Soft Launch: Fighting Over Vita Sales

You know what? That's absolutely fine. Outside the minds of the internet's more moronic comment thread trolls, there's no law which says that writing has to be objective. If you're writing about games, it's probably because you have strong opinions on the matter (god knows that's why I'm here) and you're reasonably good at expressing them. You don't have to pretend to be Fair and Balanced; just know your own biases and be cheerfully honest about them.

However, there is a commercial reality to the PlayStation Vita launch which simply must not be obscured by sentiment and hope. Even given our lowered expectations - we all knew that PSP launched in the heyday of the handheld, before Apple turned our humble mobile phones into advanced portable computers - Vita's launch has been worryingly soft. Maybe the numbers pick up from here - let's not forget that the Nintendo DS did, after a similarly slow early start - but it's been a long time since the UK had a major console launch this weak, let alone one from Sony, a brand still much loved on these islands.

Nintendo's console had a massive price cut shortly after launch, which has told any consumer with even a little market savvy that handheld systems don't hold their price points.

Is there something above and beyond the pervasive influence of the iDevice which has caused this? Well, it's iDevice related, but if you want a more specific issue, launching an expensive handheld console the week before Apple is scheduled to unveil the hugely anticipated iPad 3 can't help much. If iPad 3 disappoints, perhaps the money burning holes in consumers' pockets will buy a Vita instead; I'm not convinced that hoping that Apple will launch something rubbish is a convincing line on a SWOT analysis sheet, though.

The influence of the 3DS is also an important factor. Certainly, consumers who have just bought a new Nintendo handheld are less likely to buy Sony's device - intuition suggests that the appeal of owning multiple handhelds isn't as high as the appeal of having multiple home consoles under your TV. More importantly, though, Nintendo's console had a massive price cut shortly after launch, which has told any consumer with even a little market savvy that handheld systems don't hold their price points. Why buy before the maybe-inevitable price cut?

Therein lies one of the crucial problems - pricing. The 3DS exacerbates it, the possible arrival of a cut-price iPad 2 next week will do so even further, but the fact is that the barrier to entry on PS Vita is high anyway. Yes, there are cheap games for the system, and that's absolutely crucial, but I'm not convinced that this fact has been conveyed strongly to consumers, perhaps for fear of undermining sales of full-priced titles. The RRP is high, and the price of the pointlessly proprietary memory cards drives the cost of entry higher still. It's a tough sell, and it'll take hell of a lot of press enthusiasm to sweeten the deal.

It's interesting, as a footnote, to observe that some analysts who are bullish on the Vita are already factoring an early price cut into their projections for the console. After this launch, even those deeply in love with Sony's new console would probably admit that that's more likely than not - however deeply it cuts the firm's already weakened revenues in the coming quarters.