PS Vita Future Looks Bleak, Is The 3DS To Blame?

Looking back at the PSP, we see a handheld console that had immense success around the world and at times was the most successful game system overall. The PS Vita is the successor to the PSP and it has not seen nearly as many sales, with some people claiming that the Vita is dead.
The Vita's sales are unlikely to ever turn around, but the handheld console isn't dead, it's just unable to become popular due to its own issues and the existence of the Nintendo 3DS.

[Snookies12]

Nah, it's the fact that for some reason gamers just didn't want a powerful handheld console. Combined with the fact that Sony started dropping support because of the lack of sales. It was a domino effect, and it was really sad to see. The Vita had so much potential, I don't know what happened. It's a dang shame, it was disappointing as a gamer to see it going downhill. Thank goodness for Japanese developers. Without them, the Vita wouldn't be getting anything.

[zeal0us]

Well also mobile/smartphones and tablets could be to blame. More kids are demanding those things and are playing their games on these devices. Sure the Vita got exclusive but exclusives don't matter to some adolescences and teens.

[mikeslemonade]

Nope, because 3DS pales in comparison to the DS in terms of sales. The handheld consoles are fading because you idiots keep supporting them tablet and smartphone games.

You "gamers" decide the industry with the way you vote with your dollars.

[Takwin]

Problems (in order):

1. Lack of exclusives and Sony support
2. Ridiculous proprietary memory cost
3. mobile ubiquity
4. Nintendo exclusives and success

We have a PS4, PS3, Wii U, 3DS, 3 PCs, 3 iPads, 2 iPhones, and a bunch of other tech in our house - and my daughter saw the Vita at Best Buy last night when we activated our Gamers Unlocked for $30 (which is stupid NOT to get now), and SHE DIDN'T KNOW WHAT IT WAS. This is an 8-year girl who knows release dates for games, watches Let's Play videos and Twitch, and plays every day.

[Vipre77]

Couldn't agree more. It also hurts the image of the system when you walk into any retailer other than Gamestop and see at most 12-15 titles on the shelf in the Vita section, if there even IS a Vita section anymore. And of those, there's a good chance that a good portion of those are still launch titles. The Walmart stores near me don't even stock Vita anymore and some, but not all, of the Target stores around here have stopped carrying it also. Go over to the 3DS section and there's gotta be 100 titles on the shelf over there if not more. If you're a non-gamer looking to buy a gift for someone, which would you choose?

Advertising for Vita has been virtually non-existent for at least a year.

Of the few well-known and loved franchises that have made it over to Vita, they've been made by different studios from those that made the main games in the series and quality has suffered for it most of the time. Gamers notice this stuff.

Big developers dumped support early, notably EA and I think Ubisoft, too. Other studios take note when that kind of thing happens.

[Summons75]

What good is "Powerful hardware" if you have no games that tap into that power? The Vita had the same problem the PSP had, there was no dedicated franchise that you could only get on the it. There was no reason to own it. Good hardware doesn't mean good specs, good hardware is determined by it's library. On the 3DS you HAVE Pokemon, Fire Emblem, Bravely Default, Yoshi's Island, and many other titles you can't find on a home system. The Vita's only games that were exclusive were Tearaway and Gravity Rush, other then that you have an mediocre Uncharted Spinoff, average Killzone and Resistance spin offs, a very poor port of Borderlands 2, and a reselling of a Ps2 game then all the indies. If i'm buying a handheld it's because I want an experience I can't find on my home console. If I want to play Uncharted I'll go play U2 on my Ps3 or Killzone 3/Shadowfall or Resistance 3.

On top of all that we had very poor marketing for the Vita, features like the Ps1 games that we should of had at launch we got like 6 months later. The ability to remote play any Ps3 game was completely absent. There was no sign of the MGS game they showed. The memory card prices were ridiculous. The two skus confused people and people didn't want another cellphone plan on top of what they already have.

3 years later they finally resolved some of the issues but it is far too little too late. Which is sad because I enjoyed the Vita when it had some life in it. But devs have lost interest in it, the only marketing Sony will talk about is PS4 remote play features which are average at best, and then we have one worth while exclusive franchise ( Freedom Wars) while Gravity Rush will never see a sequel and Tearaway was lost to the Ps4. Retail stores have little to no interest having either everything on clearance or they don't carry anything Vita.

[Sayai jin]

The biggest issue that caused this was the lack of support. Too bad, it has great potential.

[Spotie]

The lack of support came AFTER the low adoption. Out of the gate, there was lots of support, and yet it was as if people were afraid of it. The Vita was pretty much everything a core gamer could have asked for in a handheld, but core gamers didn't adopt it. After a while, wouldn't any company stop givng so much support for something no one seems to want, no matter how good they think the product is?

[Sayai jin]

I did not state that the support stopped after or before the low adoption rate. Not sure why you mentioned that an do followed up with a question. I am answering the question in the article.

It did not sell well, but that does not mean gamers were 'scared' of it. Even though it's a solid handheld, the masses just do not want it. Lack of support of AAA games, over priced Sony SD cards, etc. did not help either.

[rainslacker]

Sony supported the system pretty well in it's first year or so, and had some decent 3rd party support. People just kept saying, "It has no games". Then now it has no support, because of lack of sales, people act like it's only natural that it didn't sell because it didn't have games, even though it did have games.

Don't get me wrong, Sony should have done better at that support instead of focusing everything into PS4 and even the PS3,particularly the marketing.

The Vita has become a niche Japanese game player's dream, but unless Sony does something drastic that's all it will ever achieve. Heck, the Playstation TV couldn't even do much for the Vita brand, despite selling well. What's funny is that games actually do sell on the Vita, yet publishers still mostly neglect it.

[Jazz4108]

I thought the ps move was the successor. Where does that fit in?

[3-4-5]

3DS to blame?

Yea don't blame the company actually in charge of said device.....blame another company who has no control over said device.

The delusional thoughts of a journalist who can't out his own favorite company, so he blames Nintendo.

[DigitalRaptor]

3DS? No.

The intentions when designing the Vita were good. Sony just has not dedicated enough of their first-party resources to make games that people will buy the system for, which would then spur on third-party developers to make games for it.

I remember getting super excited when Ken Levine announced that a BioShock game would be coming to Vita. That would have been an absolutely killer app. It gets tons and tons of fabulous games, particularly indie games like Hotline Miami, but I think the time has passed where the AAA devs could have made a stronger impression.

[nodim]

Existence of 3ds clearly has nothing to do with vita's problems. And psp stance has never been as bright and obvious as these guys imply but oh well, who cares anymore.

[OtakuDJK1NG-Rory]

Nope it all Sony. They aren't doing anything. They just letting Japanese third parties keep their own system afloat..... nah Vita doesn't belong to Sony. It has been adopted.

[IrisHeart]

This is sadly true. On the upside I'm enjoying what the third parties are bringing to the table.

[ritsuka666]

Sony are noobs with portable games. So no suprise here.

[etownone]

There are a lot of factors to blame.

Price.
Sony memory cards
Lack of support for true AAA games

And althoughtl they fixed most of the problems... Too little to late. Most developers have abandoned the Vita.

But, it's saving grave lately... Ps4 streaming, and PSNOW. it's awesome. It really is.

[RyanDJ]

Despite the constant negative flak, I still plan on buying one this week after the tax return comes in. Portable classic games and off screen streaming are worth it alone to me, cross-buys with some PS4 and 3 games I own are just gravy. Yes, the system could have had more potential, but I feel it's still a solid device.

[Phoenix76]

Also, if you have 2 accounts on your ps4, you can use PSV as a second controller for 2p games. Simply start remoteplay first, then once game is loaded, press the PS button on main controller and load 2nd account. Me and my daughter do this for the Lego games and it works great.

[HentaiMasterRace]

It gets no western support but it does get Japanese third party support.

[ZeroX9876]

Losing the Monster Hunter series to Nintendo was a big loss. This series was the reason why many of my friends had a PSP.

[MAULxx]

People didn't want to pay the hefty price for a Vita just to turn around & buy a memory stick. That was one a big thing. People didn't buy it so it lost support. I'm not a big mobile gamer but I picked up a Vita at a local pawn shop just to get the PS+ games every month. Got the Vita & it came with a 32GB memory stick for $140 (oled model). It is a great little piece of hardware & feels as close you can get to console like games on the go. I've only bought one game for it. Batman AO Black Gate for $15. I have filled up the memory stick with PS+ games. I do have a few Vita games that I received because of the Crossbuy that I purchased for my console like Another World, Resogun & FEZ. Like I said. I'm not much of a mobile gamer. I wouldn't pay $40 for a vita game. I would funnel those funds into more PS4 & PS3 games but for how I personally use the Vita, I have plenty to play if I so desire.

[ScorpiusX]

NO 3DS had nothing to do with Vita failures , all that failure fall on Sony lap. If there's blame to be thrown Sony your target group.

[shewbrookj]

I was an early adopter on the vita and still use the device a lot to this day. Currently playing the Suikoden series on it and have found the vita brilliant for playing the early catalogue of PS1 games. That OLED screen really brings those old games to life. I don't have a large catalogue of vita games but choose titles that take a long time to complete - Persona titles are a good example. Also enjoyed the Danganronpa series too. Very quirky and different but in a good way.

Anyway the reason for my comment was to add one more factor into the reason the console has not sold well. The Media has not helped one bit. From the get go, it was if they wanted the machine to fail and I can't understand why. It's not as if the hardware is crap. Yes, the library was small (just like the PS4s)

I cannot think of a single time when the games press (exc Sony sponsored ones) actually wrote a good word to say about it. And the ones that did were lost in the volume of negative stories. Many games players jumped on the band wagon and it never really stood a chance. Bashing it was the cool thing to do. And what will be the result of that?

I doubt Sony will ever attempt to make another handheld console. Nintendo? Yes, it's one of their biggest successes. It's a shame to think that the vita could be the last Sony handheld console. But then is that what the majority want? Perhaps so.

[Tapani]

I dunno guys, Vita is selling quite well. It's a stubborn machine and won't go down without a fight.

[magiciandude]

"Vita is selling quite well."

No it isn't.

[Kal-V3]

Can either of you 2 cite numbers and state why those numbers are good or bad? ;P

[Tapani]

There are no official numbers, but from what you can gather around the web, it's somewhere around 10 million, +- 4 or so.

The sales are better than before, but not too shabby nevertheless. Perhaps it's time for it to take off after E3, that is after the announcement of a price drop, a new version, and some must-have exclusives.

If that doesn't happen by TGS this year, then I'm ready to give up. I'll just use it as my classics player on the go and other stuff like browsing.

[Fro_xoxo]

Why would one blame a platforms problems on another? ^_^

If not for Japan, Vita would be down under.

[HentaiMasterRace]

No, it's Sony's fault.

[BRINGSOCOMBACK]

No way. Vita's failure is on Sony. No Uncharted Vita 2, Call of Duty rushed, Resistance rushed, no Infamous, No memory card price drop, the list goes on. Marketing was atrocious as well.

[GreenRanger]

Sony handhelds are like Brock Lesnar- expensive, powerful, and no personality.

[tiffac008]

No, the PSP did very well when the DS was being awesome. The Vita's lack of success falls on Sony's unclear strategy for their handheld device. I have said these before:

-The Vita was western centric at launch when Japan is the biggest mobile market.
-It did not have any middleware games to bridge the AAA titles that were coming out during the early years. So there were weeks were you had nothing.
-It then became an indie platform when the AAA 3rd party support left.
- Now its a Japanese niche centric device (which I don't mind)

The Vita never had the balance like the PSP did and of course, the price of the memory card remains to be the elephant in the room.

[InahimeHondaSengoku]

This is nothing but clickbait and gets people all riled up! -.-

[Wonderful101]

A console success does not relate to another's failure.

[Ryuk_2007]

It's all sonys fault. They had no clear vision on what they wanted it to be. Is it a next gen portable? Indy-station? Controller for the ps4 to knock off the wii u? Remote play device?
Add in the memory card nonsense, no e3 presence and zero support from its creators.

[stragomccloud]

I don't think so. Sony saw it was doing poorly, and decided to cut support. When Nintendo saw the 3DS doing poorly, they redoubled their efforts.

[jakmckratos]

Nah. I blame Sony for touting a console on the go and then just having it be nothing special aside from Gravity Rush and Tearaway....I have never been more disappointed in a console

[Youngindy21]

The PS Vita is failing because now-a-days Western gamers only want AAA titles, Remasters/Remakes, Sequels, and Annual franchises.

Right now gamers are obssesed with Remasters which is why you see FFX/X2, Resident Evil HD, Last of US Remastered, the Pokemon games, the Master Chief Collection, Majora's Mask, etc. selling so well.

The PS Vita has 3rd party Japanese titles and an occasional first party title from Sony buy most of the PS Vita titles are lesser known new IPs and like I mentioned before sadly most gamers like living in the past and playing the same games over and over so they are less likely to give New franchises like Gravity Rush, Freedom Wars, Tearaway, Danganronpa, etc. a try.
Sad but that is the modern state of gaming.

[silvacrest]

im not saying the following would have secured success, only that it would have given the vita a clear selling point over the 3DS plus being able to better compete with smartphones

sony should have used android OS instead of their proprietary OS, say what you want about android but it would have given vita owners access to hundreds of thousands of apps on launch day, plus the android games too, again, say what you want about android games but the option to play them would have been there.

also, i no sony wanted to stop piracy by using their own storage cards but they made a mistake by making them expensive and relatively small in size, you can get a 128GB micro SD card for about £50, sonys version would probably cost double

[Meryl]

As far as I'm concerned Sony shot themselves in the foot concerning vita when they pulled 1st party support and choose Indies over 1st party, now I've got a 3ds as well as a vita and at least the 3ds has games coming out for it.

[TheConTROLLer69]

Sony is to blame. They made a great handheld but they don't support it with "console" quality games.

[gokuking]

No, it's all on Sony. They're a terrible company who's only been successful in the home console space because they've somehow ran into competition more incompetent than they are.

[Smokingunz]

I hate comparing the two but the 3ds is a way better system with better games!

The vita doesnt have its own identity and they are know quality exclusives for it, in other words the system has no good games. Not enough good quality games arnt there to warrant a purchase.proof of that are in with the vitas sales.