PS Vita sales plummet to new weekly low in Japan

[TVC 15]

Sony have been victims of there own hubris for far too long, tbh Sony is too big to fail (like the banks) in Japan, if Sony where to hit near bankruptcy I'm quite sure the Japan government would step-in. I could however see a much leaner Sony, and perhaps in the future a lot of there assets being sold off or downsized.

I used to have irrational fanboy tendencies toward Sony, but to be honest Nintendo are hardly saintly, I think when I became more educated and a bit more mature, I realised all's fair in love and war, and at the end of the day Nintendo are just as much in it for the money, and on that end have done some pretty reprehensible things, such as locking up the late 80's game market with dirty anti-competitive contracts.

Kaz Hirai's new strategy of 4 screens is a pretty terrible idea (the latest Sony strategy) trying to link content over 4 completely disparate platforms, PS3/VITA, Interactive TV, Android Phone and Windows Laptop. I know people think Apple are a bunch of rip-off merchants but they make the most money by selling the complete package, OSX differentiates themselves from the competition and allows them to make better margins in the premium market, a market Microsoft and most OEM system builders have been desperately chasing with this new "Ultrabook" reference platform. Of course licensing Windows offers little differentiation, and its been pretty much a rush to the bottom for most Windows computer platforms manufacturers. I think people are slowly getting wise that, an in-house eco-system might be the most profitable bet, but across 4 different platforms I'm not so sure. Android whilst popular also sees similar problems for OEM's, Samsung are the only really profitable Android platform OEM, HTC have been posting losses for example.

Bit off the beaten track, but thats really Sony's problem, too much diversification.

[Zoltor]

Nintendo may have "saved" the industry but at the same time they nearly ruined it with their third party licensing policies.

That's one of the major contributing factors that saves the industry. Without lic, any person can pump out random POS for almost nothing(aka points at the 2600), lic forced developers to put more creatively/effort into their games.

I think Nintendo should've even took it farther though, and not just used it as a deterant, because while it did get rid of the mass cloning, you still have poory coded controls in some games, and a couple of games actually crash/can't be beaten the way it was intended. Since companies were now expected to pay a fee, Nintendo should've playtested each game, to make sure It's atleast playable.


To GriskaGyoran: I would love that to happen, but considering Sega Isn't even allowing their games outside of Japan(nevermind localizing them, themselves), Sega clearly has no desire to even become a major company again, let alone start making hardware again sigh.

[TrekkiesUnite118]

They probably have the desire to be a major company, but have the sense to know now is not the time and that they are not in a financially sound position to do it.

As for Nintendo Playtesting every game, are you insane? With the Size of the NES library if Nintendo was required to play test every game for every error or issue we'd be lucky if we got 1/4 of the library. They had neither the time or the resources to do that.

[Guntz]

There's arguably more crappy licensed games than there are unlicensed (US releases mind you, no imports). The "seal of quality" had nothing to do with the game's quality, that's completely subjective. All that seal means is the game is more or less guaranteed to work and won't break just from looking at it funny.

[sheath]

Nobody who has been duped by the "nintendo saved the industry" narrative can even name all those obviously bad 2600 games that supposedly caused the "crash."

[Zoltor]

They probably have the desire to be a major company, but have the sense to know now is not the time and that they are not in a financially sound position to do it.

As for Nintendo Playtesting every game, are you insane? With the Size of the NES library if Nintendo was required to play test every game for every error or issue we'd be lucky if we got 1/4 of the library. They had neither the time or the resources to do that.

If so, they should allow localization companies to localize/publish their games outside of Japan, but they don't sigh

It wouldn't be that hard, first Nintendo is technically being paid, and second "only" major glitches, and really bad controls would be the target of the testing, so it wouldn't require much time at all(not to mention being able to use developer shortcuts to speed things up).

[TrekkiesUnite118]

You are still asking them to play test close to or over 1000 games (I can't remember the exact size of the NES Library). Not to mention during that time period you'd have GameBoy and SNES coming into the mix eventually. That's a lot to playtest and is just too much to ask one company to do.

[Zoltor]

You are still asking them to play test close to or over 1000 games (I can't remember the exact size of the NES Library). Not to mention during that time period you'd have GameBoy and SNES coming into the mix eventually. That's a lot to playtest and is just too much to ask one company to do.

It's almost 700 on the dot outside Japan, but not 100% sure about Japan, It's somewhere between 1400-1600(don't recall the exact number).

Edit: Oh yea, lets not forget the restriction on companies, what was it, they were only allowed to make 4 games a year, which would definitely make something like to above very doable.

[TrekkiesUnite118]

It's almost 700 on the dot outside Japan, but not 100% sure about Japan, It's somewhere between 1400-1600(don't recall the exact number).

Edit: Oh yea, lets not forget the restriction on companies, what was it, they were only allowed to make 4 games a year, which would definitely make something like to above very doable.

And how many companies were making games for the NES?

Think about it, about 1400 games if we include Japan over about 10 or so years. That's about 140 games to playtest a year. And let's not forget that Nintendo is already busy making their own games and designing and supporting new systems.

For the US that's about 700 over about 7 or so years. So 100 games a year. That's still a lot to ask them to do when they already had their hands full with other things.

[Zoltor]

And how many companies were making games for the NES?

Think about it, about 1400 games if we include Japan over about 10 or so years. That's about 140 games to playtest a year. And let's not forget that Nintendo is already busy making their own games and designing and supporting new systems.

For the US that's about 700 over about 7 or so years. So 100 games a year. That's still a lot to ask them to do when they already had their hands full with other things.

You're missing something, I'm not talking about using their currently allocated teams to be moved to testing all these non Nintendo games, of course not, that's too much for any company to deal with. I'm saying they should've took half of the lic frees, and used it to hire testers devoted just to the testing of these 3rd party games.

[TrekkiesUnite118]

Again, it would have taken time to test all those games. And we don't even know if Nintendo would have had the money to hire enough people to do that task and have it be efficient. What you are describing could have very easily lead to games being delayed for months if not years.

[Chilly Willy]

Well, here's a positively STUPID article. March/April is ALWAYS bad for sales of ANYTHING electronic. Always has been, always will be. Think about it a moment - what is going on in March and April? March is Spring Break - where everyone goes on vacation to someplace warm and gets drunk. NO ONE is buying anything as all their money is going to travel, hotel, and buying liquor. What about April? That's Easter... which is NOT a holiday for giving presents, just chocolate eggs.

I've been in the computer business for 30 years and March has ALWAYS been dead for everything. Notice that the only console that didn't drop was the one that released a HUGELY anticipated game, and that BARELY kept it from dropping.

[eddiespruce]

Well, here's a positively STUPID article. March/April is ALWAYS bad for sales of ANYTHING electronic. Always has been, always will be. Think about it a moment - what is going on in March and April? March is Spring Break - where everyone goes on vacation to someplace warm and gets drunk. NO ONE is buying anything as all their money is going to travel, hotel, and buying liquor. What about April? That's Easter... which is NOT a holiday for giving presents, just chocolate eggs.

I've been in the computer business for 30 years and March has ALWAYS been dead for everything. Notice that the only console that didn't drop was the one that released a HUGELY anticipated game, and that BARELY kept it from dropping.

Where I'm from, there is no "Spring Break". Instead, we get what's called "Easter Holidays", where everyone gets a week off following Easter sunday, although most people just stay home and do nothing, as there's usually still snow on the ground.

[JCU]

Nobody who has been duped by the "nintendo saved the industry" narrative can even name all those obviously bad 2600 games that supposedly caused the "crash."

The "crash" entails more then just a game or handful of games though. If anything, the "crash" gets more and more embellished with each passing year.

[Zoltor]

Again, it would have taken time to test all those games. And we don't even know if Nintendo would have had the money to hire enough people to do that task and have it be efficient. What you are describing could have very easily lead to games being delayed for months if not years.

Oh I think we all know Nintendo had more then enough money, I think the toughest time Nintendo ever had, was during the GC(even then Nintendo was never in any real trouble), which then they went on to make the best selling handheld ever, and the 2nd best selling console ever.

The lic fees had to be high enough to scare developers into not just poping out random crap/clones, so I'm sure they had more then enough funds to hire enough "testers".

To chiiywilly: Not every country has Spring break, and almost no country does it like the countries over here do it. Likewise, most nation probally don't really have easter, easter is a strictly christanity based holiday.y