lol what a surprise. soulx was the one to post a thread that shines a negative light on something Sony related.
lol what a surprise. soulx posted a news thread that just happened to be about the the Vita.
ON TOPIC: Are they really surprised? The PSP only got third party support in Japan, while third party support was pretty nonexistent most of the time in the west. The PS3 has only had so-so third party support, with a lot of the bigger titles being at least published partially by Sony. Basically, Sony needs to sell some systems themselves first with their own games before they can hope for the third party developers to jump in. The 3DS only has as many games coming from third party developers as it does because of the success of the DS that translated into promise for the 3DS, that has been fulfilled by sales.
The big but here: the Vita has still not even been out for six months in Japan yet, and not even five in the rest of the world. So before anybody goes "the Vita has no gaemz and is gonna die," consider the fact that the Vita still has the ability to create a long life for itself. It might have a rocky first year, but look at the DS: it had a really rocky first year, and it turned into the best selling handheld of all time (though, sales became considerably better with the release of the more attractive Lite). It's just a matter of giving the system time to show its full potential.
The Vita has been out for about 8 months (not 6) in Japan. That's more than enough time to judge how the portable is doing. Comparing the Vita's sales to the DS is extremely dumb. The DS or 3DS has never reached Vita-levels in sales. Even in the DS's first year, it was still doing well.
The PSP only getting third-party support in Japan is nothing new for portables. Fact is, most Western devs don't give a flying shit about handheld systems. It was the same with the GBA, DS and PSP. It's daft to think that was going to change any time soon.
This problem falls back to Sony's approach to gaming, and the market they try to appeal to. They aim for a set audience, generally the young adult crowd, while Nintendo tosses out the same games they have been for nearly 20 years now that appeal to everybody. It's easier to create and market games towards everybody, such as platformers and puzzlers, than it is to turn out action titles, shooters, and RPG's one after another. Despite this though, the PSP still did exceptionally well in Japan, and still does rather well for being a last gen handheld now. With that in mind, the Vita does still have a chance if Sony can get enough systems out there to interest third party developers, and if third party developers will be willing to take a risk.
That's the biggest load of bullshit I've heard.
If I'm reading your post correctly, you essentially said that Nintendo systems sell because they rehash casual games while Sony releases unique titles that are harder to market.
That being said, the audience that bought the PSP seems to be melding into the 3DS audience instead of the Vita. And it makes perfect sense. The 3DS already has games from the Resident Evil franchise, Monster Hunter, Dragon Quest, Metal Gear Solid, Kingdom Hearts as well as popular Nintendo franchises like a 2D and 3D Mario, Mario Kart, Animal Crossing and Zelda.
It's not an audience problem. It's the lack of popular good games. Before releasing the damn portable, Sony should have secured at least a couple AAA exclusives (an exclusive MGS or Final Fantasy game for instance). Gran Turismo sells a lot, God of War sells a lot. And yet they don't have either of those games in the working.
Everyone who is saying to simply wait for things to
fix themselves over time is either deluding themselves or simply doesn't understand the situation the Vita is in. Vita sales are slightly
worse than the Dreamcast.
The only hope I see that the handheld has left is with Assassins Creed and Call of Duty (Vita has practically nothing notable coming in 2013). And looking at past handheld iterations of both franchises, I doubt that will do much.