Support NeoGAF

[Kokoloko85]

Sony just would rather pour those resources into home consoles than splitting their developers between home and portable.

With current tech Sony wouldnt need to split it developers.
Just port there PS4/PS5 library games to portable PSP3 like Switch and Steam Deck do.

Theres 4 shoulder buttons now on handhelds and better memory situation.

I think it would sell like the PSP 1 if they do it right

 

[CuteFaceJay]

Weren't they still doing proprietary storage and charging out the ass for it?

 

[cireza]

It was abandoned by Sony. They never understood how to support a handheld console properly, and they always try to enforce one shitty proprietary format with their consoles, which here was the memory cards.

The console is fantastic and I still play it to this day, but I would have liked to see much more games on it.

 

[GuinGuin]

With current tech Sony wouldnt need to split it developers.
Just port there PS4/PS5 library games to portable PSP3 like Switch and Steam Deck do.

Theres 4 shoulder buttons now on handhelds and better memory situation.

I think it would sell like the PSP 1 if they do it right

They see a much bigger future in VR and will be supporting that as their second pillar with PSVR 2 and I think it's the smart move. VR is definitely the future of gaming its just a question of when it will reach the point where usage explodes.

 

[GuinGuin]

Is the vita store online still working, id be tempted to get rid of my switch and get a second hand vita to go back to play a few titles ive missed

The Vita store is still open for business.

 

[Team Andromeda]

It failed because very much like with the SEGA with the Mega CD, SONY never really give it their all for the system bar a few gems. Such a shame as its one of the best handhelds I've owned

 

[Tschumi]

rumors of its demise are greatly exaggerated it's still the best handheld on the market, imvho

 

[nush]

Memory cards.

Every time I found the console for a good price when I looked for the required memory card either the largest and required one was not available and the smaller ones ( I didn't want) were overpriced and killed the good deal that the base console was.

Just stuck with my 3DS, no regrets.

 

[Ozzie666]

It's not dead. The Switch continues to copy it.

 

[Rickyiez]

If it was released today with cheap expendables and a sea of indie games , do you think it would flourishes ?

 

[kruis]

Did it actually? I would bet a large sum of money that Steam Deck won't sell as many units as Vita did. Sony just would rather pour those resources into home consoles than splitting their developers between home and portable.

Sony hasn't learned the PS Vita lesson. Looks like Sony is going to continue with VR, even though PSVR sold a third of what the PS Vita did (5 million vs 16 milliion). Releasing PSVR2 for PS5 will also mean splitting developers between home and VR. They could try to create games that work on both but that just means that both PS5 and PSVR2 owners get suboptimal game experiences.

 

[catvonpee]

My co-worker had one and showed me a couple games. Mortal Kombat 9 comes to mind, it might have just been a weak port... But I wasn't too impressed.

 

[GuinGuin]

Sony hasn't learned the PS Vita lesson. Looks like Sony is going to continue with VR, even though PSVR sold a third of what the PS Vita did (5 million vs 16 milliion). Releasing PSVR2 for PS5 will also mean splitting developers between home and VR. They could try to create games that work on both but that just means that both PS5 and PSVR2 owners get suboptimal game experiences.

VR is the future. That's guaranteed. PSVR sold well for an expensive and hard to demonstrate piece of technology. PSVR 2 will sell even better as it has much improved tracking and graphics. Any company ignoring VR is ignoring the future of not just games but all electronic entertainment.

 

[Roman Empire]

No games or incentive from Sony, so in other words, a lack of support.

Don't take me wrong with this but the system had some good games early on with Killzone, Uncharted, Gravity Rush, Wipeout, Persona 4 Golden, and a few remasters like Jack and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank. That is it. Sony failed to support the system and mostly games moving forward were by third parties.

Edit: I remember hating the proprietary memory instead of SD cards. Plus, not having the normal R2 L2 were a huge bummer when playing shooters.

 

[Kokoloko85]

They see a much bigger future in VR and will be supporting that as their second pillar with PSVR 2 and I think it's the smart move. VR is definitely the future of gaming its just a question of when it will reach the point where usage explodes.

Defo VR is the future, can’t wait for PS-VR2. I just hope they do some Portables because the Tech is becoming better and better and they can easily get in on that now easier than ever

 

[GuinGuin]

Defo VR is the future, can’t wait for PS-VR2. I just hope they do some Portables because the Tech is becoming better and better and they can easily get in on that now easier than ever

Look at Steam Deck. It is a very powerful handheld but can only run Control at low settings and 30fps at 800p. Now that I'm used to high settings, 60fps and 4k on PS5 none of that is good enough. Sony is about cutting edge gaming at a reasonable price. That's why a handheld was always a bad fit for them.

 

[TLZ]

They made Vita versions of almost all their big franchises and several vita exclusive IPs. Not sure what else they could have done.

They never supported it properly. I don't remember any ads or good marketing for it. I don't know why it was treated that way after the successful PSP. Only because smart phones were around doesn't mean you give up and abandon. The 3DS still made it. The Switch is doing wonders. I don't get Sony.

 

[hemo memo]

Memory-multiple accounts and game support. Sony themselves just gave up. It is a real shame as the console itself is fantastic.

 

[Kokoloko85]

Look at Steam Deck. It is a very powerful handheld but can only run Control at low settings and 30fps at 800p. Now that I'm used to high settings, 60fps and 4k on PS5 none of that is good enough. Sony is about cutting edge gaming at a reasonable price. That's why a handheld was always a bad fit for them.

I kinda agree but the PSP did well for them.
I’ll take 30fps playstation games on portable as I travel alot. I think in a year or 2 they can do 720 at 30fps-60fps low graphical setting.
Would be a shame if I Steam Deck is gonna be the place to play PLaystation games lol

 

[RoboFu]

All the games were crap. I bought a vita but never bought a single vita game , just psp games and demos.

tremendous waste of money.

 

[Ogbert]

Games weren’t good enough.

 

[Ogbert]

Look at Steam Deck. It is a very powerful handheld but can only run Control at low settings and 30fps at 800p. Now that I'm used to high settings, 60fps and 4k on PS5 none of that is good enough. Sony is about cutting edge gaming at a reasonable price. That's why a handheld was always a bad fit for them.

One of my favourite things about this gen is watching Sony fans suddenly realise that 60fps
is a thing.

 

[hemo memo]

They made Vita versions of almost all their big franchises and several vita exclusive IPs. Not sure what else they could have done.

Big franchises? Other than Uncharted the rest is new IPs and awful ports.

 

[Ceadeus]

I really like the system, it's sad that at the end there was mostly weird japanese game coming out, also too many Monster Hunter knockoff.

Ah well, Sony had the potential to push the PSVita further but prefered dropping the ball. I really want a Nintendo Switch competitor :/

 

[Werewolf Jones]

Sony didn't support it properly and Western devs wanted it to be a portable PS3 while Japan knew where it stood in terms of tech. Poorly managed/utilised.

Remember I was like "LMAO Vita" in 2013. It smoked the 3DS in terms of quality titles on the low. Absolute weeaboo power house, if the 3DS didn't have SMT/MH carrying and they were on Vita it might have been a different story.

 

[DevilMayFlyForAWhiteGuy]

I had a PSP. I actually liked it quite a bit but it was faulty and randomly shit the bed, and when I tried to claim warranty service Sony denied it because they said I broke it. So I never bought a Sony system again. Otherwise I may have gotten a vita but it didn’t have games anyways besides weeb shit so

 

[Bojanglez]

It was (still is) a great system but things that would have helped.

- Use standard storage rather than proprietary, would have made expanding digital libraries cheaper/easier to invest in
- A better online store with filters
- make the downloads list usable (I don't think any of the UI devs ever had a digital catalogue of more than 5 games in their testing. It also includes all PS3 titles you have purchased in the list)
- Provide video out with Dualshock support. Easy to say in hindsight, but they kind of went down that route with Vita TV, but if you could have hooked it up to a big screen out of the box, it may have been seen more of a mainstream device.
- Could have done with slightly better ergonomics, prolonged use could be hard, but most handhelds have this problem when they are small.

All minor things, but they all add up. It is a damn shame because I would live a PS portable device now, especially if it supported PS Now, PS5 Remote Play and a good catalogue of cross/buy/play indie titles, but unfortunately I think they may have felt too burned on the Vita.

 

[Holammer]

By 2011 when VITA and 3DS released, Smartphones had undermined the market for a couple years already. Because of the then rapid replacement cycle for these devices, the prevalence of hand-me-down phones made both platforms a hard sell and they fucking bombed. It took a dramatic (80$) price cut and Iwata apologizing to save the 3DS, but Nintendo still pushed disappointing numbers and third party devs increasingly abandoned it mid/late-gen, making release schedules a joke. Sony fared even worse and sold a piddling 10M+ units tops. They did not take the tough decisions required and I suspect they considered it a lost cause early on, stopped talking about it and just allowed it to wither away.

The old handheld market was dead and now is the age of the hybrid system. Nintendo does well with the Switch for now, whether their next offering will do well or suffer disruptions because of the Deck will be interesting to see.
... or a handheld PS4 compatible machine? I could see that as a viable product.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

Vita failed in sales but definitely was a success in providing good experience.

I would give it 10/10.

 

[ethomaz]

I don’t know.

But looking at Switch and Deck now days you see how ahead in the time Vita was.

IMO it is still a better designed machine than both.

 

[IKSTUGA]

Vita is the only major platform I've skipped in recent memory. I had a bunch of stuff for the PSP back in the day, but Vita's library always looked like kinda lacking to me.

 

[FStubbs]

Back in 00s game development was a lot cheaper (and less time intensive) where developers could develop games for home consoles and could afford to have side projects for handhelds. This became more and more difficult as time went on and by early 10s I imagine it was no longer financially viable to fund so many projects especially for a console that is threatened by mobile games. Yes, they are not the same but at the end of the day average young gamer bought a tablet - a platform that is easy to make games for and is massively profitable. In the end higher risk meant less games which lead to less sales which lead to lesser games and lesser sales.

I disagree with everything except the great point you made in bold.

Vita was a side project and depended on side project software.

Nintendo treated their handhelds as co-equal with the consoles. IIRC Sony's mega-teams like Naughty Dog rage quit at the idea of making a handheld game.

TBH, PSP was also a side project, but it rode the back of Monster Hunter, which became a major franchise on the platform. Then Nintendo money-hatted it away for the Vita/3DS generation and Sony was left without a tentpole franchise.

 

[FStubbs]

Look at Steam Deck. It is a very powerful handheld but can only run Control at low settings and 30fps at 800p. Now that I'm used to high settings, 60fps and 4k on PS5 none of that is good enough. Sony is about cutting edge gaming at a reasonable price. That's why a handheld was always a bad fit for them.

Fair point. Both PSP and Vita were the most powerful mobile devices available when they came out. By 2017 though, a third handheld would have been about as powerful as the Switch because the mobile market caught up to them.

 

[Zekra Dezivad]

They made Vita versions of almost all their big franchises and several vita exclusive IPs. Not sure what else they could have done.

Not enough. They didn't invest enough in development talent and quality.
For example the only big third party franchise they tried to bring to the system was CoD thanks to the partnership with activision, and it ended in a terrible game made with low budget, rushed in few months, from a low tier development studio. They simply didn't care.
Also they didn't care to invest in the only market where software houses are interested in developing on portables, Japan.
To me they released the Vita bc they "had to" but they never actually cared.

 

[junguler]

i'm not sure as to why it didn't sell that many units, it's probably a mixture of many different things but i know exactly why i didn't buy one, it wasn't emulation friendly and i couldn't play my favorite genesis games on it easily. i still have my psp go btw and play on it from time to time.

 

[HTK]

1. Software
2. Proprietary Memory Sticks
3. Big push to have console like games on the handheld instead of having developers create new IP's specifically for the Vita. Overall just lack of compelling games.

 

[Trogdor1123]

Biggest issue was storage for me. How they shipped it with internal storage, and the carts didn't have storage either, blew my mind. People were getting phones with 16 gigs or more of storage at the time and it really seemed short sighted.

Should have ditched the back touchpad and converted the cost to memory

 

[Rean no Kiseki]

 

[ReBurn]

I got one and mostly played my PS1 collection on it. I don’t think I become big on portable gaming until the Switch though. Something about having the same experience on the go really changes things

Mine contains a bunch of PS1 games that I installed when Sony had their screwup that allowed you to install any PS1 game in your PS3 library to Vita. This was another negative tick in the software support box. Vita was capable of playing all PS1 classics from the PS3 library but Sony wouldn't allow it. You could only install the ones that Sony allowed you to install whether you owned it or not. A lot of people defended Sony by saying those PS1 games couldn't run on Vita because the emulator required Cell but that store slip-up proved that wasn't true.

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

It should be noted that Playstation Vita sold 16 million units, which is far below the 80 million of the PSP, but still very strong numbers. For comparison, the Atari Lynx barely sold 3 million and, frankly, was lucky to get that far.

As to why Vita wasn't more successful, check your pockets. If you find a smartphone, there's your answer.

 

[Clear]

Simply put, in its day it was a square peg for a round hole.

 

[Marty-McFly]

It should be noted that Playstation Vita sold 16 million units, which is far below the 80 million of the PSP, but still very strong numbers. For comparison, the Atari Lynx barely sold 3 million and, frankly, was lucky to get that far.

As to why Vita wasn't more successful, check your pockets. If you find a smartphone, there's your answer.

Surely there is still a large market for dedicated handhelds as opposed to smartphones. 3DS and Switch Lite have proved this.

 

[Ultra Donny]

It wasn't a phone? I think the intended market endorsed it and rightfully so but the none enthusiasts market didn't see the value? I just a theory dictated from nothing. Maybe people wanted to play candy crush instead.

 

[chixdiggit]

A good portion of the handheld space is young kids. The Vita/PSP were not really kid friendly and marketed towards an older player.
Considering that I think they actually did pretty well. I imagine the Steam Deck will be similar.

 

[kruis]

VR is the future. That's guaranteed. PSVR sold well for an expensive and hard to demonstrate piece of technology. PSVR 2 will sell even better as it has much improved tracking and graphics. Any company ignoring VR is ignoring the future of not just games but all electronic entertainment.

"VR is the future!" sounds just as believable as "Linux will conquer the desktop!". (It wouldn't surprise me if there's a huge overlap between these groups).

 

[Warnen]

Gimmicks and Sony not supporting it

 

[Sleepwalker]

I remember wanting one but getting turned off by how expensive memory would be. I reckon I wasnt the only one.

Ended up with a 3ds

 

[Shifty1897]

I dunno, it was great. I bought two.

 

[GametimeUK]

The damn machine launched with Uncharted. That's a huge game to kick off with despite being made by a different developer. I really enjoyed that game too.

It just quickly became an indie device, but the initial support was fantastic in my opinion. I would absolutely love for Sony to release another handheld, but it just ain't going to happen.

Sony just gave up caring and didn't want to take the criticism on board and deliver a better product once it became a uphill struggle.

 

[Investor9872]

Overpriced proprietary memory cards!