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Shigeru Miyamoto slams PS Vita

The man behind Mario has slammed the PS Vita, saying it isn't being executed properly.

Joe Svetlik Reporter
Joe has been writing about consumer tech for nearly seven years now, but his liking for all things shiny goes back to the Gameboy he received aged eight (and that he still plays on at family gatherings, much to the annoyance of his parents). His pride and joy is an Infocus projector, whose 80-inch picture elevates movie nights to a whole new level.
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Joe Svetlik
2 min read

Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto -- the man behind Mario -- has slammed Sony's rival to the 3DS, the PS Vita.

In an interview with Edge, the gaming legend said: "It's obviously a very hi-spec machine, and you can do lots of things with it. But I don't really see the combination of software and hardware that really makes a very strong product." Ouch.

While the Vita is high powered, everyone knows a console is only as good as the games you can play on it. But Miyamoto was just as candid when discussing Nintendo's 3DS, saying it lacked the launch line-up he was hoping for.

"When we launched the 3DS hardware we didn't have Super Mario 3D Land, we didn't have Mario Kart 7, we didn't have Kid Icarus: Uprising," he said. "We were striving to have all of these ready for the launch, but we weren't able to deliver them at that time.

"We were kind of hoping people would, nevertheless, buy into the product, find 3DS hardware promising, but looking back we have to say we realise the key software was missing when we launched the hardware."

The PS Vita got off to a strong start (despite the odd inevitable hiccup), selling 600,000 in the west in its first few days, and 325,000 in its first weekend in Japan. But since then, figures have dropped off a cliff, with the Vita being outsold by the bog-standard PSP.

While the 3DS hasn't quite lived up to expectations, it has been Japan's best-selling piece of games hardware every week since its price dropped in August. Maybe Sony should take heed and start lowering the price of its consoles.

What do you make of Miyamoto's comments? Do you prefer the 3DS or PS Vita? Or are mobile phone games the way forward? Let me know in the comments or on our Facebook page.