Sony: We Aren't Making Vita Games Because of Consumer Expectations

I love my vita but I also love what its all about. Im a JRPG fan and love the PSone classic rpgs. also a few flash-saled indies too. The system is for "ME". Its not for Tommy and John and Mikes annual Call of Duty, Madden, Assassins Creed Etc.....so I understand where they are coming from. They are just a middle man for publishers. But the system could have been soooo much more just like PSP. Like Father Like Son.....

HA! I said this before the thing even released! People can like this console but you must be market blind to think this thing could ever have been hugely successful. COD on the go... Who do you think is actually buying the 1 gazillion copies of COD?

@KratosMD I thought Mark Cerny built the Vita??

I love my Vita. I'm typing this on it right now. Still, the problems are the same as what they were before. Poor marketing and lack of retail releases. There are tons of great downloadable Vita games, but the only folks who know that are the ones who already have a Vita and friends of Vita owners. Sony should've done a PS4/Vita bundle for $50 more than the cost of the PS4, and they would've gotten more Vita systems in gamers' hands. Once it's in our hands, we buy games for it. You get a big enough user base, then it pays to make bigger, more expensive games. Let's get real here: Sony's not going to chase pennies with dollars. They're a "for profit" business.

Vita is an amazing system that was marketed and supported like crap. Maybe Sony needs to stay out of the portable gaming market as they clearly have no idea how to sell a portable game system. Lol

Another reason it did so poorly was because of the price at launch. That scared a lot of people away. $300 for a base version of a portable system? That's more than the PS3 cost at the time! Once game developers saw the horrid sales numbers they skipped the system. It was just a system ahead of its time

@KratosMD You pretty much spot on the point. Unlike Nintendo, it seems Sony does not know how to make portable games at all. 'Home console graphics on portable' concept is not what consumers really want. Additionally, the memory card for Vita is still damn expensive.

Graphics are fine on vita, but the content, price and marketing hurt sales imo. Coupled with the proprietary, terrible expensive memory cards, and games that were only slightly less than a full AAA, PS3/4 game, was enough to steer clear. Sony is primarily to blame. Take note from what the core appeal of the 3DS is doing. Don't just give up.

Shu is right on this one, what helps the 3DS is that they can make a cheap game like Zelda with 2D graphics and sell it as AAA game, while on Vita a game with similar but better graphics such as Ys Celceta is looked down upon because graphics are not good enough compared to what the Vita can do

Remote play is a really useful feature. I can sit in bed playing Mortal Kombat X and have TV on in the background.

forget that. why should I buy a 200 dollar system if sony isn't going to bother treating it like something more than an accessory for the ps4 (which I don't even own).

I almost bought one before e3 (glad I didn't) but then I took a look at the memory cards and I was like "lol, nope." E3 convinced me I made the right choice.

What sucks is the vita looks like THE console to buy if you like jrpgs...
(T-T )

I love my vita. I dont care that sony not making AAA games for it. Still some great games are coming to it, from elsewhere. But this made up excuse, is just bull. Better not to insult your user base.

_{Please watch the language -Tasuki-}

As I've been saying, even as somebody who loves the Vita, it's an abject failure and Sony has to move on. Consumers need to move on too. The sooner we all forget its existence, the better. And hopefully Sony never attempts a dedicated handheld gaming system again.

@BlueProxy Well said, I hardly download any games now as my 8gb and 16gb memory cards are full. Its insanity if I had a 128gb card installed for free - i would buy loads more games.

Sounds like they knew it wouldn't be successful before it even launched,idiots

Okay, then dont make big budget titles for it. Not sure why that means that only indies and "cross-buy titles" can release on the system.

How do you honestly expect to sell any other hardware when people will consider how you treated this handheld. Who in their right mind will want to buy a morpheus with the chance of reading this same exact spiel in a few years time.

Sony wants us to go to kickstarter in order to help them build a library on their system. I guess by 2017 it'll just be a dedicated Bloodstained player. What a waste of potential.

@dualwielding There are two big differences between the two titles you mentioned. Memories of celceta is 3rd party and a niche jrpg while Zelda is 1st party and an action/adventure game with wide appeal. A link between worlds is no slouch either, 60fps even in 3d mode is nice and smooth.

The Vita just like the 3DS started off at to high of an initial price I mean $300 for a system which didn't even include a memory card which was required. Then came the lack of proper marketing then the lack of support, honestly his reasoning is flawed and pathetic considering that the 3DS exists there are plenty of releases on the system that went the grand route and sold well it just boils down to the fact Nintendo put in the work and Sony decided not to.

The problem with the Vita is not enough good games. Things would be different if it had 3DS's game selections. Having Monster Hunter on the Vita might actually boost sales in Japan as well. Im pretty sure most consumers would prefer the graphics on the Vita.

Well enough Jrpg for me for this year anyway

And now I still invest more than 20hours of gameplay in Steins Gate

I truly love my PS Vita, and I always want to have quality games on the go. Killzone is one of my favorites. IF they'd have continued to make good games like Mercenaries it would be doing much better. Make a better handheld then, Sony! With great games! You could be ruling that market. People complain about the memory cards being expensive but they'll buy 64 and 128gb SD cards for 3DS because those are available everywhere, can be used across other devices, and 3DS has great games. Its that simple. I'd like to give Mr. Shuhei Yoshida a wake-the-F-up slap. Do you FEEL smarter?

If they make a portable PS4 I'll be all over it. Where one could remotely operate their PS4, not just remote play. That would be cool.

This would be awesome:
http://psvitaforum.com/threads/poll-ps4-portable-viable-around-4-7-years-and-other.17456/

Thrills! Chills! Kills!

I'm both a 3DS and Vita owner and I play both systems fairly equally during my commutes home from work. Sony marketed poorly and over-engineered the system with way too many features, but it's great for what it does. I play my 3DS for original games designed for the system. The Vita doesn't have as much great original content, but I certainly enjoy the cross-buy and cross-save features of many games - a great way to play some console games on-the-go (like Final Fantasy X).

However, perhaps the last retail Vita game I'll buy is Persona 4: Dancing All Night (unless there's some JRPG released by Xseed or NISAmerica after the fact that captures my attention).

I too own both handheld devices and probably would play the vita more out the two, especially if they put MH games on it. The vita is a beaut of a machine, with great games, but it almost insists you use a pc or something as an external hdd, on top of the memory cards. It is the place to be for niche titles and jrpgs, which is pretty much what I'm into. I picked up a PlayStation TV too, which works great with bother Vita and PS4.

Fire Emblem, SMT IV, Persona Q, and Monster Hunter unfortunately all live on the 3DS, which is an awesome machine for the size of its library of DS games, 3DS games and wide market support.

I will still support the Vita for a long time, so long as Nis and crew keep porting games to it.

@Corbs I think that's what they are doing now

DeVita is definitely one of my least favorite platforms of all time. With that said, I'm a gamer. Not a fanboy. And even my least favorite platform still has plenty to offer me. Even though there hasn't been a game on the system and I've actually cared about in close to a year, and virtually nothing on the horizon, i'm still glad I bought it.

As for this statement, i'm curious to know how bad games on Vita actually sell? Wii U has an almost identical install base yet Nintendo is pumping out games left and right and making plenty money off them too. Even though Vita wasn't exactly a smashing success, there are still 10 million owners for them to sell to. If they actually invested the time to make some great games they could probably sell a few million copies. Still don't understand why that's not a good investment to make.

And concerning consumer expectations, I think the biggest expectation is that when you invest $250 in a new platform you expect them to actually make games for it

After "upgrading" my YLOD original fatty PS3 to a super slim directly thru Sony for $90 mere months before the price halved (wasted $100 while losing my PS2 hardware!), I was hoping for finally getting PS2 titles w/out streaming on Vita. Now it's a ghost town, a derelict fraction of it's obvious potential. 😭
Nintendo thrust a long sword thru Vita's heart by keeping Monster Hunter from it. Could have been saved by some direct sequels and/or exclusives (my only real expectation!). I still love Hot Shots Golf and Virtua Tennis (got both very early on), but I'm still appalled with SH:BoM being the sole entry in that franchise. Not to mention the complete omission of a Gran Turismo, Ace Combat, etc. etc. ...
Please, at the very least, as your very last Vita supporting move, give us the Fallout Shelter app for Vita! (PvZ worked fine)

I love being able to join partys with friends on PS4 whilst im playing on my Vita. I think that in itself is a cool feature. I can be playing Halo on my XB1 and still be talking to my friends who are on PS4.
I was also surprised by how many games the Vita has. Most of the games are digital brought through PSN. If you go into your local games store you could be forgiven for thinking there are very few games but thats not the case. Granted there aren't that many triple A's but there's a few. It has plenty of PSN games, with titles like Metal Gear 1,2, and 3. It has plenty of PS1 and a few PS2 classics too.
I also love the remote play feature, though with some games its not ideal due to the small screen, but most are fine. Cross play is cool too.

I know Sony won't do this but, I wish they would update the Vita with two more shoulder buttons. Adding an L2,R2 would be great and it would help with remote play. I hate having to use the back touch pad for certain games.
Also, if Sony would reduce the price of the 128gb memory cards to around £40-£50 that would be amazing. Even though people say the Vita has no games I have filled several 16gb cards countless times.

In regards to the Vita graphics and memory I feel its good enough. You only have to play games like Uncharted, Killzone and Tearaway to see its potential. Im not asking for big open worlds. I just want more of the same.

I'd have upgraded to a Vita long ago if a Kingdom Hearts game landed on the system. It was one of the many reasons for me to get a 3DS and the reason I got a PSP. I even folded and got a PS3 for KH2.5. Who knows, if I enjoy Uncharted as much as I want to, I may get a Vita for that. I heard Soul Sacrifice was like Monster Hunter so i may consider one for that, too.

Seems like Nintendo and Sony are more alike than people want to believe. Only difference is that Nintendo refuses to give up on the Wii U until the end, while Sony gave up on the Vita long ago and is finally admitting it, even though it is a very sorry excuse. Based on the eighth generation alone, I won't consider buying another Sony handheld console if this is how they answer to hardship. However, I'd consider buying another Nintendo home console because they at least respect us consumers enough to tough it out (though next time I'll try not to get one so early).

time to sell my vita and get the new 3ds

@jayclayx
They made similar statement several times the last two years, but now is the time to sell it? I mean did you honestly wait for them to state the obvious?

Vita was allready dead at its release because of the overoverpriced memorycards. I still don't know why Sone developed the Vita while they don't wanna give any love to it.

@Kohaku Their abandonment of the Vita, and just about every accessory they make, is why I'm so skeptical of the Morpheus. Sony can hype all they want but when things get hairy they'll probably drop Morpheus support, too. If they took a step back, renamed the Vita, made it slightly more powerful (future proof it), added PSP BC with the mini-discs, and started using SD cards, I would be more inclined to actually buy one (more of a pipe dream, really). The memory card thing is so obvious it hurts, yet they are too oblivious to realize it. Even if they ignored everything I said and just heavily dropped the price of the memory cards, I think it could help sales. As for games, port some PS3 and PS4 games over. They could hire a small, dedicated Vita team to get games onto the Vita. Heck, they could pull a Nintendo and fund lots of smaller spin-off games of their franchises to build onto franchises. As well as the PS4 is doing, it is appalling to see them drop support for one-third of the 8th generation consoles they sold. There should be a poll for who would consider buying another Handheld Sony Console after the Vita and for how many people on the site have one (I'm curious now).

I had my vita since release but now I have just become tired of it, all the jrpg's seem so similar now and it's tiring, I like indies as much as the next guy but it's becoming an indie machine! Everyone keeps saying it has games coming it's way but they are all the same game just a different name... Back on the ps3 now, if I'm still tired of the vita I'll be upgrading to a ps4

Sony PSN needs to be hacked again like their movie sources.

This is very wrong Mr.Yoshida after you release the PsVita and take our money now you don't want to support it for that give us our money back. Also you could have done much better by expanding the PlayStation market and put big title games or AAA games to be downloadable you will also make money by do in that because the gamers will have to buy the game from the market and also more memory to continue downloading the games, which mean you don't have to make a copy to sell in store. Mr.Yoshida flip the coin think this over and make a comeback plan on how you can support your PsVita look for previews title like Legacy of Kain, Clock Tower, Fatal Frame, Syphon filter, Crash Bandicoot even Fallout Collector Edition all you have to do is re-modify some of this title and the storyline and make it a better look. Please don't turn down your customers that they already trust your product make it work even if in the future you don't make any PsVita at least you did support the one that is selling in the store now.

I think I'll keep my Vita around just in case Monster Hunter Frontier gets a worldwide, multi-platform release. I originally bought it for Monster Hunter Freedom Unite but then almost all 2nd gen monsters were re-configured for MH4U's tighter controls and I'm so jealous of iOS owners being able to play MHFU with lock-on cam and HD graphics. I wouldn't pay a ridiculous price for an iPad just to pay MHFU, though. I'm stuck with Vita but I have THREE of the Monster Hunter knockoffs yet to play once my interest in MH4U subsides: Toukiden: KIwami, Soul Sacrifice Delta, and Freedom Wars.

@ollietaro You'll like those choices. I've played Toukiden and Freedom Wars and thought about Soul Sacrifice. Good stuff!

hey if the game is good I don't care what it looks like, if people (gamers) are abandoning a system just because the games don't look as pretty as the home systems then they don't understand what it means to play games

it's sad a developer has to stop producing games for a system all because they can't make games look as good as other systems

people put too much emphasis on pretty baubles and sparkels nowadays

I hope no more games are made for my 3DS that would be awesome!?!

It's amazing that people want Sony to keep pumping millions into developing AAA games that won't sell on a system that doesn't sell. Even during the Vita's first year when it was buried under first party exclusiveS it didn't sell, it's about time folk just moved on. For the past year the Vita has only been good for Niche third party localisations & indie releases, and that's all it'll ever have going forward.

If only it got some of the better mobile ports it could have been on to something. GTA series, Star Wars KotoR, bio shock, etc etc

They're not making big-budget games because of consumers' high expectations? Do they not realize that expectations are not only imaginary, but can be redefined? And that high expectations are good? As a consumer myself, that's the single most insulting excuse yet. So it's OUR fault? We have high expectations for you, Sony, so you're just not gonna try? Why don't you just quit your jobs then? Thanks, Sony. I no longer have high expectations for you. I am SO sorry I helped put that kind of pressure on you. Please, EXCUSE ME. I expect the worst from you now, with good reason. You've lost me. And I hope you're happy- no pressure though.

This is heartbreaking for me. I’m big into anime and JRPG games, love Nis and atlas titles so the Vita was my happy place. There’s so many titles I was hoping for ports to come over. Hoping for so many ps1 and PS2 games to be made onto the Vita. Sadly that’ll never happen now. Who cares if the sharp wasn’t getting ultra HD mainstream big name cash grab games that get old and irrelevant after the next two releases in the genre. I still play my old RPGs to this day. That can’t really be said about the majority of mainstream shooters, sports and flavor of the month adventure games. They normally get dropped for the next new release.