Hirai On Vita: It'll Take "5-10 Years" To Know If It's Successful
PlayStation Vita sales have been slow but Sony doesn't appear to be too concerned.
That being said, various company executives have admitted that the numbers are lower than anticipated, which is a little worrisome. On top of which, as we said, there appears to be very little in the way of future software.
But Sony CEO Kaz Hirai has once again stressed that the long-term outlook is what's important. According to a recent Wall Street Journal interview, Hirai first said that sales of their new portable are "on the low end of what we expected," while at the same saying it's far too early to judge. In fact, he said it'll take "5-10 years" to determine if the product is successful. Hirai also reminded us that he had to answer similar questions when the PlayStation 3 first launched; the PS3 is now past 70 million units.
As for the Vita, is has sold 2.2 million units worldwide since its launch and Sony remains optimistic that it will be a strong platform in the future. ...yeah, well, we're gonna need some games for that to happen.
Tags: vita, playstation vita, vita sales, sony
1/8/2013 8:24:19 PM John Shepard
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Comments (50 posts)
Lawless SXE
Wednesday, January 09, 2013 @ 2:11:37 AM
Reply
firesoul453
Wednesday, January 09, 2013 @ 3:04:37 AM
They only had about 13 months to pump out Resistance: Burning Skies, and although its a decent games its only halfway decent.
And during about half those 13 month they had to star working on Black Ops – Declassified.
They only had about 6 months of time to really focus on Declassified.
Sony kinda messed up there if you ask me. If they would have just focused on one awesome 10/10 FPS for the vita I bet it would be doing atleast a little bit better.
But I personally would rather see more adventure games.
Solid Fantasy
Wednesday, January 09, 2013 @ 3:22:41 AM
Reply
Oh well, I'm enjoying my Vita. There's bound to be some better titles in the future, if not this year.
Solid Fantasy
Wednesday, January 09, 2013 @ 3:32:35 AM
___________
Wednesday, January 09, 2013 @ 4:11:22 AM
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sorry $ony, but the vita is FINISHED!
ive gotta revise my comments earlier on the vita, i cant see it lasting much longer anymore simply because of all the new tech announced at CES!
what razer and nvidia have announced specifically.
there WAY, WAY, WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY more powerful than the vita!
can play a much larger variety of games than the vita!
the razer can be hooked up to multiple accessories turning it into a laptop, ect.
and they can be hooked up to the TV!
vita is finished!
it had one thing going for it, its power, and now it does not even have that!
sad.
sorry $ony, but maybe this will make you think twice in releasing such a outdated under powered, restricted and limited system!
ethird1
Wednesday, January 09, 2013 @ 8:26:19 AM
Dustinwp
Wednesday, January 09, 2013 @ 9:39:13 AM
Oh, give me a break, dude. How many people do you think are going to be willing too drop over a thousand dollars for one of these things? Maybe a niche PC crowd will invest and that's about it. There bulky and not even truly portable. Laptops are just as portable with more horsepower and a bigger screen. Your also able to hook a laptop up to your TV via the output.
By the way, you can purchase a laptop with just as much horsepower for less than what these things cost. These things are just another N-Gage!
Last edited by Dustinwp on 1/9/2013 9:46:52 AM
___________
Wednesday, January 09, 2013 @ 10:37:56 AM
dude, its a freaking tablet how much more portable do you want!?
the razer thing is expensive, but it has a freaking i7 in in what the hell do you expect!?
its pretty cheap considering if you were to buy a laptop with similar specs it would cost you about DOUBLE the 1300 the i7 model is going for!
hell, my old XPS system which came with the worlds first i7 processor set me back 2600 bucks!
vitas 450 bucks here, almost half of what the razer is.
does it have half the performance of this, and half the features?
f*ck no!
not even a 10th of the power and features of this!
vita cant play PC games either.......
Last edited by ___________ on 1/9/2013 10:38:28 AM
Dustinwp
Wednesday, January 09, 2013 @ 10:48:05 AM
Last edited by Dustinwp on 1/9/2013 10:51:48 AM
SmokeyPSD
Wednesday, January 09, 2013 @ 11:04:15 AM
Give us possibilities Sony.
CrusaderForever
Wednesday, January 09, 2013 @ 11:27:56 AM
I thought the Nvidia handheld could only stream PC games. Am I right? They both look cool but are way to expensive. Also you can't play Playstation brand games on them. That is a huge hit for me.
Just because you sold your Vita doesn't mean you have to keep trying to prove to everyone that you made the correct decision in doing so. You sold it and are a self admitted Sony hater. What else is new. Go enjoy your Razer and Nvidia handhelds. I can guarantee you, GUARANTEE YOU that you will find so many things wrong with them as well. You are a complainer. I would hate to see how you would act in a Lost situation! LOL!
Last edited by CrusaderForever on 1/9/2013 11:30:26 AM
Simcoe
Wednesday, January 09, 2013 @ 12:55:08 PM
http://www.razerzone.com/store/gaming-accessories
Also,
Output to HDMI (docking station): +$100 accessory.
Keyboard: +$200 accessory.
Also __________, I very easily found a few Australian retailers selling the Vita below $300, here's one as an example:
http://www.jbhifionline.com.au/game/ps-vita/playstation-vita-wifi-console-bundle-offer-2-games/678651
You have to agree, that's well below the $450 you claimed the Vita to be selling at.
Beamboom
Wednesday, January 09, 2013 @ 1:52:27 PM
"I thought the Nvidia handheld could only stream PC games. Am I right?" - no. That's just an additional feature. An extra. The Shield is a complete, standalone gaming system, based on Android OS - and it's a full, unrestricted Android installation.
So you'll have access to the entire Android market and presumably can play all the games you've already paid for on your smartphone in addition to a store for this device.
It really is quite an interesting product.
Solid Fantasy
Wednesday, January 09, 2013 @ 1:54:00 PM
AcHiLLiA
Wednesday, January 09, 2013 @ 3:54:30 PM
Axe99
Wednesday, January 09, 2013 @ 4:06:29 PM
Beamboom
Wednesday, January 09, 2013 @ 4:32:25 AM
Reply
I see others mention three years, and I agree with that. If it's not found it's place in the market by then, it's bygones.
But what's interesting is the new handheld by Nvidia, the "Shield". Now why is that interesting in this context?
Cause that handheld is basically doing right what the Vita is being criticized for doing wrong: It's using standard memory cards, HDMI output, based on Android and offer remote play from day one.
The rest of the hardware is quite comparable: A good screen, very powerful gpu, two analogue sticks...
So, with such a product as comparison we might get a better insight if the main problem indeed is the Vita itself, or a changing market for handhelds.
Personally, I believe it is the latter. But we shall see!
Last edited by Beamboom on 1/9/2013 7:11:06 AM
Excelsior1
Wednesday, January 09, 2013 @ 7:03:34 AM
Beamboom
Wednesday, January 09, 2013 @ 7:57:13 AM
Excelsior1
Wednesday, January 09, 2013 @ 9:25:01 AM
Last edited by Excelsior1 on 1/9/2013 10:08:12 AM
Beamboom
Wednesday, January 09, 2013 @ 10:09:09 AM
I mean, sure, it doesn't look good. But looks hasn't exactly done much for the Vita either. This is obviously no beauty contest, or the Vita would have been sold out everywhere by now.
But to be a bit serious, there are aspects to the Shield that I find interesting.
I've found myself increasingly playing on my mobile as the games has gotten better and better, so to get a better suited device to play those games on is in itself a temptation. And there's not exactly a shortage of games for this thing already from day one, and the future looks blindingly bright in regards to software. This might be more important than design to many consumers, don't you think?
Then there's the remote play feature to my PC I can see myself using on my LAN, plus the fact that this device is much more open and accessible, thus usable for a lot more than just gaming. I might even write my own apps and run on it.
Overall I find this device to click much more with me than the Vita ever did. Despite the design.
Last edited by Beamboom on 1/9/2013 10:19:46 AM
Dustinwp
Wednesday, January 09, 2013 @ 10:15:21 AM
System Requirements for PC Game Streaming*
GPU: NVIDIA® Kepler™-based GeForce GTX 650 (Desktop) or
GTX 660M (Notebook) or higher
CPU: Intel Core i5 or equivalent or higher
System Memory: 4 GB or higher
Software: GeForce Experience application and latest GeForce drivers
OS: Windows 7 or higher
Router: Router: 802.11a/g/n
(Recommended: 802.11n Dual Band / MIMO Router)
So basically, if your PC isn't built on NVIDIA hardware go out and buy one that is. These things are turning out to be very expensive toys. If you don't care about PC game streaming it's still a thousand dollar investment.
As far as it being portable I totally agree with Excelsior1's point. It's not very on the go friendly.
Last edited by Dustinwp on 1/9/2013 10:19:25 AM
Excelsior1
Wednesday, January 09, 2013 @ 10:23:17 AM
Last edited by Excelsior1 on 1/9/2013 10:28:14 AM
SmokeyPSD
Wednesday, January 09, 2013 @ 11:12:43 AM
I think Sony needs to answer this and get onto expanding the feature set with how the landscape seems to be changing
Beamboom
Wednesday, January 09, 2013 @ 11:49:41 AM
Now that's a better kind of argument against it, imo.
The remote play feature can be an expensive toy at this point in time. True. But do not forget that prices drop *fast* in the PC world.
Those graphics cards will eventually be priced like entry level gaming cards - probably already by the end of this autumn.
But where did you get that price of a thousand dollars?
@SmokeyPSD:
I agree with you, this device IS interesting, it feels much more in sync with time than Vita is. In essence, this device features most of what I was hoping the Vita would be back when we first heard about it.
It's also interesting because it's so remarkably the opposite of the Vita, so together they really do test if there still is a market for dedicated handheld gaming devices for adult gamers. If none of them succeed, then neither *could* succeed, if you catch my drift.
Last edited by Beamboom on 1/9/2013 12:00:09 PM
Dustinwp
Wednesday, January 09, 2013 @ 1:07:45 PM
I went back to the site I found that on and they were referring to the price of the Edge tablet. Sorry, need too improve reading comprehension skills.:(
A lot of portable gaming info the last two days. It's all starting to get mixed together in my mind.
I would think this thing is still going to be priced at 500-700 dollars. And the PC streaming restrictions are a big deal for me because I just invested in a new barebones system. You are right, the price of hardware does tend to drop fast. Maybe, by the time it releases it won't be such issue.
Last edited by Dustinwp on 1/9/2013 1:14:25 PM
Beamboom
Wednesday, January 09, 2013 @ 1:44:32 PM
You think it will be that expensive? I hope not, for the sake of this "experiment" in testing the market I hope the price will be very close.
But hot damn, I read this thing can actually produce 4k output. If so then that's... Insane, That's like what the next Playstation is planned to do. That is... Crazy. Even if it's just for playback.
Boy there are interesting times for gaming now.
It looks like the entire gaming hardware market is about to be turned upside down, and the traditional gap between PC and console gaming is about to get very, very blurred, almost on the verge of merged.
Or - of course - it may be that a few years from now the Shield and the Steambox and the Ouya is nothing but distant memories of something that never really became anything. Noone knows. :)
Last edited by Beamboom on 1/9/2013 1:45:18 PM
Dustinwp
Wednesday, January 09, 2013 @ 2:23:43 PM
The Steambox is very interesting. I'm quite excited too see and play one for myself. At least if Sony does go belly up - which I hope they don't - I hopefully have a console to fallback on in the Steambox. Microsoft will never interest me and Nintendo......maybe.
Last edited by Dustinwp on 1/9/2013 2:27:45 PM
Beamboom
Wednesday, January 09, 2013 @ 3:46:59 PM
And yeah, the Steambox do at least have the *potential* of being very interesting. I'm thinking like you - it's good to have an alternative, a backup plan. Plus it's exciting with new names entering a market. It's refreshing.
I am not too worried about the PS4 or Sony going belly up anytime soon. But Sony did not pay attention to the market when they planned the Vita, and they do worry me with statements like the one quoted in this article cause it makes them look like they imagine they are alone in this market got all the time in the world to sway customers and developers their way.
It's not like that. Not any more.
Last edited by Beamboom on 1/9/2013 3:47:46 PM
Excelsior1
Wednesday, January 09, 2013 @ 4:43:28 AM
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2013 is so embarassingly barren of Vita software I doubt a price cut would have a very big impact in the long term since there are so few new Vita games to drive sustained hardware sales. The price cut would have to be aggressive one without the games to back it up. It's weird. The Vita is going into it's second year so we should be seing more games...not less. This is the first Sony platform I've ever seen that happen to.
Last edited by Excelsior1 on 1/9/2013 4:45:40 AM
Casual Friday
Wednesday, January 09, 2013 @ 8:09:13 AM
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gumbi
Wednesday, January 09, 2013 @ 10:20:38 AM
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And you can't really fall back on the PS3's slow start. The consumers didn't just eventually 'come around' to the PS3. Sony made hardware revisions, price cuts, and eventually a brilliant advertising campaign (KB) that really got the PS3's moving.
It should only take 2-3 years to make the call. not 5-10. And Sony needs to get their heads out and get some more games happening. The vita had a great launch line up, but after nearly a year, the pickings are slim. With very little on the horizon...
For the record though, I love my Vita. I think it's awesome and I love playing games on it. I hope we get more games, I hope memory cards get cheaper, and I hope the Vita gets a better foothold in 2013.
CrusaderForever
Wednesday, January 09, 2013 @ 11:40:56 AM
Reply
WorldEndsWithMe
Wednesday, January 09, 2013 @ 1:19:00 PM
Reply
CrusaderForever
Wednesday, January 09, 2013 @ 1:52:29 PM
riptide8
Thursday, January 10, 2013 @ 12:06:15 PM
BattleFox21
Wednesday, January 09, 2013 @ 3:19:25 PM
Reply
WorldEndsWithMe
Wednesday, January 09, 2013 @ 3:28:50 PM
Beamboom
Wednesday, January 09, 2013 @ 4:03:54 PM
It's kinda bittersweet to recall that we all discussed that exact thing on this site when the first rumours of Vita emerged.
Sony should have paid more attention, adapted to the current reality and not clung to old practises as much as they did.
riptide8
Thursday, January 10, 2013 @ 11:54:24 AM
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Strange enough, I have been putting in 75% of my time on the VITA and six games. Ragnarock,AC3,Blaz Blue(what a gem)Persona 4, Battle Royal, Uncharted and Gravity shift.
The other 25% go to Halo 4 doing the campaign co op with my boy and some Monster hunter freedom unite also co op with my boy.
Im getting ready to hop back on Demons Souls for a bit.
My Vita was not bought for playing shooters, so for now it's doing just fine.
cadpig
Sunday, January 13, 2013 @ 11:49:49 AM
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I don't see Nvidia's Shield as much of a threat to the Vita.
That's just it. I'm not happy waiting for a flood of vita games. In fact most people aren't.
I'm tired of waiting and i'm tired of promises.
I'm waiting until the next E3 for some major news. If i don't like what i hear. I'm jumping ship. Simple as that.

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firesoul453
Reply
Wednesday, January 09, 2013 @ 12:22:21 AM
Sony is willing to put the money and effort into it, but I hope 3rd party developrs start putting more into it.