Worldwide Studios boss says engineers are working to reduce manufacturing costs, but no price cut planned in calendar year.
Sony will not implement a price cut for the PlayStation Vita this year, Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida told Eurogamer in a new interview. The executive explained that Sony engineers are currently working on methods to reduce the cost of manufacturing so a price cut can be possible, but that will not happen before the year is out.
"It's too early," Yoshida said.
The PS Vita launched in February 2012 with a Wi-Fi-only version at $249 and a Wi-Fi/3G model retailing for $299.
Instead, Yoshida said he hopes PS Vita software bundles--like the Little Big Planet and Call of Duty offerings announced this week--will be a significant enough value to steer prospective buyers toward a purchase.
"Of course, cost reduction is one area our engineering team is working on. But we just launched the platform earlier this year. It takes time to do so," he said. "At a certain point in the future we would like to address the pricing issue for some of the people who are waiting. But this year we are trying to add value by creating different types of bundles. We announced we will provide Little Big Planet PS Vita bundle pack. That's affordable for people who are looking for a good deal."
Sony has also been criticized for not offering enough PS Vita software support. Yoshida said Sony has acknowledged this concern, and noted that adding new content for the device is a principle priority.
"The reaction to the hardware platform itself has been very strong," he said. "We are very pleased with the response we got. It's up to our expectations in terms of what we were hoping for in bringing PS Vita to the market," he said. "But the actual sales of PS Vita, obviously we would like to see more uptake. We see lots of feedback from consumers saying they would like to see more content, they would like to see their favorite franchises coming to the PS Vita."
As for what kinds of new content Sony plans to bring to the PS Vita, Yoshida said it will run the gamut from major franchises to digitally distributed smaller titles.
"We have to continue to work on bringing more content from big titles people are looking for in terms of franchises, to very small, snack-sized, intuitive casual games on the digital distribution side," he said.
Big-name projects headed to the PS Vita include the previously announced Assassin's Creed III: Liberation and Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified, as well as the brand-new Killzone: Mercenary.
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
i want one for 3 particular games (hatsune miku, dj max technika tune, persona 4)... but $250 is too expensive plus another $50 for a 16gb card. it's too much!! i have the money but i find it wasteful. my ps3 cost that much. sorry but i'll keep waiting until it's $199 or $150
That's okay. Being a Sony product, it's prone to be filled with problems or conditions the company doesn't want people to know about until after they buy it and can't get a refund. I need more time to make sure there isn't some accidental or intentional defect I haven't thought of yet.
i recently bought a vita of my friend for 150 with 8gb card. lets me tell you hardware wise vita is just a amazing product. the only problem it has currently is price (needs to be lowered by 50-80 bucks) and the lack of games. but new games coming out this year and years to come.
@aryanbrar Okay then, so far so good. But the shoulder buttons on my PSP are starting to wear out, the d-pad on my PSP was never really that great for diagonals, my PS2 hardly works anymore, and the input lag on my Sony Bravia 32" LCD TV seems to be getting worse. I may have been a bit unfair in my previous post though. Most home electronics built after 2000 seem to have a much more limited lifespan. I tried the Vita at a Target and thought it was pretty good. I just need to give it more time to impress me, and I'm mad at Sony for a reason you'll probably think is stupid. Anyway, I'm in no hurry to get any other new game machines either. It may be years before I get a Wii-U or 3DS if ever.
Well then Sony, I won't be buying a Vita, especially with the lack of good software.
I will be buying more titles for my 3DS though. :p
Doesn't sound like Sony is looking out for their customers.
When the Turbo Graphics portable came out, that was an incredible thing. It was the right time. The Gameboy was released at the right time. Now is not the right time, because they are many other options out there, better options. I'll stick with my ipad. Games are cheaper anyway. I'm content.
While I'd love to see the Vita have success and continue to push the handheld segment forward, part of me hopes that it flops so that I can pick up another failed console for cheap. The commercial failures are always the most interesting pieces of a video gaming collection.
Seriously, are they just stupid? Christmas is around the corner and they are really gonna hold fast unto something like this? Something they know has been slow to the uptake? It's a terrible mistake.
Funny thing about my friend, he bought PS Vita and you know what games he's playing with it? PSP titles...
So hardware isn't their strong point (high price leading to slow sales), software isn't their strong point ("still trying to entice" devs), and lord knows accessories aren't their strong point (memory card pricing).
And the ONLY thing Sony's Vita team is willing to do is pack all their mediocre values into one box and pray that consumers think 3 bronze medals = 1 gold? I want to like Vita (PSP was great to me) but Sony hasn't given me one good reason beyond graphics. How did ya'll let 3DS nab SMT 4? Vita needs something like that. Multiple somethings, actually -- Gravity Rush looks hot but I need moar.
5 Like The memory cards are a ripoff. Let us use SD cards and I'll buy a Vita this weekend, but I'm not paying your 400% markup for a Sony-branded SD card that is otherwise no different.
They've done this for forever. They even screw their paying customers over with new versions of the same Memory Stick format. Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick Pro Duo, Memory Stick Micro, Memory Stick XC... I think I forgot a couple.
I know that there are physical limitations of some of the Memory Stick formats that required the newer format, but I sold digital cameras back in '99 and I felt compelled to tell people that if they bought a Sony camera, they'd be stuck with an expensive and non-standard memory card format. Sony's desire to constantly reinvent the wheel really turns me away from buying many of their products.
Yea, I figured as much. I'm waiting for the psp lite, slim or whatever they call the upgraded model. I figure by then there will be plenty of games and other uses for me. I had a PSP right before the PSP 3000 launched. So this time I will wait.
People keep talking about the price of the memory sticks. He says nothing about that here. The price of those could come down, all he's saying is that there wont be a drop in the price of the actual console. here's my prediction, before Christmas, they will release several bundles, the WiFi console, a game, a 8 or maybe 16g memory stick and maybe a movie voucher for $299. I'll bet ya
1 Like So no price cut this year, but they're saying they'll try to lower it by next year. Why would anyone buy one now if that's what Sony is saying?
I was a launch customer for the PSP. Never again. It will be a while till I pick up one of those Vista-Vita-Vegemites, er, whatever name they call it.
1 Like @glhx1rush I'm the same way. On launch, I bought Twisted Metal (w/e the PsP version was called) & Ridge Racer (w/e number they were up to), and looking at my collection, I have a few Tom Clancy , Socom games and a couple movies. I've always hated the controls and the 20 minute updates whenever I purchased a new game.
Come to think about it - these are the exact reason I don't like my PS3. Lack of good titles and the damn updates. I bought Heavy Rain about 3 months ago and had to sit through a 2 hour update and just recently bought Kill Zone 3 and had to sit through another too long of an update. I play my 360 just as casually and updating that takes seconds. Why is Sony's network so damn slow? My consoles are set up the same damn way?
@Sevenizz @glhx1rush Then don't update. If you cannot find something else to do and HAVE to play right away, you can disconnect the ethernet cord and continue. Restart andu pdate when you're done playing.
1 Like @Sevenizz SONY is so damn slow because they don't do what microsoft does once there is a new update and you don't the previous updates it will just give you the most recent one sony gives you all of them at the same time so lets say you got call of duty 4 and you barley bought it and you have never played it on your ps3 youll have to do every single update that has came out for download since 2007 and the installation part is because sony has less RAM than the xbox 360. did that Answer your question a little bit?
Both the PS3 and Xbox 360 have 512 MB of RAM, but the 360's RAM is unified while the PS3's is split in half by the CPU and GPU (although the Cell's RAM is XDR, which is very fast). Either way, I doubt that RAM has anything to do with it.
Ofc they want price cut PSVITA this early, cause the would have to start making gifts like Nintendo did. And i'm pretty sure Sony doesnt want to do so. In any case i just bought my PSvita wifi from the kid next door for 140 euro so i'm happy either way. ^_^
Sony doesn't need to do a price cut. There have been plenty of deals where you can get a $50 gift card or a free game with it.
I would like to see a price cut of the PSP, personally. The Vita appears to be DOA from a software standpoint, but if that changes, I will become interested.
Sony CEO Kaz Hirai says sales of portable "on the low end of what we expected," noting it can take 5-10 years to know if a product has been successful.
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