People Cheered At The Time, Now The Reaction To Vita Is Apathy.

The forum was debating Vita's chances now that Nintendo's hit the panic button and knocked nearly $100 of its 3DS device. The take-away from most posters was that the Vita was all of a sudden doomed.

At E3, forum-goers revelled in the device's price. We were all expecting upwards of $300, but when Kaz Hirai dropped that $250 price-point there was relief and excitement. That eroded overnight, because apparently Nintendo got its act together.

A lot of our arguments pointed out that the competition between the Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita is not an either-or battle. A lot of posters suggested that parents shopping for a handheld system this holiday would pick up a 3DS with Mario Kart (yes, the seventh one). But if that's the type of gift they want to give to their child, it's unlikely they would have purchased a Vita regardless of the 3DS' price-point. The point being: the 3DS price-drop will have an impact on Nintendo's hardware sales, but not necessarily on Sony's.

The analysts disagree with us though. Speaking with IndustryGamers, David Cole of DFC Intelligence said that Nintendo was responding directly to the impending threat of Sony's handheld.

“I just looked at their revised financial forecasts and they are ready to take a hit. They are really being aggressive. It is very unlike Nintendo to be willing to take such a loss. I think what it says is that they really feel the heat from the Sony Vita. I see it as a move to protect their market share and position in handhelds. I would not call it desperation but more a very aggressive defensive action by the market leader to hold on to market position.

“Sony I think can possibly play this to their advantage, although the price difference is tough. Sony is going up against a very aggressive leader in Nintendo. I think we can say that competition in the portable space should really heat up. That could be good for consumers that can take advantage of these deals.”

Colin Sebastian partially agreed, but stressed that Nintendo wouldn't have had to drop price of the 3DS if the system had more compelling software.

“It was clear that Nintendo had a problem on its hands with the 3DS, and I think they are acting aggressively to try and save the platform. For that matter, any new platform has to be very considerate of the initial price point, but that is art as well as science, so I am not sure whether Sony will find it necessary to lower the Vita price.

“In fact, the two handhelds are quite different. Content is always a crucial variable that is easy to forget – if game publishers had been able to make really compelling content for the 3DS with appeal to millions of gamers, then the story might have played out differently.”

Both Billy Pidgeon from M2 Research and Jesse Divinch from EEDAR believe Sony's got its work cut out against the now cheaper Nintendo 3DS however, suggesting consumers will "settle" for a 3DS due to its lower price.

The debate continues.

[Thanks VG247]