File/ Vita Vs 3ds/ The West/ 2 of 2
The 11th of May 2012 Approx. 1700 hours US EST

Previously, I posted an assessment of the Vita's standing in Japan against it's competitor, Which can be found here. Now I shall do the same for the second front: The West


The USoA. One of many points of interest on this front, and perhaps the most vital

Here, too the Vita is up against a stronger opponent. But without the hindrance of fighting a revolution to contend with, the Vita has far more breathing room and a stronger presence. Also working in the Vita's favor, albeit only slightly, is the comparative lack of support for the 3ds on this front, as well as the Vita's more comparatively Western oriented support. However, this front is brutal and unfriendly towards handhelds, something neither the 3ds nor the Vita can fully avoid. Furthermore, many disadvantages from the Home Front carry over: Less overall support, whether it be from original titles or backing from its predecessor is still a thorn in the Vita's side. The cost differences are also evident, and further exasperated by the hostile environment.

But additional support is on the way for both parties. A build up of forces around Los Angeles is culminating into a mighty clash which may well be one of the most important battles of this war:


E3 is upon us.

Sony has already made proclamations of an incredible force, and undoubtedly much of this will be resourced to the handheld fronts; Especially the West. Big name guns such as CoD, Little Big Planet, Killzone, Bioshock and potentially more are expected to bolster the currently frail Vita force. In this, however, Sony is not alone.

While many are expecting Nintendo to be to preoccupied preparing the Crown Prince WiiU for the home console war, those who are may be grossly underestimating Nintendo's resources and diplomatic capabilities. Nintendo has also made bold boasts of Strong support for its Western front, including local forces, and also has many forces to spare along the Japanese front that will no doubt greatly aid their cause here, such as Animal Crossing, Monster Hunter and Fire Emblem, to name a few.
But what could be the most damaging to the Vita's already disadvantages position is a wild card that should come as no surprise yet few seem to be expecting:
CoD is by no means an exclusive Game, and could well be found within the 3ds's ranks as well.


A Mercenary who could benefit from drawn out conflict

The idea that they would side with only one group is one of ignorance of the forces and situation involved. After all, CoD is no loyal General; but a grizzly, hardened group of Mercenaries. And if they are going to support both sides, it is hard for this scout to imagine this support being too uneven. This could result in a similar standing for both forces in regards to CoD. One need only look at the Home Console American front to see how this situation could potentially play out: Yearly, the cheaper system with the higher install base allows CoD to perform better, which in turn drives up that console's status. Should CoD be a supporter of both sides, it could bode ill for the Vita

My assessment: The Western front hinges on many unknowns, and the war may well heat into a long drawn out affair up or be prematurely decided at the upcoming major battle of e3.


So, what does this all mean? Will Nintendo and its 3ds army slaughter the Vita on all fronts?
No. Not in the slightest. Nintendo knows this. Sony knows this. And neither are working towards total destruction or capitulation of the other.
Are they competing? Absolutely. Will exclusives, sales and marketing position be battled over? Yes. But this is hardly a winner take all slug fest. And I believe no one knows this better than Sony, as they have taken steps to assure their standing within the market but otherwise done little else(Not necessarily to avoid conflict, but perhaps simply because they know they can get by with a slow and steady approach.). They aren't out to crush Nintendo. They are simply fighting over some common ground. Over a piece of a pie that is more than big enough.


Okay, this image is too dramatic. But it is as good as I could get, so bear with me.

Sure, both sides would take it all if they could. But the risks of attempting this are to high, and neither side could afford to lose. This is no war: it's a border skirmish. A fancy show of power between two Mega Houses. And while their may be a "winner", at the end of the day, I find it hard to believe there will be a "Loser".

For while Front line combat analogies may well suit the topic of discussion, that's were the similarities between this conflict and true battles end. After all, these two companies make Games: Not War.

Final Overall Assessment:
The Vita's slow start is just that; a slow start. Even if it never catches up to its rival, I find it hard to believe that it will outright fail. If the Vita follows in its predecessors footsteps, expect to be blown away within the next couple of years.

File/ Vita Vs 3ds/ Japan/ 1 of 2
Thursday, The 10th of May 2012 Approx. 1700 hours US EST

Okay, Here's the Situation.
Sony and Nintendo are currently engaged in a war with two fronts: Japan And Everywhere else.
A battle Nintendo has been dominating since the Winter of fiscal 2011.
And as things stand now, that's not about to change.


Front 1: Japan

There are many factors to consider here, but lets start at home. In Japan, The vita has two opponents: The army of Nintendo 3ds, and It's own Forebear; the incumbent PSP. (Dismissing the ps3, as it is a constant for all involved parties that for this scout report can be overlooked.) Fighting a war on two fronts is challenging enough on its own without the added factor of a revolution at home. A Revolution against a seasoned Veteran with far more standing and support.

The PSP continues to gain extra support everyday, but much of this will refuse to follow the Vita once the Revolution finally ends. And even then, this support will come at a cost to consumers; consumers who would rather support the old King in the first place. Or, of course, Nintendo. A competitor whose transition of power was not only peaceful, but fully amicable; nearly all support from the previous regime has come over, and new support continues to follow along. (Two new Pokemon games, for instance.) Support that may be completely unnecessary anyway.


The PSP may be strengthening, but the Vita's inheritance will be lacking and veiled behind Proprietary Memory

For you see, Nintendo has and continues to gain extra power for the 3ds's army in Japan: and at an alarming rate. A rate that even the PSP will struggle to keep up with in the coming months. The main cause of which could be attributed to the Betrayal of the PSP's greatest general: Monster Hunter.(Of course, support may have been building behind the scenes before hand, but this was the obvious visible turning point.) Even without the addition of Backwards compatibility, the 3ds has more than enough power to keep both the Vita and PSP pinned down.

Furthermore, even if the Vita were to gain a large boost of additional support to match the 3ds's lineup, it may hardly matter: For Nintendo has already announced that it still holds reserves ready to meet such an assault. With Monster Hunter no longer being an exclusive supporter, even its appearance on the Vita or the PSP would do little to help their position against the 3ds.


Monster Hunter Tri G's Impact was obvious, as it was a combined effort with multiple big hitting exclusives. Something a Vita version, as things stand now, would lack.

My Assessment: The Vita, with its higher price and comparative lack of support is no match for its opponent, a problem compounded by troubles at home against its own predecessor.

My Western Front Report, And Final Assessment, will be detailed in the forthcoming page 2.

NoA. NoE. There has been a strange reversal in Nintendos release policies as of late, with the USofA getting the short end of the stick. Many have been quick to lay the blame on NoA and Reggie, but is it realy so simple?




I'm no analyst or market researcher, but like most people I am aware that there is a monetary crisis going on in many countries around the world. Along with this, different countries are having problems keeping their own exchanges equatable to others. A major factor in Nintendos recent losses has been atributed to the fluctuating Yen to the Dollar and other currencies. The return from foreign nations is simply cutting in to their profits.
So, how does this explain why Europe is getting games that the US isn't? If you live in the EU, you probably have already figured this out.


Games Cost more in Europe. ("OH MY GOD, THOSE PRICES!")

The result of changing market situations has created a shift: Europe may well have become more profitable for Nintendo than the USA. With game prices from the Euro converted to the dollar being much higher than the flat dollar cost in America, Nintendo is already making more money on each console and game sold. But then, taking into account the Euro to Yen exchange, The profits are even higher.


Just checking the exchange rates on google search shows that (as of this writing) One Euro equates to about 106 Yen, while One Dollar is only about 80 Yen: a 20% difference. It just wouldn't make sense to risk money on a game that may not sell well. At least, not without a testing ground or a quick way to make a profit on it beforehand through a different region. ( I still believe recent region locking in Nintendo systems is connected to curbing imports from cheaper regions.)

So, NoA pulls in less money than NoE. So what? That shouldn't affect our game releases, right?
Well, it wasn't always this way. Just a few years ago, it was NoE being shafted in favor of NoA.

Back when, from what little I know of the economic climate of the time, NoA was the more profitable of the two.


Are we being left Behind by the Market trends of late?

While blaming NoA may seem like the easy (and "correct") answer, It hardly makes sense. Nintendo is a worldwide corporation with multiple branches, and just letting them all act completely independently just wouldn't make sense. There has to be a central It just wouldn't make sense to risk money on a game that may not sell well. At least not without a testing ground. and driving force behind these choices, and these choices aren't being made lightly.


This isn't a NoA thing: This is a Nintendo thing. And even if we disagree with them, we can hardly expect to know what is better for them as a company then they do.

Except they had better release FE: Awakening in NA. >.<;

I had a chance to play The Vita at Gamestop Recently, and so... I did. And I have some thoughts on the system and the gaming climate surrounding it, which will be handled seperatley.

First off, the unit itself. (And by extension, Gravity Rush. Some of the opinions on hardware control and handling may not hold true for other games, so keep this in mind.)
The first thing to come to mind for me was the size of the unit. I never realised how big it actually was. Inspite of this, it is also very light, which makes it easy and relatively comfortable to hold. I instinctively held the machine with my fingers over the back touch panel however, which wasn't a problem as Gravity Rush didn't (to my experince) appear to use it. I did test holding the machine "properly" without touching the back panel, and I have this to say on that matter: thank goodness the thing is light, as such a hold seems akward. Without a touch panel game (or a greater deal of time.) to test out comfortability in this regard, I must say that this opinion is far from final.
The second thing to come to mind was the two sticks. They were quite comfortable (despite appearances.), and... light and smooth to operate. I was torn on how the sticks felt/worked: I couldn't decide if they were too flighty or simply really fluid [ I was also torn on wether either of these potential traits were good or bad...], and I kind of feel they were somewhat both. Hopefully the unit I was using wasn't worn out, and that my impressions are based off a fresh unit. They were definetly interesting. And, while playing Gravity Rush, a little annoying.
While the camera control (Right stick) felt a little overly sensitive, this wasn't really much of an issue. My problems came from using the second stick to aim (with Zero Gravity enabled using the R-button.) while hitting the square button to perfom a flying kick attack. Sliding from stick to button felt strange and a little uncomfortable, making it difficult to aim quickly and accurately (And to keep my aim set.). This made me switch to gyro for aiming, which had a minor improved feel in tightness (and also made wide camera panning more difficult.), but more importantly made hitting the square button to attack feel quicker, more intuitive and comfortable. At one point, I kind of used a combination of both Gyro and stick, which seemed to work out pretty well. The Gyro controls also allowed the movement of the camera angle during the comic like snapshots during a cut scene, which was cool
.Another minor quibble was the dodge, conducted by swiping the screen. This was cool and felt natural to input, but it didn't seem to work everytime.
Rounding out my preview of the unit are the buttons, which were solid and squishy, and the D-pad makes cute little click when fully pressed in. You can slide your fingers around on the D-pad before commiting to this click inducing true press.
Overall, My time with the Vita was an enjoyable one.
The demo was pretty cool, and I imagine the game will be quite a blast. Having your perspective of the beautiful environment shifted with the gravity controls was a visceral and stunning experience. I especially enjoyed the cel shaded style and comic like cutscene. If/when I get a Vita further down the line (which I feel is becoming increasingly more likely.), this may well be one of my first game purchases for the machine.



Now, the second half of this post: Just some things I realised during and after my play session.
Like I said above, I had never realised just how big this thing was. In more recent images, it always seemed sleeker... and when I first saw it in person, It reminded me of one of the criticisms that many had about the wii U. It had the shape and overall apperance of a tonka toy: Bulbous and large. This isn't exactly something I have heard out of a lot of people when the vita was mentioned, and so I take the criticism of the wiiu in this regard as a little one sided.
Another thing I realised was how I had come to perfer using the Gyro control over the second stick. While this preference was never strong enough to want the second stick gone completely, it also raised the question of it's nessecity: something many have bashed the 3ds about. It seems to me now *after* my play of the vita how untrue the assesment that these devices absolutely need a second stick to play games properly really is more than it ever did before. The psp didn't have a touch screen or gyro controls, and neither did last gen home consoles. A stick may have been needed then, but it really is little more than an added luxury now sitting beside Gyro and touch control: it is nice to have more control options, but for the current types of games available you don't require them all.
One or two, while maybe not as ideal, are enough.
Basically, I feel that many of the positive and negative comparisons being jabbed on about these newest and incoming game machines to be hypocritical and poorly thought out. Just my two cents on the atmosphere of current gen gaming.


Well, there it is. In summary, The Vita was cool, Gravity Rush was awesome, and I'm sorry that my little thoughts caused such a masive wall of text... >.<;
Now, I have to go and play the MGS3d demo (yes, With the slide pad.) I Downloaded and my "new"(read: "Display Copy") Tales of Abyss I bought from the Gamestop.

Destructoid, I know this is a strange topic for a blog post. But I have a story.
And a problem, with nowhere else to turn to.
It all started Hours ago, near midnight before this blog publishing...

I was surfing the net making the rounds on the web pages I frequent, when I came across a review on Nintendo Life of the Circle Pad Pro. Scanning through the comments, I see a user named Magnalon sporting the same pic as the Destructoid commentor of the same name. I had been considering joining NL for a while now, and seeing a familiar face I decided to join and say "Hi".
And I did just that. Using the same User Name and profile Pic I used here.
Continuing my rounds, I check back only minutes later to a strange sight: My comment was gone, and through no act of my own, my profile signed out.
Puzzled, I figured the site must have glitched and that I would just sign back in and repost.
Except I couldn't. Upon entering My profile info I was greeted to the following, in an eerie red text:

"The account you are trying to access has been banned, please contact the administrators.
Reason: Ban evasion."

I was confused. "ban evasion"? I had made only a single, non offensive comment. And I was banned.
So I did the only thing I could do: using the site links, I contacted the Admin and explained my situation.
The reply came quicker than expected, which was pleasant. The content, however, was Not:

"Reggie,

I wasn't born yesterday. Please go find some other site to haunt.

-- theblackdragon"

...Reggie? Who was this? Obviously, he must be a former user banned from NL for misconduct.
Except now I'm banned, marked with his name along side him.
I sent another message in an attempt to clear things up. (Even Including my Full real name, something I was loathe to do) I even stated that I used the same User Name on both Destructoid and N4G.
I have yet to recieve a reply. (...Which, in retrospect. makes sense: it was after Midnight by that point.)

I really don't know what to say. Banned on the basis of mistaken Identity, for someone elses misconduct and no way to prove my Innocence.
Has something like this ever happened to anyone else? I really don't know what to do.