EA PS Vita 'faces a challenge to succeed

EA has warned Sony and Nintendo that their portable gaming businesses are under increasing pressure from mobiles and tablets. Jeff Karp, boss of EA's casual division EA Play, questioned the future of the traditional handheld gaming market in an interview with MCV this week.He said of PS Vita: "I think it looks like a great device, but the real challenge for all game handhelds is how they stack up against mobile and tablets. After all, how many devices do people want to carry?"We are a platform agnostic business and we want them all to succeed, but it will be challenge for handhelds," he added. "Just look at how smartphones and tablets continue to grow and emerge."Karp's comments are similar to those given by Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli earlier this month, when he said: "I love Sony as a company, and we have great relations with them, but the Vita is going to have a hard time against the next generation mobiles and all the tablets. The Vita is an absolutely fantastic platform but it will have a hard time, and it might be too latrmtentendo is certainly feeling the heat in the handheld market. Having shifted only 700,000 3DS units in the company's first financial quarter, it opted to slash the portable's price only six months into its lifecycle, a move that puts PS Vita in a tough position, analysts said today.

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