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The 3DS beating the Vita is the most unjust result in the history of console wars

MadViking

Member
I think vita is much better system than 3ds but Sony made many mistakes it. From my point of view :
1. Unnecessary gimmicks (two cameras, mic, back panel, gyro) that increased the price, should have kept only the front touch screen. Maybe add vibration instead.
2. Not standard and expensive memory, when digital was going up.
3. Devalue games with too many and high profile games in ps plus, making it less attractive for developers.
4. Wasting resources on mobile and social features.
5. TV output would be nice to have. If it also supported dualshock it would be like switch is now.
 

sublimit

Banned
Eh not really. 3DS also had a very rough start but unlike Sony with Vita Nintendo actually supported its system. They even cut its price less than a year after its launch which was crazy for Nintendo's standards and philosophy.

Nintendo after they saw how much the WiiU flopped gave all their focus on 3DS which i think it was wise. On the other hand Sony also had to support two very successful systems (PS3 and PS4) so it was much more harder (and didn't made financial sense) to support a 3rd system with all they got (like Nintendo did with the 3DS).

Vita's downfall was also a brutal awakening for Sony to the fact of how much crucial Monster Hunter was for PSP's success. All Nintendo had to do was to pay Capcom for MH exclusivity and the Vita would be DOA.
That along with Sony's idiotic stuborness with Vita's memory cards pretty much sealed its future.

But yes as a piece of hardware it was incredible and a huge improvement over the PSP. Sony's R&D department really outdid themselves.
 
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Chukhopops

Member
Vita:
- proprietary storage that costs an arm
- barely any BC, just a selection of PSX and PSP games
- only one model revision that actually makes it worse (removed the OLED screen)
- first party support dropped after 2 years
- not sure it ever had a price drop
- gimmicks that were barely used (all I can think of is Gravity Rush and Tearaway)

3DS:
- micro SD support so storage becomes cheaper over time
- probably the best VC collection next to the Wii U including Megadrive and SNES games
- multiple revisions and price drops to adapt to a wider audience and fix the initial issues
- massive first party support up to the very end of life
- plenty of games making clever use of the touchscreen and stylus (dungeon crawlers, Layton games, Rythm Heaven and plenty more)

Looks like the best device won to me.
 
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ANIMAL1975

Member
Well that's fine because I don't buy handhelds to play the shit cinematic emotional third person action games we get on home console. Sony can keep them. The fact that they tried supporting the Vita with games like these shows that they had no clue about handheld consoles ti begin with.
From the top of my head Sony made 'for the Vita' (not ports) from the western studios big sellers: an Uncharted action adventure game, Resistance, Killzone. And then, somewhat Vita version of Motostorm and LBP. And then exclusive gems like Tearaway and Gravity Rush...
How many 'Sony shit' cinematic action adventure gaimez are there? Please tell us more.
 

cireza

Banned
How many 'Sony shit' cinematic action adventure gaimez are there? Please tell us more.
Taking a look at their exclusives output on their home consoles should tell you more.

Nintendo handhelds sold a ton and had none of these types of games.
 
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Vita has some great RPG serieS and Visual Novel serieS and a lot of fighting games. Oh and Vita has Sonic all Star Racing, Needs For Speed Most Wanted and Street Fighter X Tekken.

You should crack your Vita to get SD support, boost performances, increased resolution to its max and... play PSP and Retroarch. The Megadrive and PC Engine on this screen are so awesome.

The Vita is the definitive portable, in my opinion, but it seems it's Sony's Shenmue now, something they are not ready to talk about.
 
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Impotaku

Member
Eh not really. 3DS also had a very rough start but unlike Sony with Vita Nintendo actually supported its system. They even cut its price less than a year after its launch which was crazy for Nintendo's standards and philosophy.

Nintendo after they saw how much the WiiU flopped gave all their focus on 3DS which i think it was wise. On the other hand Sony also had to support two very successful systems (PS3 and PS4) so it was much more harder (and didn't made financial sense) to support a 3rd system with all they got (like Nintendo did with the 3DS).

Vita's downfall was also a brutal awakening for Sony to the fact of how much crucial Monster Hunter was for PSP's success. All Nintendo had to do was to pay Capcom for MH exclusivity and the Vita would be DOA.
That along with Sony's idiotic stuborness with Vita's memory cards pretty much sealed its future.

But yes as a piece of hardware it was incredible and a huge improvement over the PSP. Sony's R&D department really outdid themselves.

Yup the first year or so was pretty bad for 3DS there wasn't much out either first or 3rd party but eventually the games did start to come but it took quite a while & by the end it had quite a solid library. The vita on the other hand seemed to be hobbled from the very start, sony got fucking greedy with trying to make a killing on those propriatory memory cards and in doing so it killed off any chance the vita might have had. going back to op i don't see why vita should get a pass they left it to die, the reason the 3ds was a success is because nintendo eventually put in the effort to keep supporting it as well as the 3rd party devs. Towards the end of the vitas lifespan it was pretty much weeb visual novels or waifu simulators. If you stack up the library of the vita against the 3DS, sorry the 3DS destroys it.
 
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ANIMAL1975

Member
Taking a look at their exclusives output on their home consoles should tell you more.

Nintendo handhelds sold a ton and had none of these types of games.
I gave a actual list of Vita games that only one you could call 'cinematic action adventure shit' : Uncharted golden abyss (which by the way wasn't) _ tell me what games were you talking about.
Fake edit. Those games are in ps4 and PS3 also... and ratchet and clank, and gran turismo, and Dreams, and the last Guardian, and concrete genie, so many cinematic shit.
 

Doczu

Member
3764294-3733972-3429836-3428861-1449450532566%2B%281%29.png

Noooo! It's not fair! The Vita is the better hardware!

It's like the old DS and PSP days again, but with a bigger burn.
 

Yoshi

Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
It is the best PlayStation hardware and better hardware than the 3DS (except for the stupid back touchpanel), however, the lineup of the 3DS is much better, so it deservedly won. I also think the Vita has the better hardware than the Switch (except for the analogsticks and their placements). Switch is more powerful, but less usable as a handheld as a consequence.
 

Doczu

Member
It is the best PlayStation hardware and better hardware than the 3DS (except for the stupid back touchpanel), however, the lineup of the 3DS is much better, so it deservedly won. I also think the Vita has the better hardware than the Switch (except for the analogsticks and their placements). Switch is more powerful, but less usable as a handheld as a consequence.
The biggest issue with Vita's hardware configuration was the screen resolution. Many games were rendered in lower resolution, something that the Switch clearly took over from the Vita...
 

Yoshi

Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
The biggest issue with Vita's hardware configuration was the screen resolution. Many games were rendered in lower resolution, something that the Switch clearly took over from the Vita...
Yes, both systems would have been better off with lower screen resolution. More games would be native res, less power wasted on the screen and it would probably even be cheaper.
 

gradient

Resident Cheap Arse
Not really, the 3DS was by far the better portable gaming system.

  • It was more accessible due to price and non-proprietary memory cards.
  • It's pricing was better.
  • Form factor was better (clamshell FTW)
  • It recieved a host of special editions to appeal the different segments of the market.
  • It recieved multiple hardware revisions to rectify early design issues.
  • The 3D and touchscreen were actually utilized as an integral part of the system with multiple system sellers utilizing them and pushing the feature (3D Land nailed it)
  • Library was actually focussed on the market. Nintendo understood that portable gaming is different from home gaming and made games that could fill that gap.
  • Library was just better. The 3DS has an insanely good library and is one of the few systems to recieve multiple fire emblems, Mario platformers, it's own Mario Kart, a mainline 2D metroid, a new mainline Zelda, multiple Kirby games and multiple entries in the mainline Pokemon series (and can play more Pokemon games than any other system). And this is without taking into account 3rd party offerings (multiple Monster Hunter, SMT, Etrian etc.)
  • It was backward compatible with the DS. Which meant every DS owner could continue to play their games on the new system AND all 3DS owners had access to the DS back catalogue. That's nuts.

Really, Nintendo completely dropped the ball in the first year of the system's life so Sony had a golden opportunity to cut into the market, but the Vita just wasn't the console to do it. Sony didn't understand the market and was more intent on pushing proprietary standards and accessories. After that Nintendo came back hard and the 3DS leapt ahead of the Vita in terms of software library.

The better console won. It's a shame it was such an absolute victory though. More competition would be good because the 3DS proved that under pressure Nintendo produces far better than top of the market Nintendo. The 3DS really benefitted from the competition and Nintendo's early fumble.
 
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HE1NZ

Banned
Vita being trashed by 3DS makes perfect sense. Just like with PSP it's a platform for downsized PS2-PS3 games, it makes no sense financially to develop exclusives for it. Meanwhile most DS line games can't be ported anywhere and offer unique experience that you can't get on a home console. Sony didn't get why PSP failed to overtake DS and decided to double down on it with Vita. Literally every Vita game should have just been on PS3, i'd love to replay Uncharted Golden Abyss on the big screen.
 

SkylineRKR

Member
The Vita library wasn't half as good as the PSP was.

They just released it without any confidence, I think the western branch didn't want it or something? Launch line up was killer, and that was it.

PSP had bonafide GTA games, MH, Kingdom hearts, FF, MGS, Persona, God of War etc. Sony kinda went all in on that system still. With Vita they did have Uncharted, the revived Wipeout and they had some butchered Ridge Racer and Resistance game. Some HD ports like MGS collection. On top was the shitty memory card issue. Vita rightfully bombed, half a year after I bought mine I felt the support was very weak. There were indies, but its not why I bought it in the first place.
 

DunDunDunpachi

Patient MembeR
As much as I love the Vita, and as much of a step down I think the 3DS versus DS is, the Vita still deserved to lose against it.

Other than Killzone Mercenary, Soul Sacrifice, and Tearaway, what major games did Sony invest in?

PSP had God of War, Splinter Cell, Gran Turismo, portable Tekken, etc. It felt like the typical Playstation experience was condensed down into a handheld, which is kinda the #1 goal of a handheld.

They left it to die, and it died.
 

Majukun

Member
i would have preferred for it to be more successful since it offered way mroe for portable gaming, but what can you do.

also we now have the switch that is more of an iteration on the vita than on the 3ds anyway
 

Mozza

Member
If you make the experiences on your portable console similar to your home console, you will never get people to buy both, add this to the Sony fetish of exclusive overpriced memory cards, then you can see why it failed to connect with even a large percentage of Sony die hard fans.
 
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MagnesG

Banned
I'll say it first, Sony fans just don't want to actually buy games on PSP/Vita. They thought because handheld games are the lesser version of consoles they don't want to pay much for them.

Also PSP hardware sales only erupted because of piracy, software sales is abysmal in comparison. The loyal fanbase have never been there much.

Vita came with subsidized price, but it wouldn't stand a chance with its shit memory option to coup the cost. Overall it is just a bad harware when memory is considered.
 

turtlepowa

Banned
Not everything is fair. I think it's unfair that Netflix games with mediocre (at best) gameplay get 90+, but majority is always right i guess.
 
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Kenpachii

Member
The real reason nobody cared for the vita was the games at the end.

Monster hunter was suddently moving to nintendo, kingdom hearts 3 ( which people thought at the time ) was hitting the 3DS, resident evil full blown game was hitting the 3DS with mario / zelda ocarina of time etc etc.

If i thought about the PSP i think about kingdom hearts / monster hunter and that was all nintendo now.

Honestly the lineup of nintendo was amazing with there announcement and with that 3D screen which kinda invalidated the entire stuff what the vita was going for.

The only thing that vita had left was a expensive price, big form factor to plays some retarded cut down looking main games.

Look at uncharted for example, the game was mindblowing good looking when announced, then got heavily nuked to the point it looked like trash. The demo of that castle they showcased, not a single game arrived or announced with that visual quality. The advertisement it could run PS3 games yet no PS3 games where released on it made it even more stupid even the call of duty for it was a massive disaster. PS2 games probably never arrived for it which could give it a boost they didn't care. and even then PSP already had gta running so what's the point.

Then the problem Nintendo also had, was that handheld division if you do make high budget games for it, will straight up nuke content from there main console platform which simple put that business in danger as more content had to be made for that anyway.

There expensive memory shit modules while at it and u basically had a handheld for some indie titles with high pricing. Which people already had enough access towards on the platforms they owned then.
 
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DunDunDunpachi

Patient MembeR
Kenpachii Kenpachii Uncharted on Vita ended up being one of my favs in the series, mainly because it went back to the style of the first game and focused on treasure-hunting and shooting. The gyro aiming was also handled nicely. Sony needed 10x more games of that caliber, though.
 

NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
Nintendo believed in their system, cut its price very early when they saw it wasn’t selling, gave it a drastical hardware revamping at the right time that made it much better and even improved its specs midway through its life cycle, and supported it to the very end with more games than their home console, even when no one wanted new games for it anymore. I think I still haven’t even booted up half of my 3DS library.

Sony abandoned Vita early, and if anything, they even took the time for a hardware review that made it cheaper, all the while insisting on using a ridiculously expensive memory format.

But sure, it’s injustice🤷‍♂️
 

Kupfer

Member
I have several DS's and Vita's and playing on the Vita outplays the DS easily. I recently started playing GTA3 and Max Payne on one of my modded ones and it's almost more fun setting everything up and see it working than actual playing.
Got a modded DS XL as well but it's not as much fun as the Vita.

Imru’ al-Qays Imru’ al-Qays
Did you install Enso?
It will make a great if not the greatest homebrew/emulator machine from your Vita.
 

Banjo64

cumsessed
The regular New 3DS is class. Great build quality, clamshell design is actually pocketable, full access to the full DS library, virtual console. Best handheld ever made for me. The Vita is great hardware, it’s abandonment is a great shame, as when you compare the software it’s an absolute rout.

I wouldn’t call it a great travesty at all, in fact it’s quite the opposite, great games shift hardware and that’s what we should all want.
 

vkbest

Member
It mainly consisted of inferior home console ports or sequels, rather than games made for a handheld experience to begin with.

Who wants to play an inferior version of a third person or first person action game for hours with these tiny sticks and get cramps ?

Uncharted was not a port, Killzone mercenaries ( the second best title on the franchise after Killzone 2), Gravity Rush was a original game, and the PC gamers were losing their ass to play Persona 4 on PC until some months ago.

You are talking about ports, but 3DS first 2 years catalog was fully of ports, and 3DS sold several times more than Vita. Vita would failed even if Sony would released several AAA games. People only want a Nintendo portable console. PSP was a miracle, and even on that time some people considered PSP a market failure.
 
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nush

Gold Member
Sony made one of the same mistakes they did with the PSP. Instead of making portable console games, they made console games portable. That and propitiatory memory cards.
 

Celine

Member
Yup the first year or so was pretty bad for 3DS there wasn't much out either first or 3rd party but eventually the games did start to come but it took quite a while & by the end it had quite a solid library.
3DS had a soft launch line up but already at around the first year mark it had a notable list of games custom made for the console and many of the third-party games previously thought to be fitting for PSP were released on 3DS.
IMO the third-party push in the first few years was more promising than what the 3DS would actually receive later one.

First-Party:
Nintendogs+cats (February/March 2011) <- would end up selling over 4 million units
Zelda Ocarina of Time 3D (June 2011) <- would end up selling over 6 million units
New Super Mario Bros 2 (July/August 2011) <- would end up selling over 13 million units
Star Fox 64 3D (July/September 2011) <- would end up selling over 1 million units
Super Mario 3D Land (November 2011) <- would end up selling close to 13 million units
Mario Kart 7 (December 2011) <- would end up selling around 19 million units
Kid Icarus Uprising (March 2012) <- would end up selling over 1 million units

Third-Party:
Street Fighter IV 3D edition (February/March 2011)
Ridge Racer 3D (February/March 2011) <- typical Ridge Racer game for launch but this time around developed by Namco themselves (RR64 was developed and published by Nintendo)
Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask (February 2011 in Japan) <- exclusive
Dead or Alive Dimensions (May 2011) <- exclusive
Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy (November 2011/January 2012) <- remake of Ace Combat 2
Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (December 2011 in Japan) <- director cut of a previous title in a franchise which was considered a system seller for PSP
Resident Evil Revelations (January 2012) <- exclusive by this point in time
Tekken 3D (February 2012) <- port of Tekken 6
Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D (February/March 2012)
Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance (March 2012 in Japan) <- exclusive by this point in time
 
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I didn't have a Vita but based on the PSP I think the concept of portable console games (which was the what I saw as its main thing) is not what you want in reality.
 
No, it's the Gameboy beating the Atari lynx and gamegear.

I don't recall the GBA having a decent competitor.

Then the 2ds beat the PSP.

😭
 

Sorcerer

Member
Problem with PSP/Vita, if you are a Sony fan, your playing the same games at home, probably buying the same experiences twice and three times if were being honest. At least Nintendo gave you something somewhat unique that could not be replicated at home.
A Nintendo fan who didn't have Sony's main consoles at the time would probably have gotten a bigger kick out of a PSP/Vita than a Sony fan.
 
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93xfan

Banned
I ended up choosing a Vita instead of a 3DS due to all the PS1 classics I already owned.

I wasn’t much of a portable gamer (before the Switch), so I didn’t have to spend too much money beyond the console. It was mainly for traveling.

With that said, I think the exclusives we’re much better on Nintendo’s console.
 
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I own 3 Vitas and bought in on launch, its 100% sonys fault, lack of marketing, extremly expensive memory cards, cancled games (example bioshock) lack of first party support. Most people didnt even know it was launching, they should have capitalized on the PSP fanbase, at least thats how it was in europe, love the console its really really great, lots of hidden gems, sad to see it die
 
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