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[jackissocool]

When the PSP launched, it was one of the first true multimedia devices. This is one of the most important factors in its success. Sure, compared to today, watching movies or listening to music or browsing the web on the PSP is a hassle, but back then it was incredible that you could do all that on a mobile device that was powerful and could play games really well. This impressive multimedia functionality - as well as some memory versatility - was a huge factor in its early success. It also had an appealing form factor and carried the then-monstrous PlayStation brand. The UMD may have had serious flaws in terms of power consumption and portability, but it could hold much more data than flash cartridges of the time and had a surprising amount of movies launched on it. It's probably the only instance ever of a popular physical format for non-games media. Eventually Sony put up an online store on the PSP itself, and it became a legitimate platform for digital delivery.

When the Vita launched, it was in denial of the trends of the day. Phones can already do everything, so the Vita had no purpose as a media device except for people without phones. For people without phones (kids), the Vita's games skewed too mature to have broad appeal. Everybody should have seen the writing on the wall with the slow death of dedicated handheld gaming, particularly outside of Nintendo. Sony was oblivious to this and launched an expensive dedicated gaming device without phone functionality. Hindsight is 20/20, of course, and it's clear now that at least the option of being a phone would've been a boon to the Vita. The Xperia Play had some great ideas and that type of device could've gone far if supported properly and at the right price. Sony, instead, stuck to their old-school guns - atypical behavior for them - and launched the Vita as is, dooming it to failure in a market that didn't want it.

I say all this as a long-time lover of Sony and their handhelds - Patapon 2 and Gravity Rush are easily in my top 5ish favorite games of all time. The Vita is my most played gaming device in normal situations (when inFamous came out and FTL got Advanced Edition my PS4 and PC took over respectively, but temporarily) and I am incredibly happy with how it serves me. But Sony could have done a better job with it and that would have resulted in an even better device for everyone.

 

[DarkLordMalik]

I just don't see how they could have made it better? Adding 3D like gimmick?

Vita has a great screen for a handheld, dual analogs, front and back touch pad, and a functional camera. It also tried to rely on the AR gimmick earlier in its life cycle, although that failed spectacularly. The biggest mistake might be relying on propriety memory cards, which adds a lot to the cost. Otherwise, its price point and hardware was great at the time of its launch.

I think they did the best they could do, with what they had. They just didn't really prepare for the surge of mobile/smartphones. In the end, no matter what they had done, the Vita was bound to flop. The market is just not the same anymore.

 

[BasilZero]

I agree that the PSP was an amazing system - even though it didnt get as much support in terms of overall software - it was still an amazing system.

I hope the Vita can fully rebound worldwide.

 

[djplaeskool]

Having a narrow market and appeal doesn't make it "behind the times."

 

[WarpathDC]

I don't see how it was behind its time at all. Many of the Vita's features were system firsts (auto resume, multitasking, rear and front touch, etc). The market has changed, many casuals are content with mobile offerings on their phone. I think the Vita is vastly undeappreciated.

 

[entremet]

I think the problem is the market is too tiny for a worthwhile investment in that space. Their main demographic crowd prefers to game on big screens. And they have phones and tablets to fill in the rest.

I do commend Sony for trying stuff like Tearaway and Killzone Mercenary are polished and carefully made experiences, things you won't see on the mobile.

 

[vagabondarts]

PSP ended up selling so many units because people used it for emulation and piracy. Same for DS.

I see what you're saying but the UMD movie thing fell off of PSP early.

Vita does games great, the PSP felt like it was always struggling to keep up, somehow... Like any minute everything would fall apart.

The marketing for Vita is all wrong. They should show the strengths of gaming on the go with proper controls. And if you want touchscreen gaming, hey Vita does that too.

 

[Hades Hotgun]

I completely disagree. I think the Vita's total failure has less to do with the development of the phone/casual market and more to do with how badly Sony has handled the system.

The PSP was badly designed, with the single nub and the UMD drive being weights around its neck for the life of the console. On the other hand it got very aggressive advertising and it had a cheaper memory card alternative.

The PSP was never a mainstream success like the DS, but it was very successful among gamers.

The Vita has had zero advertising presence and the memory cards are purely proprietary. Most of my friends own 3DS's but Vita's are too expensive due to the digital nature of the system and the incredibly over priced, and totally mandatory, memory cards.

The Vita is a failure with every facet of every market, despite being a fantastically designed machine.

 

[Shinriji]

The only thing that vita is truly behind the times is that is piracy-free for now.

 

[Justified]

I disgree, I think the Vita was near-perfect for its time. Proprietary Memory cards is one of the bone head decision, but I guess they wanted to avoid the PSP hacking scene.

I dont know how hard it is to dev for it, But they should drown the library with all the RPGs they can get.

Maybe wishful thinking, but I would think it would be megaton if they allowed access to the Google Play Market on it, or something similar to the Amazon Market

 

[muteki]

I agree that the PSP was an amazing system - even though it didnt get as much support in terms of overall software - it was still an amazing system.

I hope the Vita can fully rebound worldwide.

PSP had great support, just not in the west.

Vita is going down the same path.

 

[jabuseika]

The PSP was too big to be used as an MP3 player when it released, everyone had smaller Ipods/minis by then.

UMD Video was a failure and shortsighted. People were already putting divx, mp4 videos on portable players, for free.

Thought, I do love my original PSP 1000.

 

[Meier]

I don't see how it was behind its time at all. Many of the Vita's features were system firsts (auto resume, multitasking, rear and front touch, etc). The market has changed, many casuals are content with mobile offerings on their phone. I think the Vita is vastly undeappreciated.

Hopefully a system last too. The worst "feature" of the Vita.

 

[Cornbread78]

I don't really think the system is behind the times as much as Sony's marketing and product placement is. It's a mobile dominated market out there and to overcome the android/iOS phone and tablet market, which is much cheaper is difficult. Where I used to see little kids running around with DS's all the time, now I see tablets and phone in their hands. The VITA experience is truly great for those that invest in it (IMO) however, overall sales and performance are a bast off the current handheld market, which is nto great right now.

 

[Femto.]

I hope the Vita can fully rebound worldwide.

Spoiler

Me too.

 

[Lucifon]

Hopefully a system last too. The worst "feature" of the Vita.

Agreed about the back because practically everyone's fingers rests on those points. But the front touch is great.

 

[The Broken Ska Record]

PSP ended up selling so many units because people used it for emulation and piracy. Same for DS.

While the piracy on the PSP was rampant, initial sales were overwhelming for the multimedia functions. I saw tons of kids who had the PSP and were listening to music on it.

The DS' sales had little to do with piracy.

 

[Canis lupus]

The PSP was too big to be used as an MP3 player when it released, everyone had smaller Ipods/minis by then.

UMD Video was a failure and shortsighted. People were already putting divx, mp4 videos on portable players, for free.

Thought, I do love my original PSP 1000.

Lol ipod was expensive as fuck in 2004. They were like 500 euro.

these were really popular

 

[kick51]

am i reading this right? Vita needed phone functionality in order to be "with the times?"

side-talkin' 2.0?!

 

[VanWinkle]

Having it be a phone too would have compromised its ergonomics, and it probably would have needed to use Android, which would have compromised its PSN integration. It could have HAD integration with PSN, but the entire experience wouldn't have been properly integrated, and who knows if things like Parties would have worked properly.

It's just not realistic. I'm happy with the device we got.

 

[entremet]

Lol ipod was expensive as fuck in 2004. They were like 500 euro.

Yeah, but the PSP was poor for media. Crappy interface and storage was severely limited in the beginning.

 

[Tenki]

I don't see how it was behind its time at all. Many of the Vita's features were system firsts (auto resume, multitasking, rear and front touch, etc). The market has changed, many casuals are content with mobile offerings on their phone. I think the Vita is vastly undeappreciated.

What do you mean with "auto resume"?

 

[Graphics Horse]

The same phone capability like tablets lack or some other kind of phone capability? You can use skype to call phones if you really need it.

 

[vagabondarts]

While the piracy on the PSP was rampant, initial sales were overwhelming for the multimedia functions. I saw tons of kids who had the PSP and were listening to music on it.

The DS' sales had little to do with piracy.

Not at first, but people were buying DS and R4's and giving them to their children.
Everyone had DS for a couple years

 

[Canis lupus]

Yeah, but the PSP was poor for media. Crappy interface and storage was severely limited in the beginning.

I had a gigapack which contained 1GB MMC, more than enough at the time.

 

[Arklite]

Sony was oblivious to this and launched an expensive dedicated gaming device without phone functionality. Hindsight is 20/20, of course, and it's clear now that at least the option of being a phone would've been a boon to the Vita.

What? No. Making it a contracted phone would've just limited its market further. Also, designing it to be a phone would've made its controls worse. You're right that phones had pretty much taken over its space, but making it a phone isn't the answer. Tech wise, both the PSP and Vita were impressive for their time, it's just that other tech like phones and tablets have overlapped in function.

 

[Shining Sunshine]

In terms of tech, Vita is still ahead in the mobile space.

 

[RE_Player]

I had several PSPs but I've never had a handheld that I've held and said "This feels right" until the Vita. My favourite system currently.

 

[Jacobi]

I actually used the PSP for MP3 and photos. It was a poor man's smartphone.

Anyways, I love the Vita and it does have a great online marketplace, don't forget that. I really hope it'll pick up some pace, maybe after the 2000 launched because people's reception was always positive when I showed them my vita...

 

[RaikuHebi]

While the piracy on the PSP was rampant, initial sales were overwhelming for the multimedia functions. I saw tons of kids who had the PSP and were listening to music on it.

The DS' sales had little to do with piracy.

Was the case with me. PSP was my first MP3 player.

Well and the hacking stuff too.

I actually used the PSP for MP3 and photos. It was a poor man's smartphone.

In those days it was the only smartphone. Except without the phone. So many apps were written for it too. Sony missed out on beating Apple to the revolution.

 

[georly]

The biggest mistake might be relying on propriety memory cards, which adds a lot to the cost.

This is the main reason I don't have one yet. I'm not forking over that much for such little storage. The amount of games on the system still don't justify the price for me.

 

[Rolf NB]

I disagree with basically everything you said, OP.

The Xperia Play was a failure, and the Vita being a traditional handheld is the consequence of that. Instead of berating them for not repeating a mistake, you should give them credit for getting it right after the first try.

 

[HassanJamal]

these were really popular

Oh man, I bought one of those. How nostalgic. Only thing that sucked about it was no built in rechargeable battery.


Im rather thankful Sony didnt go with the vita+phone hybrid. Dont want my handheld gaming sessions to be interrupted by a call or message. Oh and the battery life would kill my phone needs.

 

[SkylineRKR]

Vita should've never seen the light of day. It was very apparent that not many wanted another dedicated handheld besides the 3DS. And Sony had its hands full recovering from the PS3 debacle already.

You could also see the writing on the wall. The fact that Sony didn't place their Triple A studios on the Vita said quite a lot to me. Vita was hyped when it was announced and it did gain some momentum, but when it was close to release Sony was suspiciously silent. Much like the Move peripheral. Sony outright ignored the Vita on the first E3 after the system was being released, a mere 4 months to be exact. Vita sounded cheap when it was being announced at 250, but sounded expensive once Nintendo slashed the price of the 3DS and captured MH too. That was pretty much a deathblow.

Vita is a good system, although I expected somewhat more from it. The MGS4 thing, that ran flawless on it, isn't a reality. It can only open one thing at a time too, and everything is behind a second confirmation screen. Vita feels actually quite archaic at times although this is much a software problem (its OS sucks). 3G is completely useless and Near completely sucks ass. Worst choice is their memory system, but on the other hand they are required and I think the profit margin on those is sky high. PS4 remoteplay on the other hand is exceptional, its really above my expectations (set by the awful Ps3 remote play).

In all honesty I think the Vita is a product of the old, troubled Sony and the new Sony never really wanted it. Although hardware wise it shares stuff with the well thought out PS4, the Vita is a smartly built machine. But Sony doesn't support it anymore. Everything goes full force to PS4 and it just happened that Vita became some sort of an indie device. But in reality Sony itself does jack shit for it. Almost zero announcements and it seems that none of their own IP is going to make it on there in the future. Thats not a problem per se, but I think that for an Indie machine its a tad expensive (although I bought mine new for 100 bucks, 3G model).

 

[Dio]

This is the main reason I don't have one yet. I'm not forking over that much for such little storage. The amount of games on the system still don't justify the price for me.

It's really too bad more people didn't pick up a Vita for 150 and a 32gb memcard for 40 usd on Black Friday, it'll be a while till deals that good come again. I'm really happy with my Vita, but I don't think I'd be as happy if I had to blow 80 dollars on a 32gig.

 

[braves01]

I don't know about Vita being behind the times, but the OLED was definitely undercooked and could have spent some more time in the oven.

 

[flatearthpandas]

I don't see how it was behind its time at all. Many of the Vita's features were system firsts (auto resume, multitasking, rear and front touch, etc). The market has changed, many casuals are content with mobile offerings on their phone. I think the Vita is vastly undeappreciated.

Auto resume? Like sleep mode? Or like where if the console dies it can hold your place for a while (I think, I've never had this happen).

The DS did sleep mode; the 3DS did multitasking and front touch before; and the rear touch is easily one of the worst features of any 8th gen console.

I think the OP means behind the times in that everyone already has a mobile media player they carry with them 24/7. A portable game console today needs to focus on games over all else, because our phones can do everything else and can do them better. I don't know that I would say Sony didn't focus on games, but I will say the for my tastes as someone who really enjoys handhelds, the Vita has not had much of interest to me. So maybe their focus wasn't on the handheld gamer and maybe that's why the Vita is doing so poorly.

 

[BLACK AMERICAN PSYCHO]

What do you mean with "auto resume"?

Minimize the game instantly, do something else(watch youtube, skype, browse the web ect.) and resume where you left off instantly.

 

[Parakeetman]

I agree that the PSP was an amazing system - even though it didnt get as much support in terms of overall software - it was still an amazing system.

I hope the Vita can fully rebound worldwide.

You mean in the West with software support. In Japan it became the new PS2 literally.

 

[BLACK AMERICAN PSYCHO]

Auto resume? Like sleep mode? Or like where if the console dies it can hold your place for a while (I think, I've never had this happen).

The DS did sleep mode; the 3DS did multitasking and front touch before; and the rear touch is easily one of the worst features of any 8th gen console.

I think the OP means behind the times in that everyone already has a mobile media player they carry with them 24/7. A portable game console today needs to focus on games over all else, because our phones can do everything else and can do them better. I don't know that I would say Sony didn't focus on games, but I will say the for my tastes as someone who really enjoys handhelds, the Vita has not had much of interest to me. So maybe their focus wasn't on the handheld gamer and maybe that's why the Vita is doing so poorly.

Vita was never going to have pokemon, Vita was never going to have Mario.

 

[LouisaFerre]

I don't think the device itself is behind the times, and I don't think making it into a smartphone/console hybrid like the xperia play would have resulted in that much worldwide appeal. Smartphones are typically upgraded more often, compete at a significantly higher price/power bracket, and are sold at lower costs because of subsidies from contracts with cellphone carriers. Keep in mind that there are also a lot of competitors in the smartphone market and the xperia line is already not selling that well. There's also the argument that trying to make it portable as a smartphone would lead to ergonomic sacrifices.

If you want Sony to cash in on the smartphone gaming market I think something like game streaming with Playstation Now would be significantly more viable.

 

[jabuseika]

Having it be a phone too would have compromised its ergonomics

But..

What ever man, sideways Vitas would had been the future.

Spoiler

/s

 

[VLiberty]

PSP had great support, just not in the west.

Vita is going down the same path.

PSP has had maybe the most interesting western support a handheld ever got.
Indie aside, Vita is nowhere near PSP

 

[Ouroboros]

The Vita having phone functionality would have been a stupid idea unless they had a beefy battery to back it up. If I used my iphone as a dedicated portable gaming system I wouldn't have any battery to make calls / texts.

The vita failed because of 2 things:
1. Price (both the console and the required memory card)
2. Not many games

Nintendo's 3DS had the same problem, but they lowered the price considerably and pumped out a LOT of first party games to gain the public's interest. Sony did not.

 

[KojiKnight]

The high res OLED was a bad choice. Yes it's beautiful, but many (most?) retail games don't run anything close to native AND no AA (just a full screen blur) which looks pretty bad. It'd have been better to go with a lower res LCD and sold it $50-100 cheaper up front.

The only worse choice to the OLED was the proprietary media formats... If I could have used a class 10 SD card instead of the proprietary media, I'd never have sold my Vita. As was, it didn't have any games I wanted... what games I did have I had to juggle my 4GB (came with my system) and my 8 GB (which I got because I knew 4GB wouldn't be enough) and finally with my PS3/PC.

So... what I'm getting at is that Vita was neither ahead of nor behind the times... It's simply that a combination of over ambitiousness with it's screen + trying to push digital while also pushing proprietary cards forced away all of the developers.

 

[SkylineRKR]

PSP has had maybe the most interesting western support a handheld ever got.
Indie aside, Vita is nowhere near PSP

While I think the PSP was a piece of shit (its just painful to think I actually beat BBS etc on it), it did have great games. But most of this spawned from the PS2's success. Sony had good relationships with Square, Rockstar etc still. They were probably more than willing to support its PSP too. But once PSP kind of faded away, everyone backed out. And they didn't return for the Vita. Probably a wait and see approach, and well, they've seen the abysmal sales.

 

[neojubei]

the psp should have been the vita but it would have cost a lot of money. UMDs were one of the worse ideas sony came up with.

 

[BLACK AMERICAN PSYCHO]

The high res OLED was a bad choice. Yes it's beautiful, but many (most?) retail games don't run anything close to native AND no AA (just a full screen blur) which looks pretty bad. It'd have been better to go with a lower res LCD and sold it $50-100 cheaper up front.

No, KZ looks better than anything and it's Native res with the maximum amount of AA iirc. Developers just suck.

 

[SkylineRKR]

KZ is still in the minority, so it doesn't prove Sony made the right choice.

Its much like the PS3's BR discussion. Yes some games utilized its capacity, but a shitload of others didn't and sacrifices were made.

 

[GYNGA]

Sony was oblivious to this and launched an expensive dedicated gaming device without phone functionality. Hindsight is 20/20, of course, and it's clear now that at least the option of being a phone would've been a boon to the Vita. The Xperia Play had some great ideas and that type of device could've gone far if supported properly and at the right price. Sony, instead, stuck to their old-school guns - atypical behavior for them - and launched the Vita as is, dooming it to failure in a market that didn't want it.

Do you really believe that Xperia Play type of device would have sold any better? Noone bought Xperia Play outside of gaming enthusiasts anyway so what's the point of it? I think Vita as a traditional dedicated gaming device is much more appealing to gamers than any type of hybrid since hybrids are usually mediocre at everything they do.

Sticking to old-school guns is the best thing to do in this case. Handheld gaming outside of japan is niche and there's little you can do to change that.