Although Sony managed to significantly reduce its overall losses during the third fiscal quarter, its video game business is still looking worse for wear, with forecasted PS Vita sales in particular once again slashed.
It was mainly a reduction in television losses, coupled with stronger movie sales, that pushed Sony closer to profitable territories -- in comparison, Sony's Game division suffered a drop in both sales and profits during the quarter ended December 31, 2012.
The company put this down to "the slow penetration of the PlayStation Vita," adding that it recognized the poor sales of the device as a "particularly important issue."
As a result, it now estimates that the PS Vita and the PSP together will sell 7.0 million units during the fiscal year ended March 31, 2013.
This forecast has been cut multiple times over the last year -- originally Sony estimated it would sell 16 million Vitas and PSPs during this fiscal year. This was then cut down to 12 million, and then once again slashed in November to 10 million.
In comparison, Sony's PlayStation 3 also saw declining sales during this quarter, with PS3 and PS2 hardware sales down to 6.8 million compared to 7.4 million year-over-year, and software sales down to 61.7 million compared to 68.7 million year-over-year.
Sony's plan to bring its game business back into play involves providing users with a more attractive video game software lineup, as well as offering more games through mobile devices.
For the quarter ended ended March 31, 2012, Sony's Game division saw revenue of 268.5 billion yen ($2.9 billion), down 15.1 percent year-over-year, and operating income of 4.6 billion yen ($49.1 million), down from 33.8 billion yen ($360.1 million).
Overall, the company posted revenues of 1.9 trillion yen ($20.8 billion), up 6.9 percent year-over-year, and losses of 10.8 billion yen ($115.3 million), improved significantly compared to losses of 159.0 billion ($1.7 billion) year-over-year.
Sony if your going to save the Vita or at least give it a honorable death. Cut the price now, and then money hats some games for it. It's no way your going to compete against the 3DS, and the Mobile Market.
In Japan this year alone it's going to be a massacre. With the growing Animal Crossing sales plus new games Dragon Quest 7, Monster Hunter 4, and Pokemon X and Y all releasing this year!
" IGN PS3 / Vita rumored MH 4 was delayed to be ported to Vita. However I believe that to be wishful thinking at its best "
Capcom's Senior Vice President already responded to this rumours, he said:
"I would not believe everything you read on the internet. It will set you up for disappointment or misdirected frustration."
Capcom's Senior Vice President already responded to this rumours, he said:
"I would not believe everything you read on the internet. It will set you up for disappointment or misdirected frustration."
Also, it's seems impossible for them to save it at this point, they should just lower licensing fees and just cut the damn red tape on the thing. If developers want straight ports to profit, just let them and stop enforcing those goddamn gimmicks. 2004 is over, the mobile market wants buttons now.
Sony must leverage its existing mobile partnerships and bring Android compatibility to Vita.
It's entirely feasible in a technical sense on the existing spec. This could come down the chain in a firmware update, adding an Android channel/market.
Consider the Ouya, Gamestick, Nvidia Shield, the range of Smart TVs arriving with integrated Android/jump out controllers, so on and so forth.
There's going to be a real movement towards high end, hybrid touch/controller-based Android gaming this year. The Vita is a great configuration for this. Sony could vastly increase the portable's desirability by opening it to Android, and ride this wave of forthcoming 'core' development.
...On the other hand, a lot of this movement is being powered by Nvidia's Tegra chips, which could present a proprietary barrier for those Android titles on Vita. Obviously Vita still has the computational chops to compare with Tegra 3, possibly even Tegra 4 -- but partnerships and porting obstacles could prevent those titles from ever manifesting on non-Tegra Android devices (besides iOS versions).
Nonetheless, I still think incorporating Android OS compatibility would be a significant benefit to the Vita at this point, and possibly a lucrative extension of Sony's mobile division strategy.
1.) not make me buy PSP games over again.
2.) fix their PS Mobile SDK
3.) let everyone be able to debug on the Vita without a fee
4.) work on integrating the Vita with all their other devices
5.) update the system so that you can open YouTube links from the browser
6.) port more PSN games over to the Vita
I can think of a bunch of things I would rather see than Android support. Hell, I would even rather they integrate their Android devices to the PSN than see the Vita with Android compatibility. This is even assuming Google likes the idea of a non-Android device having Android compatibility.
It's a nice device but what it's missing isn't the Android market. Maybe if someone can convince me that it's not fragmented (and the only way that can happen if somehow the game I bought from Amazon started to work again on the Nexus 7).
In Japan this year alone it's going to be a massacre. With the growing Animal Crossing sales plus new games Dragon Quest 7, Monster Hunter 4, and Pokemon X and Y all releasing this year!
Capcom's Senior Vice President already responded to this rumours, he said:
"I would not believe everything you read on the internet. It will set you up for disappointment or misdirected frustration."
Source:
http://www.destructoid.com/capcom-responds-to-monster-hunter-4-vit a-rumors-24276
4.phtml
"I would not believe everything you read on the internet. It will set you up for disappointment or misdirected frustration."
I LOLed at the way this was so elegantly stated.
Surprised it hasn't been memed yet.
Thanks Christian :)
Also, it's seems impossible for them to save it at this point, they should just lower licensing fees and just cut the damn red tape on the thing. If developers want straight ports to profit, just let them and stop enforcing those goddamn gimmicks. 2004 is over, the mobile market wants buttons now.
It's entirely feasible in a technical sense on the existing spec. This could come down the chain in a firmware update, adding an Android channel/market.
Consider the Ouya, Gamestick, Nvidia Shield, the range of Smart TVs arriving with integrated Android/jump out controllers, so on and so forth.
There's going to be a real movement towards high end, hybrid touch/controller-based Android gaming this year. The Vita is a great configuration for this. Sony could vastly increase the portable's desirability by opening it to Android, and ride this wave of forthcoming 'core' development.
...On the other hand, a lot of this movement is being powered by Nvidia's Tegra chips, which could present a proprietary barrier for those Android titles on Vita. Obviously Vita still has the computational chops to compare with Tegra 3, possibly even Tegra 4 -- but partnerships and porting obstacles could prevent those titles from ever manifesting on non-Tegra Android devices (besides iOS versions).
Nonetheless, I still think incorporating Android OS compatibility would be a significant benefit to the Vita at this point, and possibly a lucrative extension of Sony's mobile division strategy.
It might be too late for it now.
1.) not make me buy PSP games over again.
2.) fix their PS Mobile SDK
3.) let everyone be able to debug on the Vita without a fee
4.) work on integrating the Vita with all their other devices
5.) update the system so that you can open YouTube links from the browser
6.) port more PSN games over to the Vita
I can think of a bunch of things I would rather see than Android support. Hell, I would even rather they integrate their Android devices to the PSN than see the Vita with Android compatibility. This is even assuming Google likes the idea of a non-Android device having Android compatibility.
It's a nice device but what it's missing isn't the Android market. Maybe if someone can convince me that it's not fragmented (and the only way that can happen if somehow the game I bought from Amazon started to work again on the Nexus 7).