December 14, 2011 by

As soon as the Vita was announced, I was on board and all in.  The PSP was a successful device whether you want to see it or not.  It didn't sell like the DS did, but it it shouldn't have to.  Was it perfect?  Absolutely not, but it gave us many great games and some promising franchises through the years.  It was a platform for many apps and opportunities and it also allowed us to truly see how gaming on the go didn't have to sacrifice visuals just because it was in your bag.  The UMD gets a pass and didn't inhibit the device in comparison to its competition and it brought us the first portable gaming device  to fully implement a digital service to its consumers.  Impressive to say the least. Where the PSP failed was due to pricing itself out of the reach of the general consumer from the get go and not acting quick enough when it was obvious what their mistake was.  This is a disturbing Sony trend throughout all of their technology, not just gaming, and I don't see why they continue to do it.  They almost learned their lesson when they announced the initial prices on the Vita at E3.  249$ and 299$ are prices for a system of that magnitude that anyone can get behind and at first glance, is not a lot of money.  The buzz created was generally positive and even the most cautious consumer was willing to give the Vita a look.  Unfortunately for Sony, things have changed quite a bit since May..................

These past few months have changed my initial opinion on the device to the point where I am questioning whether to buy it on launch.  First there was the issue with not allowing us to share accounts with more then one device.  For a portable device, this isn't a huge deal and I see why they would do it, but it frustrated quite a few people.  I don't want and nor should we be allowed to share accounts and games with multiple people.  It hurts the industry we wish to support and is just bad business in the long run.  Now in the immortal words of the no talent hick that is Britney, Sony dropped it on us all and "Oops they did it again" rang loud in this once proud Vita fans mind.  Their biggest blunder recently came to light when Sony announced the pricing on their proprietary storage media cards needed to save and use your brand new Vita you just shelled 300 bucks for.  Gigabytes of storage are cheap these days, yet the prices Sony announced for their storage cards in comparison to market standards are head scratchingly out of line.  What used to be a system that was out of the box usable for 300, would now become at least 350$ before you even buy a game and that was for the lowest storage capacity card they were offering.  I'm not going to mince words here, but Sony is fucking stupid if they think people are going to come out in droves to buy this thing and they've successfully buried all the good feelings they'd garnered since May.  Yes the system feels and looks amazing.  Sure we can touch it front and back like a scratch and sniff book, but what Sony STILL doesn't get after all these years is that none of that will matter when it is released because it is too expensive in comparison to its competition.  Never mind factoring in mobile gaming here as the only thing that matters and the only way people will look at it, is how it compares with the 3DS.

I'll touch on the 3DS and how it relates for a moment.  The 3DS for all intensive purposes was a dead fish in the water when Sony announced their Vita pricing at E3.  It was too expensive at launch, it had a gimmick that not very many people cared about and the biggest problem, it had no games to play.  Sony comes along with an amazing launch lineup and a price that was perfectly in line with what the competition had, yet was leaps and bounds more powerful.  It is just a better piece of technology in every way and they had taken the wind out of the very market that Nintendo had owned for over a decade.  They planned it almost perfectly and now they've basically gone and killed the Vita to the point where people are questioning its value.  People love negativity and were just looking for an excuse to jump on Sony again for not getting it and Sony has given them almost all they need for their argument against the Vita.

Look familiar?

Look familiar?

My point is this.  The Vita, before proprietary media, would be worth every penny of that $300 dollars they are asking.  It is beautiful and it's potential is obvious to anyone who wants to see it.  Not just in gaming, but for social activities and communication.  Phones are becoming less relevant as video and text gain more of a foot hold and they could fill that niche with a system such as this and it's 3G capability, but that is all speculation and promise.  The tangible thing that Sony had going for it in relation to its competition and why everyone should be paying attention to the Vita, are its games.  The Vita has the best launch lineup of any portable system released and arguably, the best launch lineup a console has ever seen.  Read that again, I didn't make a typo.  Forget portables for a second and look at the last couple generations of home consoles.  They don't even come close to what the Vita will have when it releases on February 22nd. Yet all people want to talk about is storage media pricing and shared account access and it's all Sony's fault.  Where is the marketing of the system's pros?  Where is the emphasis on the most important aspect of these damn portables, the games?  These are Sony's trump cards and their superiority is indisputable here, even in the face of a competitor that beat them to the market by almost a year.  Yet they're dropping the ball time and again.  On this site specifically, I've read the blogs and takes on the Vita and they are rarely positive.  Some have good reasoning and points and others just dismiss it outright and it's difficult to argue with what we have been given lately.  Some argue that the games are just gimped additions to the franchise when compared to the PS3, namely in the form of Uncharted and Resistance.  That reasoning falls flat in relation to the games being offered for the Vita out of the gate.  First off, why is it one or the other?  You play these games for the adventure and stories, so shouldn't they go hand in hand?  These games will be amazing and deserve the attention of fans of the series and gives new fans established games to latch onto right away.  Even with the reasoning I just mentioned, they will carry price tags that are significantly lower then what the PS3 currently offers for relative games in the franchise.  So if you are expecting a lesser experience, doesn't the lower price of the game justify a look by even the most jaded fan?  These arguments become even less relevant when you see what else is being released on the Vita's launch.  There is literally going to be something for everyone from day 1 and these games aren't your standard "let's just get it out for launch quality games" The polish is there for all to see and most recently outlined by the Playstation team and their new Vita channel which you can access at the top of the screen.  I also don't hear the same argument being applied to the 3DS and the DS before when so many of the games are stripped down versions off of it's parent console.  It is a weak argument that holds little weight.  I haven't even touched on the fact that the system works in tandem with your PS3 to move games and files back and forth and even gives the promise of seamless shared play of a game released on both the Vita and the PS3 when transferring between them.  Add trophy support between the two, whether that matters to you or not, and the value becomes even more evident.  Yet in the face of the negativity Sony has given the doubters to work with lately, most won't look past their noses to see these aspects of a system.

A valid statement from a respected game company. I don't endorse it personally but I'm not everyone.

The value will be there on launch and with Sony recently stating that the proprietary media costs are not final, there is a bit of hope.  If one thing is for sure, people will buy anything that is marketed to them properly REGARDLESS of price (Kinect anyone?) But Sony has some serious work ahead of them between now and February 22nd, 2012.  Will Sony's marketing and PR staff get out of their own way and allow the consumers to see this system for what it is or will they continue to let pricing be the main talking point?  This is even more of a pressing issue with the success the 3DS has recently garnered.  Nintendo re-evaluated, admitted their faults on launch and rectified them.  This was highlighted by a much needed price cut and the consumers have responded.  In light of this, people have called for a price cut on the Vita before the system has even launched and at first glance, you can see they why.  But this is a multi-faceted comparison to show what separates the Vita from the 3DS and Sony just isn't doing enough to make this clear to the consumer.  Maybe this is on Sony for offering too much and expecting to get full value in a market that might not want all these bells and whistles.  Have they simply misjudged the portable market again?  Would you want a dumbed down Sony portable if it meant you could get one for 150$ at launch?  It's an interesting question that I would be interested in hearing some responses to.  I personally wouldn't, but in a competitive market, I could see why this could work.   It's also naive and to put it frankly, stupid, to think you are going to get a Vita in its current form at a price point comparable to the 3DS, especially when it offers so much more in every department.  It just isn't Sony's style to provide a sub par machine, even in the face of loses with each system sold.  They've proven this for years now, but there has to be a breaking point for a company that is losing money like this.

I guess the question is this.  Will this be the system that teaches Sony a hard lesson? Or will it be the success story they so covet in a portable gaming market that may not want what they are offering, no matter how much better it is than its competitors?  Will consumers see it Sony's way?  From a staunch supporter of almost all things Playstation, I don't even have an answer for that one.  We'll see come February 22nd when consumers answer with their wallets.

Sound off below and thanks for reading.

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