The Playstation Vita Catch-All

tuffalobuffalo wrote:
necroyeti wrote:
DSGamer wrote:

"Let's Fish! Hooked On" is available on PSN to those interested. $20.

Hell yeah. I forgot this even existed and had to go look it up. Now that I remember, I'm downloading it now.

Let us know what you think. I'm still on the fence.

I haven't had too much opportunity to play since I've been at a conference all week, but my initial impressions are not great. I will post more once I get a chance.

interstate78 wrote:

Regarding the difficulty in Ninja Gaiden

I think we're so accustomed to not having to make an effort to be "good" at a game now that when we face a game like it we're repulsed and think that they designed it wrong.

it has nothing to do with difficulty. it has everything to do with a crap camera and inprecise controls. I honestly can't tell if its hard or not I keep getting sidetracked by the bad.

Cobble wrote:
interstate78 wrote:

Regarding the difficulty in Ninja Gaiden

I think we're so accustomed to not having to make an effort to be "good" at a game now that when we face a game like it we're repulsed and think that they designed it wrong.

it has nothing to do with difficulty. it has everything to do with a crap camera and inprecise controls. I honestly can't tell if its hard or not I keep getting sidetracked by the bad.

I agree the camera is crap, I don't agree that the controls are imprecise. I've been able to pull off every move I wanted, when I wanted, at the time I wanted. When I take damage or die, it's entirely my fault for not watching my opponents closely enough. Sometimes the camera makes that hard, by hiding projectile throwing enemies off screen, but Ryu controls exactly how I need him to.

The problem with the Vita version is that, because it's running at 30fps, there's noticeable input lag that does not exist in other versions of the game. Polygon reported this in their review if I remember correctly.

SuperDave wrote:

The problem with the Vita version is that, because it's running at 30fps, there's noticeable input lag that does not exist in other versions of the game. Polygon reported this in their review if I remember correctly.

The input lag is exactly what I meant. And also directional jumping is weird but I think that's more camera but I did chalk it up to the controls.

Really? I haven't noticed it, but that sucks if it wrecks it for other people. This is the first game to tear me away from Persona 4 Golden, so I'm impressed and having a blast.

I decided to buy Sly Cooper for Vita only after all. 3.5gb is too much for me and I had a coupon so it ended up being 20$ before taxes.

I really enjoy it so far, the presentation is flawless and I really like the gameplay. No gimmicks, just some good ole' platforming fun

interstate78 wrote:

I decided to buy Sly Cooper for Vita only after all. 3.5gb is too much for me and I had a coupon so it ended up being 20$ before taxes.

Ouch on the size - I got the PS3 version, and was excited to have a Vita copy as well to download, but that may have to wait until I buy a bigger card.

SuperDave wrote:

The problem with the Vita version is that, because it's running at 30fps, there's noticeable input lag that does not exist in other versions of the game. Polygon reported this in their review if I remember correctly.

I just ending replaying Ninja Gaiden: Black instead.

Good decision. I want to return to Sigma at some point myself.

In the latest Sony earnings, they revealed that the Vita's selling even worse and they've lowered sales forecasts for something like the fourth time. Dammit, this is heartbreaking for someone like me who loves the Vita to death. There's got to be a way they can figure this out.

Sony needs to ditch their damn televisions. At least if the company was profitable this wouldn't be as big a deal, but having to lower expectations in one of two divisions that is actually making them money when the company is bleeding out from other divisions is really bad.

I have to eat my own words, and admit that it's really the price. If the Vita were $200 instead of $250, the story would be totally different. That $50 may not matter much to me, or to some of us here, but it's apparently really important to a lot of people. Keeping the price where it is creates this downward spiral, where they can't get units into peoples hands, and 3rd party developers shift attention to the systems that will sell more copies of their game (3DS). The forecast of games for the two systems is the hard evidence, it's pretty stark for the Vita.

Don't you dare tell cube I said any of this.

Sony sure is if they don't stem the loss of money. Did I already mention that they should ditch their crappy TV division?

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

In the latest Sony earnings, they revealed that the Vita's selling even worse and they've lowered sales forecasts for something like the fourth time. Dammit, this is heartbreaking for someone like me who loves the Vita to death. There's got to be a way they can figure this out.

Their new sales forecast is 7 million units sold of both the PSP and the Vita by March 31st. As I understand it, that's 7 million units sold in the current fiscal year from April 1st of last year to March 31st of this one.

So far, the Vita and the PSP have sold 4,596,137 units since April 1st. That leaves 2,403,863 combined sales left to go for the remainder of this month and the whole of next month. The only month in which combined PSP and Vita sales have topped 1 million units was this past December; otherwise, they manage about 417,000 combined units per month.

Unless I've misunderstood their timeframe or have gotten bad sales figures, even Sony's revised forecast seems woefully optimistic. Unless they were to announce some kind of major price cut or other big incentive that would dramatically spur sales, I don't see how they could hope to meet their mark.

I know I wanted a Vita for Persona 4, but I didn't actually jump on it until the $180 Black Friday bundle deal. I'm curious how many other people bought it at that price.

I think that accounts for a huge chunk of the > 1m sales Clockwork just mentioned. I know a ton of people who jumped on a Vita at $180-$200.

Not sure what ditching the TV division would do.. the PlayStation division isn't making money either..

Not sure what ditching the TV division would do.. the PlayStation division isn't making money either..

TheGameguru wrote:

Not sure what ditching the TV division would do.. the PlayStation division isn't making money either..

Ugh, how many times do I have to link this. Will someone please actually read it this time?

You're wrong, their Games division is profitable, look at the most recently released revenue statement (source). Sony is bleeding from their Mobile, Imaging, and Home Entertainment divisions. Seems pretty clear from that financial statement that what Sony, as an entire company, needs to do is stem the losses from those three divisions. Games isn't their most profitable division (that's, oddly enough, semiconductors) but it is making money.

So please, stop saying that SCE is not making money without first looking at the numbers.

ahrezmendi wrote:

Don't you dare tell cube I said any of this. ;)

To be fair, I do own a Vita, but I only paid $160 for the unit(would have been $200 for the unit and P4G, but the game was out of stock), because my brother won a huge OfficeMax gift card, and he wanted some cash. And there was an $40 off offer on OfficeMax.com.

Also, it Sony announces a price cut in 2 weeks, it'll be just a bit over 4 weeks after I bought the system. Sony, don't let me down. You've haven't failed so far.

ahrezmendi wrote:
TheGameguru wrote:

Not sure what ditching the TV division would do.. the PlayStation division isn't making money either..

Ugh, how many times do I have to link this. Will someone please actually read it this time?

You're wrong, their Games division is profitable, look at the most recently released revenue statement (source). Sony is bleeding from their Mobile, Imaging, and Home Entertainment divisions. Seems pretty clear from that financial statement that what Sony, as an entire company, needs to do is stem the losses from those three divisions. Games isn't their most profitable division (that's, oddly enough, semiconductors) but it is making money.

So please, stop saying that SCE is not making money without first looking at the numbers.

meh.. while EBIT is crucial I'm not sure its a slam dunk as you are painting it. Given this quarter should be as dismal I wouldnt be so hasty to proclaim the division as "profitable"

TheGameguru wrote:

meh..

Nice, way to completely dismiss my researched argument. I think we're done here.

cube wrote:
ahrezmendi wrote:

Don't you dare tell cube I said any of this. ;)

To be fair, I do own a Vita, but I only paid $160 for the unit(would have been $200 for the unit and P4G, but the game was out of stock), because my brother won a huge OfficeMax gift card, and he wanted some cash. And there was an $40 off offer on OfficeMax.com.

Also, it Sony announces a price cut in 2 weeks, it'll be just a bit over 4 weeks after I bought the system. Sony, don't let me down. You've haven't failed so far.

I know, you mentioned in the Wii U thread that you do have a Vita. It's just a bitter pill to swallow, as I'm sure you can understand. I've hardly put my Vita down since I got it, so I'm really disappointed that Sony has not only failed to turn it around, but has even had to cut expectations. I'm still looking forward to a bunch of games on it, but I'm no longer holding out much hope that the "Coming 2013" list will change.

Nice, way to completely dismiss my researched argument. I think we're done here.

I'm sorry but when you have a large multi-national company its simply far to easy to isolate in an earnings report Operating Income and say.. zomg the division is so profitable and the others suck. But companies that size don't operate in nice tidy vacuums like you must be assuming. Remove the consolidated purchasing power of all the divisions for some crucial components all of a sudden the Games Division COGS isn't as quite what it used to be... as well you or I have ZERO idea how that COGS is distributed in terms of division.. there arent exactly 100% hard fast rules for everything accounting item that makes it as neat and tidy as you want.

Besides.. the Games division isn't exactly knocking out the park where I would be comfortable with a blanket statement like you are making.

I'm with ahrezmendi. It's all about the bottom line for Sony right now. And if they were in the black consistently they could focus on putting money back into game development, cutting prices on the Vita, etc. If the Vita dies because they have 1,000 models of TVs that would be a shame.

No Guru, that's not playing fair. You said the games division wasn't making money, and I showed you they are. The question wasn't about whether or not the games division was keeping Sony alive.

My original statement was half-facetious, so I'll rephrase it with no joking. Sony needs to get control of the divisions that are bleeding them dry. As I stated earlier, this is Home Entertainment, Mobile, and Imagine Devices. Those 3 divisions alone had an operating LOSS of $370 Million, where as Games had an operating INCOME of $53 Million. If you'd read the actual revenue statement, you'd also see that it is broken down by Revenue and Income, so this is money Games brought in AFTER all their costs, aka Profit.

So don't go telling me that I'm making assumptions about Sony operating in a vacuum, or assuming that Revenue == Profit.

ahrezmendi wrote:

No Guru, that's not playing fair. You said the games division wasn't making money, and I showed you they are. The question wasn't about whether or not the games division was keeping Sony alive.

My original statement was half-facetious, so I'll rephrase it with no joking. Sony needs to get control of the divisions that are bleeding them dry. As I stated earlier, this is Home Entertainment, Mobile, and Imagine Devices. Those 3 divisions alone had an operating LOSS of $370 Million, where as Games had an operating INCOME of $53 Million. If you'd read the actual revenue statement, you'd also see that it is broken down by Revenue and Income, so this is money Games brought in AFTER all their costs, aka Profit.

So don't go telling me that I'm making assumptions about Sony operating in a vacuum, or assuming that Revenue == Profit.

From a layman's perspective I can see where you are coming from. As someone who has been in the Private Equity business for 11 years now I disagree with your blanket statements. I make a living doing Valuations and understanding how companies make money.. and not just from behind a desk. I'm in the muck with our businesses as acting CTO for 3 $100M+ firms right now. Given we've been in several companies with large scale manufacturing in China and Mexico I have a deep understanding of how businesses can hide operating profits from loss inside divisions that they are trying to shed. If your comfortable with your statement based on your facts that's fine. I take exception to you trying to school me on "reading comprehension"

That being said I certainly don't argue with your base statement. But I would caution any optimism around the Games Division.. Sony needs a home run in the PS4 in the worst way. Simply put they need the PS4 to sell like the PS2 given their current cost structures... and even then I'm afraid it might just be lipstick on a pig.

OK, I think we have an understanding now.

I'm not optimistic about the games division, the whole topic started on that. I'm mostly sad about having to face the reality that I may have bought a 2nd Dreamcast last year. I don't regret buying my Vita, and I'll keep playing it for years to come, but I would have preferred it do better and it's upsetting that it could have done better if Sony had acted differently.

Having a Vita glitch on you is the worse. You can't turn it off and it won't respond. I had to remove the game, memory card, and 3g card and boot into safe mode.

The times mine has locked up I've just had to hold the power button. I've never had to remove all the accessories. This taught me to shut the Vita down once a week, it seems to want a break periodically. Considering my phone does the same thing, as did my iPhone, I'm not upset about this. These devices are not meant to be on 24/7.