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Vectrex Mini interview - David Oghia talks up the nostalgic vector powerhouse

Having been wowed by the news of the Vectrex Mini at Gamescom , I rushed off some questions to VectrexOn's main man  David Oghia . After a post-event, well earned, break, he's kindly given us a lot of detail about the project and some new images of the unit to share.  His story mirrors mine somewhat, Vectrex represents a glowing, unaffordable, obelisk of gaming power from our youth! But he's had the energy and drive to do something about it, and met the right people to get the job done!  What first got you interested in Vectrex and what spawned the idea of a Mini version? I’ve always been passionate about retro-gaming, but my first love was computers rather than consoles — the ZX81, then the Commodore 128. I only really discovered the console world in the late 90s, which is when I got my very first Vectrex. Of course, I had seen it in stores back in 1983, but at that time it was far too expensive for me.  Today, I own five Vectrex systems at home. Vector-based games ...

Will the Vita get a price cut for Christmas?

The Vita isn't selling well, that much the world knows. The Vita has few major games in development for it, don't think anyone can argue with that. Sony is still a company in deep financial trouble, despite sales of the PS4.

So, given all that, is it worth the company cutting the price of the Vita this year in time for the Black Friday, festive, New Year and other sales? Will some tens of thousands of extra units sold make much difference to the overall market? Without a big name game to sell it, will anyone even notice? 

Sony's previous price cuts don't seem to have made much difference and while Microsoft has started the ball rolling with an Xbox One price cut, Sony may be tempted to keep its margins higher on the better-selling PS4. Also, now Sony has PlayStation TV to sell, it might think it has its range and price points covered from sub-$100, then Vita and PS3 all the way up to the PS4. And, if it cuts the price of the Vita to $120-130, then that might dent PlayStation TV sales.
Adding all that together, I would be surprised if Sony did cut the price, except for perhaps a specific short-term period. Apparently selling just a couple of thousand a week in the States, Sony will be more keen on the a tiny profit from those, than losing money and trying to drive the user base, when traditional developers have already abandoned it. 

I'm not sure if using stock microSD cards would have helped the Vita's situation, but the proprietary memory cards certainly haven't helped. Having profited from them massively, perhaps Sony will finally cut those prices to sane levels, just for us loyalists? Thoughts welcome!

Comments

  1. In my opinion, what should suffer a price cut are the memory cards. The price is insane! Most people I know interested on the little Titan, don't get the system because of that.

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