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Video Game Industry Thread: Time for a new thread

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Posts

  • Undead ScottsmanUndead Scottsman Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    Athenor wrote: »
    The beginning of the GB podcast has some good talk from Johnathon Blow and some MS guys about the difference between publishing on XBLA and iPhone and Steam.

    Well.. yeah. I've heard nothing but complaints about Microsoft's updating/certification process. Sure, the 2 guys from MS aren't directly in control of that, but I appreciate people going "No, really, this sucks" to hopefully shake things up.

    An interesting point that Blow brought up was that it isn't at all clear how the 360 version of Minecraft will keep up with the rapidly evolving PC version.

    Minecraft 'rapidly evolves' because it's an unfinished game. It's a beta that's still in development. Once the game is finished (in November) the number of updates per month will likely go down a lot.

    Nevertheless there is a difference between updates per month and months per update.
    I meant go down a lot to "one" or "none." You know, like a normal game :P

    Undead Scottsman on
  • lowlylowlycooklowlylowlycook Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    Athenor wrote: »
    The beginning of the GB podcast has some good talk from Johnathon Blow and some MS guys about the difference between publishing on XBLA and iPhone and Steam.

    Well.. yeah. I've heard nothing but complaints about Microsoft's updating/certification process. Sure, the 2 guys from MS aren't directly in control of that, but I appreciate people going "No, really, this sucks" to hopefully shake things up.

    An interesting point that Blow brought up was that it isn't at all clear how the 360 version of Minecraft will keep up with the rapidly evolving PC version.

    Minecraft 'rapidly evolves' because it's an unfinished game. It's a beta that's still in development. Once the game is finished (in November) the number of updates per month will likely go down a lot.

    Nevertheless there is a difference between updates per month and months per update.
    I meant go down a lot to "one" or "none." You know, like a normal game :P

    Why restrict yourself to normal games? That's Blow's point. MS has made a lot of assumptions that limit the developer.

    lowlylowlycook on
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  • AlgertmanAlgertman Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    PSV is going to have one hell of a up hill battle against the 3DS even if it hits early. Nintendo announced a lot of titles for 3DS. Plus whatever third parties ever get around to releasing.

    edit - I'm so tired I can't even type what I want.

    Algertman on
  • PureauthorPureauthor Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    Just FYI I'm still pissed off at Nintendo region-locking the 3DS.

    Bunch of assholes.

    Pureauthor on
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  • RakaiRakai Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    Oh hell yes. The Vanillaware game that was shown on Vita is a PS3 game too.

    Rakai on
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  • PureauthorPureauthor Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    I assume we're going to see a fair bit of that sort of thing in the future.

    Unless the PS4 is stupidly powerful as well (and stupid would be the correct adjective in such a case), the ports will continue.

    Pureauthor on
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  • CygnusZCygnusZ Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    Algertman wrote: »
    PSV is going to have one hell of a up hill battle against the 3DS even if it hits early. Nintendo announced a lot of titles for 3DS. Plus whatever third parties ever get around to releasing.

    edit - I'm so tired I can't even type what I want.

    If Nintendo lowers the price and offers a bundle, I think it'll trample PSV no matter what Sony does. If those two devices are competing at essentially the same price though, Sony stands a fighting chance of being competitive. Also, PSV will probably have a much longer life than 3DS.

    CygnusZ on
  • Brainiac 8Brainiac 8 Don't call me Shirley... Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    So when asked about Pikmin 3, Miyamoto's answer: It's still being worked on, and has since been turned into a WiiU project.

    This both makes me super giddy and super sad. I'm sad cause I want it now, and I'm happy because...well can you imagine Pikmin in HD along with tablet controls!?!? It's going to rock so very hard. :D

    Brainiac 8 on
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  • Brainiac 8Brainiac 8 Don't call me Shirley... Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    Epic finally on board?
    RT @Michael_French @MarkRein So that means you're supporting Wii U? ;) < --No announcement to make today but let's just way "Water meet fish"

    Brainiac 8 on
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  • Unco-ordinatedUnco-ordinated NZRegistered User regular
    edited June 2011
    Algertman wrote: »
    PSV is going to have one hell of a up hill battle against the 3DS even if it hits early. Nintendo announced a lot of titles for 3DS. Plus whatever third parties ever get around to releasing.

    edit - I'm so tired I can't even type what I want.

    Huh? They only announced a couple titles, the others they announced last year.

    Unco-ordinated on
    Steam ID - LiquidSolid170 | PSN ID - LiquidSolid
  • Undead ScottsmanUndead Scottsman Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    Athenor wrote: »
    The beginning of the GB podcast has some good talk from Johnathon Blow and some MS guys about the difference between publishing on XBLA and iPhone and Steam.

    Well.. yeah. I've heard nothing but complaints about Microsoft's updating/certification process. Sure, the 2 guys from MS aren't directly in control of that, but I appreciate people going "No, really, this sucks" to hopefully shake things up.

    An interesting point that Blow brought up was that it isn't at all clear how the 360 version of Minecraft will keep up with the rapidly evolving PC version.

    Minecraft 'rapidly evolves' because it's an unfinished game. It's a beta that's still in development. Once the game is finished (in November) the number of updates per month will likely go down a lot.

    Nevertheless there is a difference between updates per month and months per update.
    I meant go down a lot to "one" or "none." You know, like a normal game :P

    Why restrict yourself to normal games? That's Blow's point. MS has made a lot of assumptions that limit the developer.
    Well, there's a reason it's considered "normal." And while notch can certainly buck the trend and release endless patches every other day like they were Valve on speed, it's probably just not in their best interest to do so post-release. I imagine they'll have other projects on their table at that point.

    Undead Scottsman on
  • PeewiPeewi Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    No hard drive. Are you fucking serious?
    No online system mentioned.
    Specs not given, but looking 360/PS3 level.

    Yeah... not interested at all. I'll get a 3DS, but I'm totally unsold and unimpressed by the WiiU at this point.
    Also... no Xenoblade or Last Story mentions means they're Europe-only it looks like.

    No built in hard drive, but it's confirmed to support USB storage.

    Peewi on
  • CouscousCouscous Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    http://www.computerandvideogames.com/306233/news/sony-casts-doubt-on-global-2011-ps-vita-launch/?cid=OTC-RSS&attr=CVG-General-RSS
    While a worldwide 2011 PS Vita launch was implied by Sony at its E3 press conference, US PlayStation boss Jack Tretton has cast doubt on the possibility.

    Speaking to Reuters, the executive reportedly said Vita would go on sale in Japan by the end of the year, while launches in some territories could yet be pushed to 2012.

    Sony's second in command, Kaz Hirai, has said the company expects PlayStation Vita to turn a profit in under three years, and that he hopes it'll surpass PSP's 70 million global sales.

    Couscous on
  • CadeCade Eppur si muove.Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    Selling it for a loss, they said they wouldn't do that again but the occasion to outdo the 3DS price tag must have been too tempting and it was a good move in one way to get people on board, still how much money can they bleed?

    I don't know if it was the outcome of the Wii that was a disappointment to some, the name, the new controller or what but appears most people are awful skeptical about Nintendos new console, I suppose it didn't help that most people thought the controller WAS the console itself.

    Yet as we all know Nintendo has a way of defying the odds.

    Addition, I guess gamers were not the only ones expecting more:
    Nintendo Co. fell to the lowest in more than five years after the unveiling of its high-definition video-game console prompted some analysts to question the company’s ability to repeat the success of its Wii model.

    “There were high expectations from the new version of the Wii and this fell far short,” Yusuke Tsunoda, an analyst at Tokai Tokyo Securities Co., said by phone today. “People had expected to see something more at a big event like the E3, but there wasn’t really anything more than what’s already reported.”

    Nintendo tumbled 5.7 percent to 16,930 yen at the close of trading in Osaka. More than 2.2 million shares changed hands, compared with a six-month daily average of about 720,000.

    Iwata signaled the WiiU will likely be priced at more than 20,000 yen ($250) in Japan when it goes on sale next year, the Nikkei newspaper reported today, citing an interview with the president. Nintendo is unlikely to sell the new console for the same price as the current Wii, the report cited Iwata as saying.

    International Business Machines Corp.’s microprocessors will be used in the WiiU system, the Armonk, New York-based company said in a statement.Competition is increasing for Nintendo. Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)’s Kinect motion-sensing controller and Sony’s Move motion controller, both introduced in the past year, have spurred sales, according to industry tracker NPD Group.

    Cade on
  • CouscousCouscous Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    “People had expected to see something more at a big event like the E3, but there wasn’t really anything more than what’s already reported.”
    That seems like less skepticism and more because of a lack of new info.

    Couscous on
  • CadeCade Eppur si muove.Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    If Nintendo stays true to how they do things we won't even know the full specs of the darn machine until a month or so it comes out, they keep their cards awful close to their chest, until then, speculation, rumor mongering, etc.

    Cade on
  • AthenorAthenor Battle Hardened Optimist The Skies of HiigaraRegistered User regular
    edited June 2011
    Cade wrote: »
    If Nintendo stays true to how they do things we won't even know the full specs of the darn machine until a month or so it comes out, they keep their cards awful close to their chest, until then, speculation, rumor mongering, etc.

    I don't think this will be the case this time around. The leaks were mostly spurred on by outside companies actually.. like.. knowing about the thing. Oh, sure, there are going to be NDA's, but to have 18 months + for the big-name studios to work on dev kits, someone's gonna say something somewhere.

    Athenor on
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  • CouscousCouscous Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    I'm really wondering how much of a loss Sony will take on the Vita. I guess whoever rips it apart and looks at the guts should give a good idea.

    Couscous on
  • CadeCade Eppur si muove.Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    Athenor wrote: »
    Cade wrote: »
    If Nintendo stays true to how they do things we won't even know the full specs of the darn machine until a month or so it comes out, they keep their cards awful close to their chest, until then, speculation, rumor mongering, etc.

    I don't think this will be the case this time around. The leaks were mostly spurred on by outside companies actually.. like.. knowing about the thing. Oh, sure, there are going to be NDA's, but to have 18 months + for the big-name studios to work on dev kits, someone's gonna say something somewhere.

    They already are saying things, we've heard that it's more powerful then a 360 etc. But the thing is we always hear such things when it comes to Nintendo consoles before they are released but it's always second or third hand and we never get a full view of things until again it's almost released. Then we get the full picture but not before.

    As for the Vita, I'm guessing it cost 400 or so to manufacture.

    Cade on
  • SheepSheep Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    edited June 2011
    When is Four Swords hitting DSiware? Couldn't find it on the wife's DSi last night.

    Sheep on
  • CadeCade Eppur si muove.Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    This summer is what I heard but when exactly hard to say, but hey it's free so that's something.

    Cade on
  • Brainiac 8Brainiac 8 Don't call me Shirley... Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    Nintendo said September.

    Brainiac 8 on
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  • UncleSporkyUncleSporky Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    Somebody said September.

    I really wonder if it's the GBA one or an all-new one.

    It should be really easy to get together people to play it too. Me, my sister, and my friend all still have our DSis in addition to the 3DS, and it's free, so we should be able to get it on all of them!

    UncleSporky on
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  • cloudeaglecloudeagle Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    Apparently Shiggy was the king of comedy at Nintendo's roundtable. Here's a bunch of stuff he said, paraphrased from twitter feeds:

    "There are two types of people in this world... people who want an airplane to go up by pushing up, and those who want it to go up by pushing down. How many of you like pushing up? (people raise hands) You grew up playing Sega games."

    The other execs blamed Mario 3DS' lack of name on Miyamoto.

    A French journalist asked Miyamoto about the vitality sensor. His answer: "um, next question." (The serious answer is that it has technical issues and isn't stable enough to be released, but development continues.)

    Also, Next Level Games (the guys who did the new Punch-Out) is doing Luigi's Mansion 2, which won't hit until next year. Retro is helping out on Mario Kart. Geez... Retro is pretty much the new Rare.

    Pikmin 3's going to WiiU. There's still some unannounced first-party Wii games coming.

    cloudeagle on
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  • Brainiac 8Brainiac 8 Don't call me Shirley... Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    cloudeagle wrote: »
    Apparently Shiggy was the king of comedy at Nintendo's roundtable. Here's a bunch of stuff he said, paraphrased from twitter feeds:

    "There are two types of people in this world... people who want an airplane to go up by pushing up, and those who want it to go up by pushing down. How many of you like pushing up? (people raise hands) You grew up playing Sega games."

    The other execs blamed Mario 3DS' lack of name on Miyamoto.

    A French journalist asked Miyamoto about the vitality sensor. His answer: "um, next question." (The serious answer is that it has technical issues and isn't stable enough to be released, but development continues.)

    Also, Next Level Games (the guys who did the new Punch-Out) is doing Luigi's Mansion 2, which won't hit until next year. Retro is helping out on Mario Kart. Geez... Retro is pretty much the new Rare.

    Pikmin 3's going to WiiU. There's still some unannounced first-party Wii games coming.


    1. The difference between Rare and Retro is that Retro has actual talent.

    2. Hopefully one of those unnanounced titles is Xenoblade! :x

    Brainiac 8 on
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  • V FactionV Faction Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    I will say, in regards to the stock dropping, Nintendo really doesn't like to get their feet wet. To their own abolishment if you ask me. They could've thrown up a lot of already announced and definitely unannounced titles during the main briefing to make it seem a little bit more fleshed out.

    For example, Professor Layton 4 would've been a nice addition, even if only Japanese footage. Kirby Wii and Kirby DS, just thrown out there for kicks, would've gone over well with the crowd after the much beloved Epic Yarn. Even The Rolling Western could've hit those notes of newness people crave. The montage was fine, but people rarely remember montages.

    V Faction on
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  • cloudeaglecloudeagle Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    Some rambling about the portables situation:

    While the 3DS isn't doing badly, it's not selling as well as expectations. There's three possible explanations for this, in increasing order of badness: 1. not enough games yet, 2. it's too expensive, 3. people think it's pretty much a DS. The first issue is exactly the same thing the DS ran into, and in the long run it turned out not to be a problem at all. And with a new Mario and Mario Kart on the way this year, that'll definitely take care of it. Though if sales don't go up significantly, that means the other two issues are the stronger ones.

    The second issue seems easy enough to solve... just drop the price! But it's not quite that simple. If you drop the price too soon, it'll imply weakness and lack of faith in the product to the market and sales won't really be affected. If history is any indication, you can't credibly drop the price in less than a year. So, as others have said, a pack-in game could be a temporary substitute. And they do work pretty well. In fact Nintendo may have already given it a pack-in game with Four Swords for free.

    But if the third issue is true... ack. Once a public perception takes hold, it's VERY difficult to change even if the perception isn't the same as reality. (Such as the Gamecube being an underpowered kiddy toy made by Fischer-Price, and the PSP having no games.) That could be a long-term bugaboo if the perception manages to spread beyond the people who, say, believe a Mario game is coming to the 360 this Christmas.

    On to Vita. Again, the price is shocking, considering how the PS3 and PSP Go launched. By comparison, it seems downright reasonable.... to us, at least. I've said it before, but $250 for a portable is still fairly steep for the general market, and the general market is much bigger than we are. So that could act as a drag at launch. Still, it's not as insane as the PS3's launch, and the PS3 managed to recover with price drops after being hamstrung. It's solidly in third place, but sales still went up.

    But I still see obstacles Vita needs to overcome. Yes, the system does look great... but the strongest system has never won a generation, and we're in an era where visuals seem to matter less than ever before. (See: the massive success of the Wii/smartphone gaming/Facebook gaming.) Yes, Vita is getting some unique, big-name games... but so did the PSP, with the God of Wars, GTAs, Metal Gears, Ratchet and Clanks, etc. The 3G thing has the potential to confuse/annoy the market, considering it's the first dedicated game system to incorporate it, and they might wonder why the hell the thing needs it. Or worse, think that the non-3G version is gimped, yet not be intrigued enough to get the Wifi version.

    And then there's the big elephant in the room... the PSP's horrible market perception. True, the Vita isn't called a PSP, but the market's annoyance at the Sega CD/32X fiasco dragged down the Saturn, and the Saturn's flop helped drag down the Dreamcast. True, perception isn't everything... Nintendo overcame weak perception from the Cube to the Wii, while Sony squandered their hype going from the PS2 to the PS3. But we're talking about three years plus of angry "meh"s toward the PSP, and now Vita might not launch in the west until next year? That's horrible, especially since the PSP has pretty much gone from "struggling" to "effectively dead." Or rather, it's undead... it might actually do less damage to the brand to yank it from store shelves now and start fresh with the Vita than to have the PSP clogging up store shelves like a rotting albatross until then.

    Of course, a lot of it depends on how well the 3DS does, and I'm sure the Vita will do just fine in Japan. But man, I've got some doubts.

    Edit: I'm also a little concerned that Sony said the PSP wasn't well-received in the west because it didn't offer an experience different enough from consoles... yet some of their biggest features is how you can play the exact same thing on the PS3 and the Vita. Um... how does that help?

    cloudeagle on
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  • CadeCade Eppur si muove.Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    Sounds like.....some people couldn't wait forever.
    For those of you that are planning on picking up Duke Nukem Forever it's time to put up those spoiler guards. Pirates have already released a full version of the game, leaving the floodgates open for spoilerific activities of all sorts in the coming week. Duke Nukem Forever was meant to be under wraps for most of the world on June 10th, and the US June 14th, but all that has obviously changed.

    Of course once again it's the Xbox 360 version of a major game hitting pirate channels first, something that publishers used to bash the PC platform over as some sort of excuse to shift their focus away. It leaves me wondering just when publishers are going to start to acknowledge the console problem, or does it not matter as long as copies are still flying off shelves?

    Yeaaaaaaaaaah.

    Cade on
  • ZxerolZxerol for the smaller pieces, my shovel wouldn't do so i took off my boot and used my shoeRegistered User regular
    edited June 2011
    Is DNF even a game where people are terrified of spoilers for?

    Zxerol on
  • cloudeaglecloudeagle Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    Zxerol wrote: »
    Is DNF even a game where people are terrified of spoilers for?

    Here's how the last level goes: Duke kicks some ass, throws out some one-liners, and sees some tits.

    Sorry to spoil it for you.

    cloudeagle on
    Switch: 3947-4890-9293
  • Unco-ordinatedUnco-ordinated NZRegistered User regular
    edited June 2011
    V Faction wrote: »
    I will say, in regards to the stock dropping, Nintendo really doesn't like to get their feet wet. To their own abolishment if you ask me. They could've thrown up a lot of already announced and definitely unannounced titles during the main briefing to make it seem a little bit more fleshed out.

    For example, Professor Layton 4 would've been a nice addition, even if only Japanese footage. Kirby Wii and Kirby DS, just thrown out there for kicks, would've gone over well with the crowd after the much beloved Epic Yarn. Even The Rolling Western could've hit those notes of newness people crave. The montage was fine, but people rarely remember montages.

    Well they don't really need to show Japanese footage of Layton 4, it's coming out in a few months (published by Nintendo too). I think they just made the decision beforehand that they'd ignore the DS and even the Wii (apart from Zelda anyway) in favour of their new systems.

    Problem with that was the Wiiu isn't even close to being finished, so the entire thing was very vague and confusing. It would've been a lot better if they'd done a bit more 3DS or Wii stuff and squashed the Wiiu stuff into like 15 minutes at the end. Then again, the hype had built up so much they couldn't really win. Whatever they showed was going to followed with "that's it?" In that case I think I would've issued a statement last week telling everyone not to get their hopes up too high because it's still at least a year away.

    Unco-ordinated on
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  • ZxerolZxerol for the smaller pieces, my shovel wouldn't do so i took off my boot and used my shoeRegistered User regular
    edited June 2011
    cloudeagle wrote: »
    Zxerol wrote: »
    Is DNF even a game where people are terrified of spoilers for?

    Here's how the last level goes: Duke kicks some ass, throws out some one-liners, and sees some tits.

    Sorry to spoil it for you.

    mother fucker

    I will kill your dick god damn you.

    14 years of anticipation ruined

    Zxerol on
  • AvicusAvicus Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    cloudeagle wrote: »
    Some rambling about the portables situation:

    While the 3DS isn't doing badly, it's not selling as well as expectations. There's three possible explanations for this, in increasing order of badness: 1. not enough games yet, 2. it's too expensive, 3. people think it's pretty much a DS. The first issue is exactly the same thing the DS ran into, and in the long run it turned out not to be a problem at all. And with a new Mario and Mario Kart on the way this year, that'll definitely take care of it. Though if sales don't go up significantly, that means the other two issues are the stronger ones.

    The second issue seems easy enough to solve... just drop the price! But it's not quite that simple. If you drop the price too soon, it'll imply weakness and lack of faith in the product to the market and sales won't really be affected. If history is any indication, you can't credibly drop the price in less than a year. So, as others have said, a pack-in game could be a temporary substitute. And they do work pretty well. In fact Nintendo may have already given it a pack-in game with Four Swords for free.

    But if the third issue is true... ack. Once a public perception takes hold, it's VERY difficult to change even if the perception isn't the same as reality. (Such as the Gamecube being an underpowered kiddy toy made by Fischer-Price, and the PSP having no games.) That could be a long-term bugaboo if the perception manages to spread beyond the people who, say, believe a Mario game is coming to the 360 this Christmas.

    On to Vita. Again, the price is shocking, considering how the PS3 and PSP Go launched. By comparison, it seems downright reasonable.... to us, at least. I've said it before, but $250 for a portable is still fairly steep for the general market, and the general market is much bigger than we are. So that could act as a drag at launch. Still, it's not as insane as the PS3's launch, and the PS3 managed to recover with price drops after being hamstrung. It's solidly in third place, but sales still went up.

    But I still see obstacles Vita needs to overcome. Yes, the system does look great... but the strongest system has never won a generation, and we're in an era where visuals seem to matter less than ever before. (See: the massive success of the Wii/smartphone gaming/Facebook gaming.) Yes, Vita is getting some unique, big-name games... but so did the PSP, with the God of Wars, GTAs, Metal Gears, Ratchet and Clanks, etc. The 3G thing has the potential to confuse/annoy the market, considering it's the first dedicated game system to incorporate it, and they might wonder why the hell the thing needs it. Or worse, think that the non-3G version is gimped, yet not be intrigued enough to get the Wifi version.

    And then there's the big elephant in the room... the PSP's horrible market perception. True, the Vita isn't called a PSP, but the market's annoyance at the Sega CD/32X fiasco dragged down the Saturn, and the Saturn's flop helped drag down the Dreamcast. True, perception isn't everything... Nintendo overcame weak perception from the Cube to the Wii, while Sony squandered their hype going from the PS2 to the PS3. But we're talking about three years plus of angry "meh"s toward the PSP, and now Vita might not launch in the west until next year? That's horrible, especially since the PSP has pretty much gone from "struggling" to "effectively dead." Or rather, it's undead... it might actually do less damage to the brand to yank it from store shelves now and start fresh with the Vita than to have the PSP clogging up store shelves like a rotting albatross until then.

    Of course, a lot of it depends on how well the 3DS does, and I'm sure the Vita will do just fine in Japan. But man, I've got some doubts.

    Vita will be fine. You go on about the PSP like it is a dead weight but it has sold over 70 million. Thats 50% more than the PS3 and 360 have. Yea there have been problems in the past year with games not being released in English and western developers abandoning it. As long as Sony has a strong launch with the PSV, they will sell bucketloads.

    And not to nitpick but the PS3 is 'solidly' in third place? According to numbers from Feb/March there was only a 3.5 million difference in the number of PS3 and 360s sold worldwide. That is a fantastic catchup when you take into account the year headstart (around 9 million units) as well as all the lolsony moments early in the PS3's life. Hell by the end of the generation I think it may be a complete deadheat between the two.

    Avicus on
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  • V FactionV Faction Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    V Faction wrote: »
    I will say, in regards to the stock dropping, Nintendo really doesn't like to get their feet wet. To their own abolishment if you ask me. They could've thrown up a lot of already announced and definitely unannounced titles during the main briefing to make it seem a little bit more fleshed out.

    For example, Professor Layton 4 would've been a nice addition, even if only Japanese footage. Kirby Wii and Kirby DS, just thrown out there for kicks, would've gone over well with the crowd after the much beloved Epic Yarn. Even The Rolling Western could've hit those notes of newness people crave. The montage was fine, but people rarely remember montages.

    Well they don't really need to show Japanese footage of Layton 4, it's coming out in a few months (published by Nintendo too). I think they just made the decision beforehand that they'd ignore the DS and even the Wii (apart from Zelda anyway) in favour of their new systems.

    Problem with that was the Wiiu isn't even close to being finished, so the entire thing was very vague and confusing. It would've been a lot better if they'd done a bit more 3DS or Wii stuff and squashed the Wiiu stuff into like 15 minutes at the end. Then again, the hype had built up so much they couldn't really win. Whatever they showed was going to followed with "that's it?" In that case I think I would've issued a statement last week telling everyone not to get their hopes up too high because it's still at least a year away.

    That's why I say it was detrimental and why I can see the numbers drop. I get the message, but it doesn't come off as smooth when people are trying to catagorize your conference based on A) All the exclusives, B) All the unnannounced stuff, and C) Hardware. Y'know, gotta throw in some crowd pleasers.

    V Faction on
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  • Xenogears of BoreXenogears of Bore Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    PSP has been dead weight software wise in the west for three years now.

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  • V FactionV Faction Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    Avicus wrote: »
    And not to nitpick but the PS3 is 'solidly' in third place? According to numbers from Feb/March there was only a 3.5 million difference in the number of PS3 and 360s sold worldwide. That is a fantastic catchup when you take into account the year headstart (around 9 million units) as well as all the lolsony moments early in the PS3's life. Hell by the end of the generation I think it may be a complete deadheat between the two.
    Not to take anything away from PS3, but that catch-up rate is an amazing testament to the absolute dissmal failure of the 360 in Japan.

    I dread to think what the numbers would be like if that thing actually sold more than 1000 units every week there.

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  • PureauthorPureauthor Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    Avicus wrote: »
    Vita will be fine. You go on about the PSP like it is a dead weight but it has sold over 70 million. Thats 50% more than the PS3 and 360 have. Yea there have been problems in the past year with games not being released in English and western developers abandoning it. As long as Sony has a strong launch with the PSV, they will sell bucketloads.

    Two things:

    The PSP, right now, is dead. If the only measure of success if hardware sold at the end of the life cycle, then bubbly for them. But there are other measures of success, such as how well a system sets the ground for its successor. In that regard the PSP is a massive failure in everywhere but Japan.

    Secondly, that it has managed 70 million units but still continues to have such abysmal software sales everywhere but Japan is in fact a mark against the system.

    PSVita will live or die in the West by Sony's ability to assure consumers that this is not a repeat of the PSP.

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  • cloudeaglecloudeagle Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    Avicus wrote: »
    Vita will be fine. You go on about the PSP like it is a dead weight but it has sold over 70 million. Thats 50% more than the PS3 and 360 have. Yea there have been problems in the past year with games not being released in English and western developers abandoning it. As long as Sony has a strong launch with the PSV, they will sell bucketloads.

    And not to nitpick but the PS3 is 'solidly' in third place? According to numbers from Feb/March there was only a 3.5 million difference in the number of PS3 and 360s sold worldwide. That is a fantastic catchup when you take into account the year headstart (around 9 million units) as well as all the lolsony moments early in the PS3's life. Hell by the end of the generation I think it may be a complete deadheat between the two.

    As others have said, PSP software sales have been utterly, utterly horrible in the west for the last three years. To the point to where it's considered a rare, blockbuster smash for a PSP game to break six figures in sales numbers. And the reason the PS3 is so close to the 360 is because the 360 sells utterly, utterly horribly in Japan. Probably proportionally much worse than the PSP does here.

    There's a reason I pointed out that the Vita will probably be just fine in Japan. :P

    cloudeagle on
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  • lowlylowlycooklowlylowlycook Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    Avicus wrote: »
    Vita will be fine. You go on about the PSP like it is a dead weight but it has sold over 70 million. Thats 50% more than the PS3 and 360 have. Yea there have been problems in the past year with games not being released in English and western developers abandoning it. As long as Sony has a strong launch with the PSV, they will sell bucketloads.

    And not to nitpick but the PS3 is 'solidly' in third place? According to numbers from Feb/March there was only a 3.5 million difference in the number of PS3 and 360s sold worldwide. That is a fantastic catchup when you take into account the year headstart (around 9 million units) as well as all the lolsony moments early in the PS3's life. Hell by the end of the generation I think it may be a complete deadheat between the two.

    I agree that the PS3 is doing OK given the terrible first year. However, the fact that the PSP did OK as far as hardware goes doesn't necessarily mean that the NGP can replicate that. Just for starters, The PlayStation brand is not as strong, there is more competition from smartphones, it seems likely to get even more console like games which we don't know that people want to play on the go and the 3DS seems like a closer match graphically vs. the situation last gen.

    lowlylowlycook on
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  • cloudeaglecloudeagle Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    Avicus wrote: »
    Vita will be fine. You go on about the PSP like it is a dead weight but it has sold over 70 million. Thats 50% more than the PS3 and 360 have. Yea there have been problems in the past year with games not being released in English and western developers abandoning it. As long as Sony has a strong launch with the PSV, they will sell bucketloads.

    And not to nitpick but the PS3 is 'solidly' in third place? According to numbers from Feb/March there was only a 3.5 million difference in the number of PS3 and 360s sold worldwide. That is a fantastic catchup when you take into account the year headstart (around 9 million units) as well as all the lolsony moments early in the PS3's life. Hell by the end of the generation I think it may be a complete deadheat between the two.

    I agree that the PS3 is doing OK given the terrible first year. However, the fact that the PSP did OK as far as hardware goes doesn't necessarily mean that the NGP can replicate that. Just for starters, The PlayStation brand is not as strong, there is more competition from smartphones, it seems likely to get even more console like games which we don't know that people want to play on the go and the 3DS seems like a closer match graphically vs. the situation last gen.

    Agreed. In fact, considering how hugely smartphones are selling, it's possible that both the 3DS and the Vita will sell relatively weakly this gen.

    Edit: Oh hell, I'm going to catch shit for this page topper. Well, at least I didn't mention Angry Birds.

    Edit edit: Fuck.

    cloudeagle on
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