted a DS entry! lol (here's an archive of the Kotaku article, actual link is dead))
• Parappa the Rapper (NanaOn-Sha are almost 3DS exclusive anyway, and them and Greenblat collaborated on Major Minor for Wii which was its spiritual successor, again a Bandai Namco deal works as NNOS works commonly on Tamagotchi... well, did, the IP sort of vanished)
• Arc the Lad (the one that got a Wonderswan entry, in fact the dev of the series is Cattle Call, behind Legend of Legacy, Metal Max, and worked with Arte Piazza in all DQ remakes for Nintendo handhelds. BN again works as they published ATL on WS IIRC)
• Any created by Level 5 (Dark Cloud, Rogue Legacy, Jeanne D'Arc, MAYBE WKC) (Level 5 is ALL OVER Nintendo handhelds, Level 5 might be allowed to self-publish them)
• Wild Arms (shocked I forgot this lol, Media.Vision while highly focused on Sony systems, have done Nintendo system work before, specifically Dragon Ball: Revenge of King Piccolo on Wii and Wizards of Oz on DS. I believe the creators left and formed Witchcraft, they did make a DS game for D3 but other than that they're Sony-focused)
• Beyond the Beyond (this was by Camelot no less, would be interesting to see them bring this back on NX, but why not just do another Golden Sun I guess. Wonder who would do it instead. Actually, why hasn't Clap Hanz done a sequel? They were formed be ex-Camelot folks prior to even Mario Golf 64 no?)

Jak might be disqualified as aren't they getting a movie after Sly? Sony might bring them back on PS4 at that point. Sly for the same reason, also Sly 4 was too recent to be dormant. I'd suggest WipeOut but it might also disqualify (ironic because WipEout 64), since Yoshida sounds like he might be interested in it still? Could've just been him not making fans fear the worst I guess.