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[LiquidMetal14]

I'll just take a steady flow of Indies thanks. The machine is great.

 

[MatrixMan.EXE]

Disappointing but not surprising. I love me some vita but Sony didn't put in much work. I hope NX fills the void well in a few years. 3DS has lots of great games but Vita whoops it design wise so I'm hoping for the best of both.

Even if Sony had 'put in work', the Vita would have still flopped. The market has changed so much since the launch of the PSP and DS that there just isn't room left for two successful dedicated handhelds. In fact, it can barely sustain one.

 

[travisbickle]

Uh... they have Morpheus already. Why are you suggesting Sony to cannibalize their own sales? It doesn't make any sense.

BTW I think the VR bubble will burst so loud it will be heard up on the Moon.

The Samsung thing is just a headset shell you place a phone in, it's not a Morpheus competitor.

 

[ArtHands]

Uh... they have Morpheus already. Why are you suggesting Sony to cannibalize their own sales? It doesn't make any sense.

BTW I think the VR bubble will burst so loud it will be heard up on the Moon.

Its better to cannibalize your own sales than someone else cannibalizing it.

 

[Drilbit777]

Yeah I figured they would be resistant on a vita successor given the state of the current system... Its a shame since I really love the vita and feel like if they hadn't screwed up on the memory card and price it would have done a lot better.

 

[Newtype-001]

Not healthy, but they'll do it anyway

Spoiler

please

Please.

 

[King Gilga]

Has the vita even sold 1/10th of the PSP's numbers yet? Haven't seen sony release ww hw numbers since 2013.

The thing is a grand failure and don't kid yourself, support or SD cards wouldn't have helped. Sure it might have sold a couple million more but it'd still be just as dead.

Just look at the 3DS limping along.

3DS + Vita Combined doesn't even come close to the PSP never mind the DS.

Mobile and tablets have basically killed handheld gaming.

Releasing another handheld would be a monumental waste of time and resources.

I'm really interested to see whatever Nintendo is doing about the nx.

3DS is still selling, it should end at ~70 million.

So not even as good as the PSP, the loser of the last handheld gen.

And I highly doubt it's going to sell another 17 million to even get close to 70 million.

Selling a 1/3rd of your previous hand helds lifetime sales with 0 competition.

So good.

 

[ZhugeEX]

A vita phone wouldn't make sense either guys.

The best strategy is to focus on software services rather than hardware at this point.

 

[-Horizon-]

Well there it is.

 

[Tertullian]

Nintendo needs to design a sleek sexy handheld that can scoop up all those disenfranchised Vita owners. Then united together we can take on the unwashed mobile hordes.

 

[Jarod McChicken]

Well I hope they're satisfied selling 10-50k on PS4 then. Because that's looking like their future once Vita fades out completely.

Do they have a contract-for-life that prevent them to develop for NX or mobile ?

According to you, which studios made a huge mistake by putting games on Vita, by the way ?

 

[omgwtfbentime]

I think people need to remember the main failure of Vita isn't the North American market. Yeah they marketed it terribly going for a playerbase that hasn't bought handhelds in years but like you have to remember even PSP didn't do super significant numbers in the States (especially in later years, I think people kinda let the thing go). But it was insanely successful in Japan. And with Vita, Sony mostly wanted to continue to get the Japanese handheld marketshare, which has shrinked significantly and many have moved to mobile. Vita is at what, 12 million units? Just not really sustainable to keep it going as their next handheld would likely only sell less, regardless of if Sony keeps supporting it with worse versions of its console games.

 

[gundamkyoukai]

Well I hope they're satisfied selling 10-50k on PS4 then. Because that's looking like their future once Vita fades out completely.

They are going to do better than that and if not it's easy to switch to mobile .
Of course that is not going to save everyone either .

 

[……forgetit]

Shocking news, but yeah we're looking at a one handheld future whenever Nintendo launches their new one.

 

[Yopis]

Not rocket science. Loved the system and had fun until it became indie port machine. Can get that on PC. So much fun, great system at the worst possible time.

 

[ArtHands]

Well I hope they're satisfied selling 10-50k on PS4 then. Because that's looking like their future once Vita fades out completely.

if they are not satisfied, that's their problem . Not anyone's fault that they refuses to explore and venture out of the Playstation ecosystems.

 

[cheesekao]

Disappointing but not surprising. I love me some vita but Sony didn't put in much work. I hope NX fills the void well in a few years. 3DS has lots of great games but Vita whoops it design wise so I'm hoping for the best of both.

UC, soul sacrifice, unit 13,resistance, freedom wars, oreshika, hot shot golf, lbpv, kill zone, gravity rush, tearaway, etc. Sony DID put in some effort. The fanbase just didn't respond and that's a crying shame.

 

[sörine]

I'd be happy with a Vita phone. With slide out buttons and nubs. Just have a Android OS that supports your PSN user with access to Vita, PSX and PSP games.

This could be a smart move but it involves CE and Mobile playing nice. Last time they tried it they expected Xperia users to rebuy PS1 games and the whole initiative was abandoned in less than a year. If it happens they need to make sure games can just play as is rather than have to go through a new cert process like Xperia Play or PSTV, and guarantee PSN consumers can just migrate their owned content. Throw in Android and you could have a pretty desirable gamer device that relies on purely pre-established software ecosystems so there's little risk and all upside.

Vita backtouch might also present too large a design hurdle although they could always just drop games that required it.

 

[Mass_Pincup]

The site is banned but from the source, the developer of Killzone: Mercenary said the development costs are the same or close to that of a PS3. Which makes sense. The workflow is similar to HD consoles which obviously requires a bigger budget then PS2 games did.

If the next handheld is PS4 powerful, is it not going to be the same thing again? More people needed to get the bigger graphics bump =more $$$. If the games don't cost $60, how will they ever make it back on what's already a smaller audience?

The cost of making a game don't stay the same forever, making a PS3 games now will be cheaper then in 2006 for exemple. And then of course it depends on the title, GTAV and Atelier Sophie are both PS3 games but the development cost aren't anywhere near the same.

 

[4Tran]

Honestly, so long as Nintendo keeps providing their games (mainly Pokémon), the NX Handheld will see some kind of success. If anything, it'll probably be more successful than the NX Console.

Sure, but the NX handheld is still going to lose a big chunk of the 3DS userbase.

Well I hope they're satisfied selling 10-50k on PS4 then. Because that's looking like their future once Vita fades out completely.

Those niche Japanese developers are just going to move to wherever their audience is. It's still the same 50-200K who buy those games, so there's no reason for that base to shrink.

 

[Bikram]

I blame Sony for it's troubles. First with pricey memory cards and then with the first party devs treating it as foster child. On top of that Sony didn't push it enough during the trade shows and marketing campaigns. It would not have set the world on fire but would have been at a healthier state now like the 3ds.

 

[True Fire]

I always see posts that doesn't make any damn business sense, few of them are in this thread.

There's a lot of anger and delusion when it comes to the Vita. It's not like I blame people, because Sony did them really dirty, but it's depressing to see.

 

[Macrotus]

the climate is not healthy for now because of the huge dominance of mobile gaming.

I completely agree with Yoshida's statement.
Even if they release Vita 2, I can't really see them having a success even if it does get decent support. By success, I mean getting all those mobile phone gamers to buy a Vita.
Sony has to compete with a device which almost everybody carries with them, a mobile phone.

Vita might be doing ok in Japan, but when you consider mobile gaming (handhelds and mobile phone gaming) as a whole, its.... not doing that great. Maybe "niche" might be to harsh, but its close to that.

But there still a chance to turn things around in Japan for the Vita.
Capcom, come on. Release Monster Hunter for the Vita.

Spoiler

But honestly, I think they're making Monster Hunter for NX instead

 

[Katana_Strikes]

Great decision. Pull all resources into PS4/home console. Dedicated handhelds are dead.

 

[Macrotus]

Well I hope they're satisfied selling 10-50k on PS4 then. Because that's looking like their future once Vita fades out completely.

I think those devs will eventually either go to creating iOS and Android games,
or go the PS4/PC path. Because I see lots of devs starting to release Japanese games on Steam.

 

[sörine]

A vita phone wouldn't make sense either guys.

The best strategy is to focus on software services rather than hardware at this point.

I think a Vita phone could make sense because it leverages a ready made platform (platforms really given PSP and PS1). It's not a future direction as platform itself but rather a smart way to take advantage of something Somy already has lying around.

For it to work they'd need to get almost everything right though and there is a LOT that could go wrong (recertification, build quality, BOM ratios, software interface, Android integration, carrier logistics, etc, etc). This level of interdepartmental collaboration is also sonething I think Sony has yet to prove they're really capable of.

 

[oti]

Great decision. Pull all resources into PS4/home console. Vita is dead.

There. I fixed it.

 

[JordanN]

The cost of making a game don't stay the same forever, making a PS3 games now will be cheaper then in 2006 for exemple. And then of course it depends on the title, GTAV and Atelier Sophie are both PS3 games but the development cost aren't anywhere near the same.

Tools get cheaper but expectations for better graphics are always getting higher.

So games actually cost more than they did in 2006.

If the point is then to sell budget games, that makes less reasons to release a successor. If current Vita games don't max the hardware, what's the point of making a more powerful one?

 

[sörine]

Do they have a contract-for-life that prevent them to develop for NX or mobile ?

According to you, which studios made a huge mistake by putting games on Vita, by the way ?

In my opinion all of them, because they put support behind building a platform with no future prospects or line successor. It's more a problem in retrospect and some publishers still did okay in the iterim, but publishers are looking at a very clear dead end here. Even Sony realized this years ago and got out asap.

It's just a shame everyone else didn't have Capcom's foresight.

 

[Parakeetman]

The cost of making a game don't stay the same forever, making a PS3 games now will be cheaper then in 2006 for exemple. And then of course it depends on the title, GTAV and Atelier Sophie are both PS3 games but the development cost aren't anywhere near the same.

Thanks to the PS3 being a pain in the ass to work with, esp when there are older hardware (OG PS3) induced issues included it actually takes more effort to do a game on that system than a PS4.

Why do you think last gen there were so many problem with multiplat titles...

Problems like that do not change and those types of problems effect the schedule and budget.

 

[odhiex]

I don't put too much hope to the NX honestly, if you want to call it a hybrid console/handheld. But, we'll see...

I got a feeling that the next vita successor would not be a dedicated handheld, rather than a true "psn" platform/store to sell vita/psp/psone/ps2 games to your smartphones (presumably an Android based, like Xperia phones). They can also sell accessories (dualshock lite), ps+ subscription, etc.

PS Console + cloud + dedicated android store wouldn't sound so bad for business. Vita will live.

 

[ShockingAlberto]

Great decision. Pull all resources into PS4/home console. Dedicated handhelds are dead.

You say this as if they didn't make this decision in 2012.

 

[Deadpool_X]

Can't say I'm shocked. The Vita has been a massive failure for company that is financially circling the drain. It would be fiscally irresponsible to release another.

 

[Kuni]

Yeah not a surprise. They should indeed keep focusing on PS4.

 

[gundamkyoukai]

In my opinion all of them, because they put support behind a platform with no future prospects or line successor. It's more a problem in retrospect and some publishers still did okay in the iterim, but publishers are looking at a very clear dead end here. Even Sony realized this years ago and got out asap.

It's just a shame everyone else didn't have Capcom's foresight.

How did capcom have any foresight ?
They can't seem to make any AAA games without help , spend all the MH money on mobile and lost it .
And only making money thanks to remakes and reusing assets .
There are much better Japanese companies to look at than capcom .

 

[Sakujou]

while the psp was a success(mostly due piracy in later years)
the vita started as a fucker:

games costed more than the psp games, the memory sticks were abnormal expensive and there was no in built storage.

and for a few years there havent been any strong exclusive titles. what do they expect?

micro sd cards, again 5 inch OLED, higher resolution, buttons, and physical games, and i would buy the system in a second, IF there are exclusive GOOD games out there.

the only good game was gravity rush. and this game will eventually be released on the ps4. so at least for me, the vita was a huge flop.

back then, i bought it near launch due a pricing error.

now i still believe that if sony would had supported it, it would still be alive these days.

nintendo made it too!

 

[Jawmuncher]

I definitely think the proprietary memory cards hurt it. Would have been better off with SD cards of some kind.

 

[Screamapillar]

I mean, this shouldn't surprise anybody. The Vita's sales have been extremely poor throughout it's entire lifespan. It's not all due to mobile games, it's also due to Sony not putting in the enormous first-party effort to prop up demand for software. Nintendo's still heavily invested in 3DS software, and that's the only reason the 3DS isn't as dead as the Vita.

 

[ArtHands]

How did capcom have any foresight ?
They can't seem to make any AAA games without help , spend all the MH on mobile and lost it .
And only making money thanks to remakes and reusing assets .

You say like reusing assets and remakes are something bad.

Their remakes are selling very well. Go check out REmake 2's announcement thread. People demand the remakes.

 

[ZhugeEX]

I think a Vita phone could make sense because it leverages a ready made platform (platforms really given PSP and PS1). It's not a future direction as platform itself but rather a smart way to take advantage of something Somy already has lying around.

For it to work they'd need to get almost everything right though and there is a LOT that could go wrong (recertification, build quality, BOM ratios, software interface, Android integration, carrier logistics, etc, etc). This level of interdepartmental collaboration is also sonething I think Sony has yet to prove they're really capable of.

Smartphones have become somewhat commoditized in recent years and there really isn't much room for a single SKU with a unique feature set to do well in the market. It's either a top of the line phone that competes with S6 and iPhone with no compromises, or a bottom end phone that competes on price. If Sony were to create a Vita phone they wouldn't be able to compete in any of those categories because compromises would be made, not to mention that Sony is losing mind share and market share in the smartphone business.

The best strategy would be to push all their PlayStation Online services to mobile including PlayStation Mobile, Now and Vue. Open up their services to all devices I say.

 

[PrimaNocta]

I own the Vita & I haven't powered it on in about a year. I'm strictly console games now but when I do play handheld games, its on my iphone.

So he might have a point.

 

[sörine]

How did capcom have foresight ?
The can seem to make any AAA games without help , spend all the MH on mobile and lost it .
And only making money thanks to remakes and reusing assets .

Capcom moved their PSP team(s) to 3DS. That's really what everyone should've done in 2011/2012, they'd all be better off for it now as it would've been a more lateral performance/userbase move and they'd have built up audiences on a hardware line with a future.

Of course we're probably facing a similar potential crossroads issue now with NX if it craters. Still publishers would've bought themselves another gen at least.

 

[Petrae]

I blame Sony for it's troubles. First with pricey memory cards and then with the first party devs treating it as foster child. On top of that Sony didn't push it enough during the trade shows and marketing campaigns. It would not have set the world on fire but would have been at a healthier state now like the 3ds.

Unquestionably, Sony bears at least some responsibility when it comes to the Vita's weak sales performance. It never felt like there was a big push for the Vita. There wasn't a buzz pre-launch. Retailers weren't showcasing it. It wasn't long before mainline Western publishers moved away from supporting the platform, leaving the machine to become an indie/niche software hub.

You didn't have to be a Michael Pachter to correctly predict very early on that Vita would be a disaster in the U.S. market... and it's only a small consolation that Vita has gained a bit of ground in Japan, after such a brutal first year.

While painful for Vita supporters, it's a positive to see Sony brass smartly nipping another dedicated handheld in the bud. The company recognizes the futility in undertaking new development in a market with very limited hardware sales potential-- that potential isn't nearly enough to justify the cost.

 

[gundamkyoukai]

You say like reusing assets and remakes are something bad.

Their remakes are selling very well. Go check out REmake 2's announcement thread. People demand the remakes.

I never said they were bad i am just stating the facts .

 

[DrXym]

The Vita failed for one reason and one reason only - proprietary memory cards. It slowed sales of the hardware and it slowed sales of software.

If the system had used micro sd it would have sold much better than it did and people would have bought more games because it was cheap to store them. Perversely Sony had numerous chances to correct this problem in iterations of the handheld and even the Vita TV but didn't.

 

[mrtoaster]

Wise words Shu.

 

[axisofweevils]

Not surprising news.. The Vita is a wonderful handheld, but it is hampered by insane design decisions that seem to fight you at every turn. The fact they keep making Vitas in different colours instead of one with a 64gb memory card included is mindblowing to me.

 

[ROBOKITTYZILLA]

I love my Playstation Vita but Yoshida is speaking the truth. That said, the market wasn't solely to blame for Vita's failures. Sony had a huge hand in that. It could of been a success but it's too late now and the market is definitely not aligned for a successor right now.

 

[metalslimer]

The Vita failed for one reason and one reason only - proprietary memory cards. It slowed sales of the hardware and it slowed sales of software.

If the system had used micro sd it would have sold much better than it did. Perversely Sony had numerous chances to correct this problem in iterations of the handheld and even the Vita TV but didn't.

Microsd cards were like number 8 on a long list of why the Vita crashed and burn with the number one thing being mobile.

 

[Huff]

I blame Sony for it's troubles. First with pricey memory cards and then with the first party devs treating it as foster child. On top of that Sony didn't push it enough during the trade shows and marketing campaigns. It would not have set the world on fire but would have been at a healthier state now like the 3ds.

Nope