Save our Vita!

Don't touch the Sad Face.

The Vita was launched earlier this year to a mild and underwhelming fanfare.  At a high-end price point, Vita was targeting the core gaming market with it's dual analogue sticks, top quality graphics, true online multiplayer and the ability to touch every screen possible.  A few months and one E3 later the Vita is limping along with sales of 1.8 million to the end of May.  The sales figures aren't what worry me most as a Vita fan but the lack of support from Sony is terrifying.  Sony have targeted sales of 10 million in this financial year but who is going to buy one at its current price with the games lined up?

I have to admit upfront to being a Vita fan.  I bought one on day one and have loved Uncharted, Rayman Origins, Everybody's Golf and I can't wait for Gravity Rush next week (the demo is great).  With enough good games I could easily see the handheld become my primary game console with high quality games without the requirement to take over the lounge; something that is more and more important with a grown-up life.

We're in the early days of Vita's life but what worries me is the distinct lack of big name exclusive titles.  Assassin's Creed Liberation and Call of Duty Declassified both look like big name potential system sellers and Playstation All Stars might sell consoles in the US where Super Smash Brothers is immensely popular.  As a quick aside, it takes some skill to ignore Jack Tretton's gaff of describing COD as the first dual stick, online multiplayer game on a portable system which must have made Resistance Burning Skies developers, Nihilistic, cry in to their collective dinners.

Where though were the big name internal announcements for the handheld?  Where was Gran Turismo, God of War or Killzone?  We're left looking forward to spin-offs and remakes this year like Metal Gear Solid HD (a game released on other consoles months ago), a remake of Jet Set Radio, portable versions of Lego games and no doubt stripped down versions of a collection of EA sports games.  Until Sony can build some confidence in the console by releasing games that sell what would make a Rockstar or Capcom release a decent, exclusive Grand Theft Auto, Resident Evil or Monster Hunter, a guaranteed system seller in Japan. 

PS One Classics and PSP games, whilst a nice addition to current Vita owners, are simply not going to sell systems.  I will download my already purchased Final Fantasy games and recently picked up the Persona games from PSP but this isn't going to get people buying the console in their masses.  The fact that PS One Classics was a 'reveal' in the Sony conference is remarkable and I hope that Jack Tretton was embarrassed to announce it as a big deal.

What future for the Vita then?  The sales, whilst slow, aren't significantly behind the sales of the DS and 3DS in their early days and both of those managed to catch up.  With the Vita's links with the PS3 coming, it will be interesting if there is anything that can increase sales over the next year and in to the Wii U's life where the Vita has the potential to rival the tablet controller on Nintendo's next gen system and SmartGlass on the 360. 

Despite a 50 euro price cut in France, Sony insist that they have no intention of cutting the  price elsewhere.  I can't help but feel the 10 million proposed sales is somewhat ambitious for a system that was outsold in weekly sales by the Wii  at the end of May (and by the PSP in Europe and Japan).  Unless Sony act now to save the Vita then it could be too late before they get off their behinds and do something about it.

This is a man's world!



"Female assassin in the lead role? big fail ! nooo thank you"

"Okay, I'll say it: I think having a female assassin is a bad idea!"

This weekend Games Informer let slip that the Playstation Vita was getting its own Assassin's Creed and, not without controversy would be staring a female assassin, Aveline.  From outright aggression to the attempts at humour with the mention of 'touch screen input', message boards I've looked at have been dotted with negative comments. Now whilst the two quotes I've shown above are in the minority, sadly the fact they exist raises a question about how accepting gamers are.  Female characters have existed in games for a number of years but have always been overtly sexualised creations with big chests, small waists and flawless looks.  Even supposedly 'strong' female leads such as Lara Croft have widely been characters flaunted for their looks whilst they jump, shoot and swing around the environment.  In the soon to be released Lollipop Chainsaw, there exists an Xbox achievement achieved by taking a peek up the lead characters incredibly short skirt.

Women are represented in games.  The much maligned publisher EA has included default female versions of the lead characters in Dragon's Age and Mass Effect (the latter of which raised it's own controversy).  Beyond Good and Evil had the strong female protagonist Jade who doesn't come across as an overly sexualised piece of eye-candy for male gamers.  And of course Metroid's Samus Aran is an almost completely positive role model even if she did appear in an 8-bit bikini at the end of the original Metroid.  Excluding the question mark over whether Lara Croft is a good role-model or not, the negative portrayals far outnumber the positive.  From Dead Or Alive: Xtreme Beach Volleyball (which amazingly got a sequel and a PSP spin-off) to Bayonetta's high-heels wearing 'sexy' clothed witch, women have regularly been little more than sex objects in games.

How different is this from the way men are treated in games though?  In my experience they either lean towards the wise-cracking and handsome (Nathan Drake, Ezio Auditore) or brutish commando (Gears of War).  I don't personally mind these male stereotypes and accept that as most games are in someway attempting to be action movies I am likely to be either Bruce Willis or Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Whether or not I am supposed to relate to an American voiced, hulking super-soldier doesn't seem to be considered.  Do I relate to Marcus Fenix?  Not particularly.  He is just a vessel through which to play an enjoyable and well-crafted game.  Would it matter if the lead was female or out of shape?  I don't believe it would, although I accept that the muscles are vaguely in role for the game.

This doesn't mean that games shouldn't be more representative though.  Like no other medium games project us on to the world that we play in.  The drama that surrounds women, homosexuality and religion when they are represented in games is astounding in a supposedly enlightened 21st Century.  Studies seem to suggest that around 40% of gamers are women and 60% of The Sims 125 million players are female.  I don't believe that female gamers need more female protagonists though but perhaps more games designed with women in mind or even by female developers.

Back to the original idea of Assassin's Creed: Liberation though.  Regardless of the gender of the lead assassin, more high quality reasons to play on my Vita are warmly accepted.  I'm looking forward to spending time in 18th century New Orleans with Aveline and look forward to finding out more about the game at E3.