Don't know if Sony's embarrassing handling of the Vita is part of the companies philosophy or the consequence of being virtually bankrupt.
Embarassing handling of the Vita? Wow, I think they handled it really well. They get a lot of credit from me for the PS Vita that they wouldn't get from me otherwise. They definitely handled it better than the PS4 imo, like I've already said (except in terms of marketing).
More first-party SCE games or not, it would have little impact I think. During launch/launch window and during its first year as a whole where it had many first-party games, PS Vita sales weren't very high either.Despite of that the Vita could gave some Renaissance or at least have much better sales if Sony would support it still.
I'm just going to quote one of my previous posts as well:
I believe there was simply no chance of the PS Vita moving hardware to the same degree as PS4's popularity. The mainstream market's interest in dedicated handhelds had just declined and a big portion of that market is likely satisfied with mobile games on smartphones/tablets.
The PSP's decline in popularity 2010/2011 was already a sign of this, with the mobile phone/tablet market growing exponentially in comparison.
I think the PSP was mainly succesful because of the brand. It was released around the peak of the PS2 popularity, where the PlayStation brand was ubiquitous and therefore very strong. I don't think it was succesful of God of War, Gran Turismo.
God of War: Ghost of Sparta sold significantly less than God of War: Chains of Olympus.
The PS Vita had a great game from a well-known IP as a launch game. It had a larger first-party launch line-up than the Wii U, 3DS, PS4 and Xbox One. It was very well received as well and had high satisfaction rate.
So it's safe to say that if it wasn't a big success at that point, that there probably just isn't that much demand for such a device from the mainstream market. Maybe it could have been a bit more popular with a more optimized, fine-tuned advertising strategy and games release schedule. But it was definitely never going to be a PS4- or 3DS-tier success. The market for it just not there. And that's fine. People who like playing games on handhelds are grateful for it. It can still cover that niche and ultimately satisfy its audience. Maybe not so good for SCE (business point of view). But for me, it's almost like a fan service kind of device.
The memory cards - while SD cards would obviously have been more convenient - are completely insignificant. There just isn't a big market that wants a dedicated, seperate device anymore to play games, especially games that don't have mass-market appeal. The 3DS manages to survive because of those mass-market appeal games. Pokémon, Mario, Zelda, Animal Crossing, Nintendogs. SCE simply doesn't have those kind of IP's.
Anyway, I think I'm done with arguing here. I think my points are clear by now.