Activision’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is out this week for the top home consoles and the PC. A version of the original Black Ops has also been released for Sony’s PlayStation Vita but, as popular as Call of Duty is, it is unlikely to save the handheld console. The writing is already on the wall.
Last month, I went to IndieCade here in Los Angeles to see what was new and fresh in gaming and while there were some really cool new concepts, entertainment behemoth Sony’s tent dwarfed the Indie games showcase. Granted, IndieCade needs sponsors and Sony wasn’t showing off their huge blockbuster games but rather highlighting smaller downloadable games for the PlayStation 3 and the struggling Vita. But, it raises a question — are smaller, simpler indie games really the salvation for the PlayStation Vita or handheld gaming in general?
It is not just Sony’s new PlayStation Vita that’s struggling, though even in Japan the Vita is getting outsold by its seven year-old predecessor three to one. Longtime handheld king Nintendo just lowered its sales forecast for their two year-old 3DS by a million units. Between the fading of the social gaming phenomenon that was the Nintendo Wii, aging of the other home consoles, and declining handheld console sales, the videogame industry as a whole is looking pretty bad. Nintendo does have a new home console, the Wii U coming out this weekend, and that should spark at least some improvement for the category’s overall numbers.
Handheld gaming, however, still has a problem and while it’s pretty much agreed that mobile gaming is severely cutting into the console business, there are other factors. Beyond that, Nintendo’s 3DS performing better than its Sony rival may just be masking a Nintendo problem. Nintendo seems content to ride their 20- and 30-year-old franchises all of the way to the end and their current games are pretty much just better looking versions of their old games. While a hit with lovers of nostalgia, new gamers can’t necessarily differentiate retro from simple and anyone with smart phone "knows" that simple games should be free.
Sony’s PlayStation Vita held quite a bit of promise upon release, but as of yet has failed to deliver. The longer that continues, the more it will become a snowball effect (as has occurred with the 3DS). Though Sony already had a PlayStation Portable, the original PSP, the Vita was supposed to be a PlayStation 3 in your pocket. Sony said you could communicate with your PlayStation 3 and even play those games on your Vita. If that had really been the case, the Vita would have been able differentiate itself from its competitor due to the 3DS' casual and more simple games. Unfortunately, those games and the promised functionality haven’t yet been realized and instead, the Vita seems to be in the midst of an identity crisis.
Article comments
1 - Nintendork
I don't really understand all of the "Nintendo is doomed, no Nintendo IP on smartphones&tablets".
3DS is doing better than DS, it has it's own identity with nice quality games(most from japan developers).
Maybe it's related to the recent brainwash made in apple/samsung/google about dedicated devices.
Nintendo has more than 30years in portable entertainment, they know that part of the business.
If Nintendo started selling their IP's on another platform the image of Nintendo itself would be damaged.
Let Nintendo be Nintendo please. We don't need another guy telling them to follow the current bubble of cheapo games, make cash as soon as possible on the "profitable mobile market".
We saw facebook stock plummeting, zynga going the way of dodo and so on.
2 - Matty C
I'm so torn on the Vita. It's a seriously beautiful piece of kit and as someone who never owned a PS3 or a PSP there's plenty for me to play on it that I haven't played before. So all in all, I'm happy with my Vita purchase and especially with LittleBigPlanet now and Super Monkey Ball I'd say it's crossed that threshold where I have enough games for it that it's justified the purchase for me.
Yet here's the thing. Nearly EVERY WEEK there'll be a cool new, interesting game coming out for the iPad or iPhone that only costs a few bucks at the most. I think that is what's driving the "Vita has hardly any games" perception. There's such a long time between games, relatively speaking and that's a big issue.
Sure, those iPad games might be $4-$5 and have only that amouont of throwaway gameplay, but when there's something new and shiny always just around the corner, that doesn't feel like much of an issue.
NOW what will be interesting is that as these tablets get more powerful, will the requisite budget and time required for developing on them increase accordingly? The time and effort a developer needs to put into creating good looking assets for the platform is only increasing.
The other thing is that phones and tablets are generationally advancing so quickly. In real terms I think you'll see the iPad in two years time vastly overpowering what the Vita can do today. Now imagine that with Razr's idea of having the control bars down the side of the tablet with real physical controls. THAT would kill the Vita.
On a somewhat related note, how in the hell did Sony let Nintendo grab Monster Hunter as an exclusive? WHAT THE FLYING S**T went on there, SERIOUSLY?!?! Someone must have been asleep on that one.
3 - RPGameX
@Matty C The problem is that developers won't make games for handheld consoles because the install base is so low and won't make games for tablets because everyone is used to buy games for $1. The new tablets and phones can do plenty they just need a developer to put the resources into developing good games. Better, more expensive games can sell on mobile devices. They just have to be made. The data is there to support it.
4 - SteelFlying
Until a tablet with physical button controls shows up, a dedicated Handheld will always grant a richer gaming experience. A more established device that WILL last for a number of years without the need to constantly upgrade to the next iteration also helps. But I'll admit that I am not a Technophile, just a gamer. The quality of the game is more important to me than the raw power or social status symbol of the machine it is on.
@Matty C
Sony messed up it's own relationship with Capcom's Monster Hunter series. It's unwillingness to update Adhoc on the PS3 and insistence on trophies prevented the release of Portable 3rd and it's HD equivalent. Nintendo on the other hand is being very helpful, even publishing 3U's release in some regions.