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[Three]

They just didn't have the audience. Sometimes you can have a good product but have it still fail. It had games and it had good hardware but it just didn't have the audience who were already fans of the 3DS and building that with the PS fanbase was difficult. I have 2 Vitas (one black original and one white OLED). The thing I played most on it was P4G and even then I mostly just played it at home. They didn't have the pokemon, the animal crossing, and the nintendogs type games and if they did they wouldn't have taken off with the PS fanbase. Invizimals did OK but it wasn't an established juggernaut like pokemon.

 

[KAL2006]

Due to smartphone popularity. And it didn't have strong Nintedo handheld IPs like Pokémon. It even lost Monster Hunter to the 3DS which was important to Japan.

I don't think any company can compete with Nintnedo in the handheld market due to the dominance of franchises like Pokémon and Animal Crossing.

 

[iHaunter]

Stupid memory cards
Not many games

 

[Captain Toad]

Software.

I don't think so. It had a great launch library, but struggled out the gate. After that, Sony ignored it.

The biggest culprit were those expensive, mandatory proprietary memory cards.

 

[Kagero]

For me it was.

1. no L2 R2
2. Proprietary storage solution ( overpriced)
3. Gimmick touch pad.
4. Terrible UI
5. Terrible thumb sticks

wish they would make another portable. The tech is finally there.

 

[Pachi72]

2 things that killed it.
1. $250 portable was to expensive. Should of been $180.
2. Memory card prices. $130 for 64gb when the micro SD card 64gb cost like $40.

 

[eastcoastkody]

I went thru 2 or 3 of these things. I didn't like the squishy shoulder buttons. Form factor in general hurt my hands to play. Which PSP never did.

I enjoyed Uncharted, Tear Away, Killzone and Little Big Planet. I didn't hate AC Liberations. The screen on my white Assassins Creed Vita was so nice.

 

[BennyBlanco]

no games, the really stupid memory card situation.

that being said, vita right now with sd2vita and hacked is an awesome machine

 

[Nezzeroth]

Not even Sony cared to support it. That's why.

 

[The Snake]

Lack of support from Sony but also some weird timing.

The fact that I could check my email on it etc. was super cool but like, I had a phone by that point. If they had pushed it harder as a companion to the PS4 (I'm willing to bet most average consumers were unaware of Remote Play) and had more homogeneity between the two, it would have done better. Oh yeah, and the proprietary memory cards.

 

[crozier]

It wanted to be a portable console but Sony wasn’t willing to budget for console-quality games.

 

[AGRacing]

That hardware had so much potential... but...

- Should have been called PSP 2
- Should have had NO touch gimmicks and a proper L2 / R2 buttons.
- 1st party support sucked. Gran Turismo absent. Should have continued the launch game momentum when they were willing to invest in Uncharted, Wip3out, etc.
- Shouldn't have shot themselves in the foot with external memory pricing.
- The bubble interface sucked. Interface Should have been XMB based (even the PS4 operates this way)

 

[DaleinCalgary]

I found it very uncomfortable especially the bumper buttons on the top.

 

[Crimson_Fate]

1) Propriatory memory cards made it very expensive to kepp a large number of games with you especiallyt when there were larger and cheaper storage options sony could have used.
2) Only one person could use the dam thing , can't tell you how many people picked this thing up and wanted to play something , I let them play but they had to do so under my account name , they should have allowed for at least a guest mode if not allowing them to have multiple profiles
3) The single Triggers suck. the biggest complaint I have is that it does not have duel triggers , it just made it awkward to use coming from controllers with two triggers, and trying to remote play on PS4 meant remapping or doing the back tap.

 

[Fbh]

Expensive Proprietary storage
Lacking first party Software that needed more killer apps to release sooner
Lacking third party support
Monster Hunter went with Nintendo

 

[Pidull]

I wanted a Vita from the beginning, but one thing always stopped me: memory cards.

Why would I spend a ton of money for a tiny amount of memory? The excuses were complete bullshit (SD isn't fast enough), it was obvious to everyone that they were gouging with proprietary memory.

The only other issue is lack of content. If Sony has shifted direction with memory and courted indies hard, the Vita would have been a massive success.

 

[009EspadaSageJay]

O boy where to start the US branch of sony killed the vita state side heard the EU side was no better Japan got way better support.
launch vitas had a 3g option if you got a 3g launch vita you bought a paper weight you couldn't tether your vita to your existing phone plan you had to get a separate plan that would net you $40 to 50 a month to bad the 3g in the vita sucked regardless.
Memory cards never went down in price yes it was a problem by its 2nd year especially since most of the remasters or collection games that came out on the vita only the 1st game was on the cart and the 2nd or 3rd game would be a Download only option.
The US and EU had terrible support for old games if you were in japan most of the ps1 and psp library was playable on the vita in the states no MGS1 is the one of the many game that comes to mind that you cant play.
Sony dude bro stance with the vita was moronic since most of the dude bros are not going to play $300+ to play one of the worst versions of cod ever made for a platform.
US sony refused to translate and ship jp only games west when the only people who are making games for your platform are from japan maybe you should port those games over especially since by vita 3rd year no Western game companies were making any games for the vita but this is when sony decided to pretty much be a second xbox and start throwing jp devs under the bus.

 

[ReBurn]

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.

The Atari Lynx isn't really a great comparison for what happened with the Vita. That thing was doomed to fail from the beginning. It had pretty much nothing in common with the trajectory of PSP or Vita other than it was a handheld. That said I own two of them So I bought two tickets on that sinking ship.

 

[009EspadaSageJay]

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

that pic doesnt tell the whole story about what a 3rd of those games didnt git hit the vita till its 3rd/4th year and some of those games like Moe chronicles never came state side same with soul sacrifice delta

 

[KAL2006]

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.

I think they will go for a different approach this time. They will have the odd VR exclusive game. But I think they will have VR support for existing non VR games. Such as VR for Gran Turismo 7. This way they won't have a team dedicated to making a VR game but just add on a VR mode for game that's non VR.

 

[93xfan]

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.

That’s pretty gross. I think Sony has probably poorly handled the rights to all those old games, hence why we don’t see PS1 classics on PS4/5

 

[009EspadaSageJay]

That’s pretty gross. I think Sony has probably poorly handled the rights to all those old games, hence why we don’t see PS1 classics on PS4/5

Sony let alot of its ps1,ps2,psp, and ps3 games expire and never renewed any of the copy rights to them the psn store on the ps3 is proof of it about 95% of the games that where there around 2013-2015 are gone.

 

[Yoboman]

I think Vita failed because PSP never truly delivered. PSP sold a chunk but only ever really found software success in Monater Hunter. Which Vita lost to 3DS

I think the Sony support was fine but misguided

But we need to remember it came out in 2012. This was really at the start of Sony building up their status as a first party power house.

I think there was an over reliance on trying to reshape console IP to handheld instead of making handheld games for handhelds. Which is why the GOW or Uncharted games never blew up. There should have been more new IP all the way back to PSP. And Japan Studios - the studio most focused in making handheld games - really failed in ever making a popular IP

Lastly, it was probably the worst ever era to release a handheld into. There was a weird sentiment that handhelds were made redundant by mobile games - which was largely true. Even 3DS struggled. It sold 75 million but only being dug out of the grave after a botched launch and it still only did half of what Nintendo DS sold

 

[93xfan]

Sony let alot of its ps1,ps2,psp, and ps3 games expire and never renewed any of the copy rights to them the psn store on the ps3 is proof of it about 95% of the games that where there around 2013-2015 are gone.

Man that sucks. Glad I kept my PS3.

 

[Ritsumei2020]

It was a good price, ahead of its time graphically for a portable, had a nice OLED screen, had the Playstation name, not to mention it was quite the looker,

but the public shunned Vita. Even Japan.

Its the Neogaf effect. Its a bit like the Patcher effect.

Basically if Neogaf praises something, its bound to be an abject failure. On the other hand, if Neogaf hates it, then its bound to be a great success. See Wii and Switch OT.

Basically Neogaf cursed the vita. This is why Im worried about the Valve Deck. Neogaf seem really enthusiastic about it, which means its likely to be a colossal failure.

 

[Unknown?]

Sony's lack of support.

The proprietary SD wasn't cool as well.

Sad coz the device itself is awesome.

Same thing can be said about the forgotten PSTV. I was ecstatic to play Vita Games on TV. Only then found out not all games were supported, even if they do not need touch at all. Stupid really.

Sony stopped supporting it when the writing was on the wall, that had nothing to do with it because it failed even when Sony did support it. It had a better launch than ANY other PS system and first year had decent support too. It just wasn't selling.

 

[SkylineRKR]

The Vita was incredible when first shown. But when launch came near it was as if Sony didn't want it anymore. I do know this happened just when their leadership changed and they had to restructure a lot of their businesses.

I dunno, I think the western branch of Sony saw it as a liability. I bought it at launch day, the launch lineup was actually killer but that was about it. There wasn't much to look forward to from day one onward. It was even worse than the Dreamcast situation which had a healthy year at least.

Vita was a great system at the time, I didn't regret it but I think PSP was far better. Vita had better controls, 2 sticks, OLED screen and everything but the PSP library was infinitely superior. Multiple good GTA games, a bunch of good God of War games, a new FFVII game, a KH game, a few MGS games with Peace Walker being a canon prequel. Its unique that FFVII CC basically isn't playable on any other system as of now. Vita could sort of hang on because of the rise of indies, but the actual support was really weak very early on.

Some choices were baffling. The memorycard situation is one. But the 3G plan was wtf. It was completely useless. When I rebought a Vita in 2013, during the PS4 launch, I actually snatched a 3G unit at a clearance for like 80 bucks. They were cheaper than non 3G units by then.

 

[T8SC]

Memory card price & the overall price of games that never seemed to drop like PS3/4 games did.

 

[SpongebobSquaredance]

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

Come on now. Not only are some of these trash (Resistance, Playstation All-Stars, Little Deviants, Reality Fighters), a lot of these are also just ports of PS2 or PS3 games. On PSP you had an exclusive God of War and an exclusive Ratchet & Clank and not a collection of the oldies. Some of those may got ported to PS2 later on, but on the Vita it was usually vice versa - first on PS3, then on Vita.

Now its definitely nice to have PS2/PS3 games on the go and on a handheld form factor, its not like a God of War collection doesn't have value or something, but that's more of a bonus then a real substitute for a proper exclusive. Imagine Nintendo would've released Mario 3D Allstars and I mean just Mario 3D Allstars, and not Odyssey. The Jak & Daxter collection wasn't even good, much worse then on PS3 and even with the weaker hardware in mind it was a poor port. Which is a fate a lot of Vita conversions suffered from. Some people cry about the Switch... compared to games like Borderlands 2 on Vita even the sloppiest Switch conversions are a match made in heaven. Not to mention the Switch in general has a much bigger library.

Its also important to point out what failed and what missed out. Not all of those are developed by Sony, but most are at the very least synonymous with the PlayStation brand and could've sold units:

Failed:
- Ridge Racer
- Call of Duty
- Touch My Katamari
- Silent Hill: Book of Memories (PSP got Origins which was exclusive for a while and a port of Shattered Memories)


Missed:
- Gran Turismo
- GTA, not even a port of an older GTA, while PSP had two exclusive GTA games and a port of Chinatown Wars.
- exclusive Metal Gear Solid
- the only Tekken game on Vita was Street Fighter X Tekken, the PSP had an updated port of Tekken 5 and one of Tekken 6
- Syphon Filter
- PSP had exclusive Final Fantasy, Vita only had a port of Final Fantasy X and X2
- Socom
- Kingdom Hearts
- Monster Hunter
- Motostorm
- Twisted Metal
- Tomb Raider
- Ace Combat


The PSP had a pretty varied library of games with tons of big names and decent support by Sony. With the Vita they weren't able to release games in a similar fashion. There were only few exclusives. Most of the PSP library didn't receive sequels on the Vita. Big stuff like GTA or Gran Turismo missed out. Games like Call of Duty and Ridge Racer failed hard (especially the later hurts, because Ridge Racer on PSP was a great launch title). Not to mention they lost a ton of games to the 3DS.

 

[MrA]

Sony let alot of its ps1,ps2,psp, and ps3 games expire and never renewed any of the copy rights to them the psn store on the ps3 is proof of it about 95% of the games that where there around 2013-2015 are gone.

that reminds me fatal frame 1 2 and 3 are all available for download on the ps3, better get on it.
namcos mind boggling decisions with ridge racer and katamari set a really bad tone for third party support, what's that you want a full game? too bad
didn't help that sony didn't seem to care, a bunch of sony's first-party stuff was extremely pared back compared to the home console games, something they didn't do with the psp,
killzone was like 3 hours long and had like 7 maps (fortunately what was there was excellent), resistance was a trash heap after the fantastic psp game,
the psp got full god of wars and gran turismos, the vita got a collection and nothing,
at least gravity rush, wipeout and hot shots golf were really good
outside of the excellent need for speed, and the totally fine fighters (even if a bit ugly), most non-indie third party games were terrible, borderlands, resident evil, they ran with absolutely terrible framerates and were incredibly blurry (these 2 are comparable to ark survival evolved on the switch)
plus it didn't get most of the big third party stuff the psp did, no gta, no tekken,

 

[leo-j]

Tbh marketing. Many people I know who game on ps4 don’t even know what a vita is. The PSP was such a popular device because of the marketing. I feel the vita fell into the whole Wii U trap with the bad naming and bad marketing. It’s too bad because it was an amazing piece of hardware and was innovative with the touch pad and motion controls, not to mention the first dual analog handheld system.

 

[Azelover]

Multiple reasons..

Mobile gaming being a big one. It affected the whole landscape at the time, including the 3DS.

 

[AndrewRyan]

All Vita's failures were deliberate decisions made by Sony so I'd like to think they learned something.

1. Proprietary memory cards: Expensive, slow as hell. Only used from crappy Content Manager app - also slow as hell. Lets the player know right away you're here to be fleeced!

2. No L2/R2. An unbelievable oversight. All they had to do with the Vita was add a 2nd stick and L2/R2. That's it. Without L2/R2 it's not useful for remote controller, not compatible with games that use them. An incredibly bad decision in hindsight.

3. Draconian DRM. Can't have two accounts on one memory card so no sharing between family members. See #1.

4. No TV out. Sony was so fearful Vita would cannibalize PS3 sales they actually removed this feature from the PSP Go. Shameful. This one decision could be the difference between Switch's success and Vita's.

5. Proprietary charger. They fixed this with the non-OLED version but for a portable, you now have to lug around a charger almost half the size as the console. Sheesh.


The other little issue that's slightly related, I can't believe Sony never capitalized on the insanely popular PS2 era. As the console generation was transitioning from PS2 to PS3 the developers already had the tools and experience required to develop PS2 games so it seems so obvious to release a handheld that could utilize all that experience to keep the momentum going.

 

[Hustler]

expensive proprietary memory cards was the beginning on the downfall, lack of 1st party games finished it off.

 

[ReBurn]

Man that sucks. Glad I kept my PS3.

I wish my launch PS3 60 GB didn't YLOD. One of those and a PS5 is the ticket to maximum Sony gaming with the fewest consoles possible. If you have room for the beasts.

I do love my PS3 slim, though.

 

[93xfan]

I wish my launch PS3 60 GB didn't YLOD. One of those and a PS5 is the ticket to maximum Sony gaming with the fewest consoles possible. If you have room for the beasts.

I do love my PS3 slim, though.

Had mine fail as well and settled on a slim.

I switched over to Xbox partly because of their dedication to BC + preserving the Halo games in MCC, and partly because of how Sony treated Socom. But I will gladly keep my PS3.

 

[009EspadaSageJay]

Man that sucks. Glad I kept my PS3.

yea if you DL the games before those dates or have it physical thats the only way to get it.

 

[009EspadaSageJay]

that reminds me fatal frame 1 2 and 3 are all available for download on the ps3, better get on it.
namcos mind boggling decisions with ridge racer and katamari set a really bad tone for third party support, what's that you want a full game? too bad
didn't help that sony didn't seem to care, a bunch of sony's first-party stuff was extremely pared back compared to the home console games, something they didn't do with the psp,
killzone was like 3 hours long and had like 7 maps (fortunately what was there was excellent), resistance was a trash heap after the fantastic psp game,
the psp got full god of wars and gran turismos, the vita got a collection and nothing,
at least gravity rush, wipeout and hot shots golf were really good
outside of the excellent need for speed, and the totally fine fighters (even if a bit ugly), most non-indie third party games were terrible, borderlands, resident evil, they ran with absolutely terrible framerates and were incredibly blurry (these 2 are comparable to ark survival evolved on the switch)
plus it didn't get most of the big third party stuff the psp did, no gta, no tekken,

yea the vita got a bunch of poor ports and not every port was the same between regions sony never approached namco for katamari or ridge racer so they just threw those two games on the vita and called it a day.

 

[MrA]

yea the vita got a bunch of poor ports and not every port was the same between regions sony never approached namco for katamari or ridge racer so they just threw those two games on the vita and called it a day.

its a shame with ridge racer and katamari as the psp entries of both were fantastic,
at least tecmo delivered on the vita (even if the variable resolution in ninja gaiden 2 was pretty agressive)

 

[hououinkyouma00]

It was a good price, ahead of its time graphically for a portable, had a nice OLED screen, had the Playstation name, not to mention it was quite the looker,

but the public shunned Vita. Even Japan.

It sold relatively well in Japan, it just had to go against the 3DS so anything would look terrible. Japan kept Vita island afloat for awhile.

The messaging was off, and memory cards were stupid.

Its still my favorite handheld of all time, easily.

 

[Wulfer]

Easy to answer: Sony stopped caring about it's portable product and Sony got too greedy with what they had.

 

[SpongebobSquaredance]

its a shame with ridge racer and katamari as the psp entries of both were fantastic,
at least tecmo delivered on the vita (even if the variable resolution in ninja gaiden 2 was pretty agressive)

Ridge Racer on Vita was such a clusterfuck.

 

[SecretAgentHam]

Like everyone has already said, the memory card situation was brutal. Sony threw every IP at the Vita it had in its arsenal hoping one would be a success instead of creating something unique to the machine. If Tearaway launched with the console instead of Little Deviants I think it would have had a lot more momentum out of the gate. It still blows my mind that the Vita doesn't have cheaper memory to this day. I use mine to play my PS1 & PSP digital library since there is literally no other way to play them at this time. It really makes me wonder why Sony refuses to introduce some sort of emulator on PS4/PS5 to support those previous purchases.

 

[009EspadaSageJay]

its a shame with ridge racer and katamari as the psp entries of both were fantastic,
at least tecmo delivered on the vita (even if the variable resolution in ninja gaiden 2 was pretty agressive)

yea i tried the sigma games on the vita the 30 fps was the biggest hurdle for me personally especially when every version of those games was hitting 60

 

[Fat Frog]

Nintendo has steamrolled every handheld competitor. Nobody has ever dominated gaming like Nintendo dominates handhelds.

Handheld consoles probably.(Sega was stupid with the gamegear, Sony too confident)

Nonetheless, as someone said before, the real handheld kings are mobiles...

I saw a few PSP, DS, 3DS a long time ago in the subway but very quickly it was all about mobiles.

Nintendo did a great move by producing the Switch.(their handheld ex leadership helped them to dominate the other console market).


3DS was still solid but are the true kings of handheld gaming.(as unconvenient are mobile ports of our usual games. That's why i think cloud gaming will be huge a few years. Wii gaming was unplayable for me, so as many mobile, therefore a slight latency won't bother the mass market.Even the less efficient tech, xcloud, doesn't bother resetera what the fuck...)

 

[GymWolf]

Do you people used some sort of grip for your vita?! It was extremely uncomfortable for me to play with that thing until i bought this

And even with that, it was still nit as comfortable as a regualar controller...damn giant hands...

 

[michaelius]

Lack of Sony west branches commitment - they never put any significant effort into it.
It's insane that we never got even a part of Gran Turismo for the machine for example and second major mistake was not securing monster hunter exclusivity.

 

[PaintTinJr]

I agree with lots of point already made, but for selling a portable experience of PlayStation 3D AAA games the main problem was (ARM isn't brawny enough and) screen size - because unlike Nintendo IPs where their simple big screen gaming scales down, PS3 games didn't. But worked great for Everybody's golf, AA games, Ps1/ps2/PSP exclusives game, or a AAA game like Gravity rush - exclusively made for the device, but would have still benefited from big screen gaming IMO.

Screen size below about 11" - based on me trying remoteplay of PS4 on an ultrabook and 4k hdr smartphone - is about the minimum screen real-estate a user needs to play an intricate detail AAA game, such as Death Stranding IMHO, and that just isn't a product form factor you can do in handheld.

If they try again, they should go with the smartglasses route for the display, so screen size is big screen - and x64 like the steam deck so it isn't some limp hardware setup on the CPU side, like Vita, Switch and Smartphones are IMO.

 

[Paasei]

Memory card prices. You also needed a new account if you upgraded said card, if I remember that correctly. There was at least some hassle about it that prevented me from getting one with more storage aside from the costs.

The games I want to play on it are installed, so I haven't done anything else with my Vita than playing those games.

 

[Zannegan]

Vita had some really nice hardware that brought some neat ideas to the table with just a few compromises--no clicking sticks, no L2/R2, proprietary memory, etc. I actually remember Sony supporting it well early on with an Uncharted, a Killzone, and a few Media Molecule games, but it just didn't catch on with consumers or third parties. I don't know if it was the $250 price point at the end of the recession or what, but neither Nintendo nor Sony's handhelds had much traction coming out of the gate.

If Sony had kept up their support, they might have saved Vita to a degree, but keep in mind the time in which this is happening. The recession was still a thing. PS3 had lost them a ton of money out of the gate, and yet had run in third for most of that gen. Their phones and tablets weren't doing all that well. Even the Bravias weren't lighting the world on fire. I remember a lot of doom and gloom surrounding the company prior to the PS4 reveal.

Sony had to really double down on the things they did well and cut out a lot of the dead weight to survive, which they did. I don't think Kaz Hirai gets enough credit for the way he turned the ship around during that crisis. He had to make some tough calls, one of which was how they prioritized support. The Vita, for all its advantages, became collateral in Sony's fight to survive.

At least that's how I remember it. *shrug*