Opinion: Sony's Not Solely to Blame for PS Vita's Demise

It was a great console and had Manu great features. However the lack of a Netflix App made it less useful to me. I can only speak for myself but I always found the games lacking. It's not a criticism just my opinion.I don't really know where it went wrong. It had so much potential.

The shift form (handheld) console to mobile aside, I often times wonder what would've become of the Vita if the PS4 wasn't the succes it is. The moment the PS4 turned out to be an outstanding seller Vita's faith was sealed because Sony didn't do anything to save it, but I honestly believe it would've gotten more attention if the PS4 was struggling as well...

We would've at least gotten cheaper memory cards and I think Sony would've made more effort to supply it with great games, also because they're a Japanese country; although handheld gaming is steadily declining there, it's still a pretty big seller compared to other parts of the world.

I'm not saying things would've been better with weak PS4 sales, but I believe for the Vita it could've been. It's such a shame that the best handheld to ever come out is such an underachiever and to think ill never see a vita 2 with added R2 and L2 saddens me. I still use my vita from time to time, but now the big spring of good games has dried up I don't use it as religiously as I did. I still own a Vita and I could go back and visit lots of excellent games, but it somehow feels dead to me after it's been announced to be legacy hardware.

Careful now @get2sammyb. Not entirely blaming Sony for the demise of the Vita ain't gonna leave you in good standing with the fine folk of the interwebs. Good point on the Freedom Wars too. The monumental whining for physical to the point you'd expect hefty sales, yet it ended up a little lacklustre, makes it one of the lowest points of the Vita's lifespan. Shame as its one of the Vita's better titles too. It's kinda like the WiiU in a way. Plummeting 3rd party support & great 1st party stuff yet sales slowed too much due to the manufacturer focusing elsewhere (WiiU has picked up a little at least). Now it has neither except in Japan.

There's still a market for the handheld to those that love the Japanese market though. So much announced for Vita at TGS

Sony could have done more and it would have been slightly more successful, but Sony doesn't have unlimited resources. I agree. They came out strong, with a strong lineup of games, and they got turned down at every turn.
They created AAA games for it, and nobody bought it. Then they started releasing indie games for it, and suddenly everyone said, "If only they had AAA games, people would buy it." No, they won't. Then it was AAA exclusives. So things like Killzone Mercenary, Tearaway, and Freedom Wars should have put it over the top, but they didn't. In fact Tearaway sold horribly.
People liked to say that they wanted console quality games on a portable, but when they got those games, they then said, "Why would I want a water-downed version of a game I can play on my TV with better graphics?" You can't win with these people.

Theres a big difference between AAA games and popular games, the Vita has the former, but it lacks the later

The poor thing never had a single game that would push it to sell, and the AC/CoD games it had not only were... of questionable quality but were sandwiched between their bigger much more interesting big brothers.

In that regard Nintendo did a better job, handheld and consoles have 3D mario, Zelda, etc... but not in the same time.

I also dont think Sony has a game of their own that could sell consoles, maybe Uncharted. The WiiU stayed semi alive thanks to the many IPs nintendo have that push sales on their own. Sony was banking on the 3rd party developers to fload the Vita but it sadly never happened...

Everyone also seems to also ignore the fact that 3ds' started out terrible and they only gained steam because Nintendo put all of their push on it while leaving wiiu in the dust, this is a short of reverse effect with sony who (rightly i should say) focused on ps4 first and foremost and look how is working out for them, sony aren't as financially stable as Nintendo/microsoft and s such they would need to calculate what is a risk and what would help them out to stay viable in the business. After all that aswell, it's still silly to say they completely abandon the console when nearly every Japanese playstation game is going to be on vita and quite afew of them are coming over to the West.

Heck 3ds releases seem very tepid this year compared to vita.

Cant help but wonder if the vita would've been more of a success had it launched after the PS4! But agree with the article, think a lot of circumstances transpired to make the vita what it is, not all of which were of Sony's doing.

@viciousarcanum To be fair, the 3DS revive before the WiiU was actually launched IMO

it took Nintendo a lot tho

The failure of the VITA is mainly Sony's fault. There is no defending that. But it does have to be said that the mobile market was changing drastically during its release. The market wasn't great for the VITA, but the same thing can be said for the 3DS. With better marketing, support, and decision making, the VITA could have sold a lot better.

I generally argee with the article. I want to add two points.

Firstly it seems that a lot of people that have bought the Vita love it. I like Jap games, PSP and PSone BC among others. It also has the best screen I have seen.

Secondly I think that it needed more games. PSP (one of my favourite gaming machines) had two (!) original Metal Gear games, 2 Silent Hill games, a major FF game (Crisis Core), a Kingdom Hearts game, 2 God of War games, Outrun, Castlevania, tons of Retro games (PSone, Mega Drive Collection, 2 Capcom Collections). Some of them appeared later on PS3 and also some are not available for Vita for some strange reason but anyway if Vita had a library like above would it suffer the same fate? In the end of the day it is understantable not making games in a device that only jrpg games seem to sell.

Any time a handheld or console fails to catch on, the manufacturer has to take on a degree of blame. In the case of Vita, the pricing of the unit itself didn't seem bad initially because the 3DS was about the same price at the time Vita was said to be $250. However, once Nintendo went to the $170, $180 range it was over. The memory card prices ($100 for 32GB, LOL) were asinine and the marketing, frankly non-existent. It also had ZERO third party support. Sony has some great first party franchises but they're just better suited to a home setup. The lack of third party support was killer.

I do, however, agree it's a fallacy to say Sony didn't try. The first year of software was great it was just niche and didn't catch on. It's a shame, but the PS brand has always been better when there's a singular focus on consoles. I think part of PS3's troubles were Sony was focused on PSP as well and it can be a tough balancing act. One only Nintendo has mastered so far.

There were two flaws - one was the dedicated memory card when they could have gone for a cheaper option.

But a large party of the blame has to go with the games studios. They could have done more to help the success of the Vita.

But Western game studios have become mercenary - just look at the cons that is Lego Dimensions, Disney Infinity. And mirco-transactions, pre-order bonuses, exclusive DLC.

A few games like GTA, Bioshock etc would have helped but no-one was interested.

Sony is to blame, hyperexpensive propietary memory cards really hurt the system and they just make too many mistakes... (early focus on gimmicky controls options when the anti gimmicks sentiments was very strong)

It was mostly Sony's fault, they put in a good amount of effort in the first year decent second then just basically gave up after that. Freedom Wars getting a Physical release was a nice gesture on their part (I brought my copy launch day and enjoyed the heck out of it) but you can't convincingly say they've been trying the last two years.

"but the Game Boy Advance surpassed 80 million units and its predecessor 118 million units. "
Those 118 million were for both the GB and GBC combined as mush as people want to treat them as one system they weren't, and I still say 50+ million units is nothing to scoff at.

"And yes, you could argue that $250 was too much for what the console is – but we remember when the price was announced, and people were dancing in the streets. Practically everyone expected to pay much more"
People were happy with the price till they realised it came without memory and to get a reasonable amount given the game sizes you had to spend and extra $100 compared too Nintendo who were bundling enough memory to get you started with every system.

???? Totally sony's fault.

Saying vita failure isn't sony's fault is like trying to say the wii u isn't nintendos fault.

Both totally ridiculous claims that earn you a well deserved laughing at.

I blame them because the system was way to similar looking to the old PSP in the eyes of Joe consumer. And for not pushing the original titles sending them out to die. Like tearaway what a great game. But mainly for the memory card fiasco.

@get2sammyb An original GTA, Ratchet and Clank, Daxter, Gran Turismo, GOW, Dissidia: Final Fantasy or MGS (and more) they may not be able to sell gang busters like Pokemon doing 10+ million but they all have the potential to sell in the 1-5 million if the quality is there like on the PSP. If Sony had been getting these kinds of games on the system it would have done better, games like KZ:M came few and far between. The market is smaller than last gen but Sony struggling to get past 10 million was basically their own doing.

Sony didn't market it well, other than that poor launch sales hurt it. That's a consumer result.

it's still just a dam shame about the vita.....

@get2sammyb Sony suffered from wiiU syndrome and second from the beating ps3 was getting from the media and 360 sales. Ultimately Sony failed for many reasons, causing a perfect negative storm around the Vita. Too many remake collections not enough new. I finally purchased one this year. Impressive piece of tech.

The memory card scheme & their prices is what put me off.

@get2sammyb

Maybe not 50 million, but a lot of people (including me) would have bitten. And making cheap memory cards would have allowed people to get more games too. With those uber expensive cards you have to be very selective of what you buy.

So yes, I blame Sony. They were just trying to make a portable PS3, not a system that played handheld games like Nintendo does. So it became redundant. Instead of cutting memory card prices they say they will not make AAA titles for it anymore.

@get2sammyb I don't think they would sell 50 million because the cellphone industry boomed and they didn't name their handheld the 3DSP. Nintendo is a handled empire with an army of soldiers blinded by brand loyalty. I don't know what Sony could have done better. Price and memory card needed to be right if they wanted to coexist with a giant. But the Vita deserved 50 million fans.

@get2sammyb I've said this loads of times already the marketing was none existent. I have had multiple people think my Vita is a PSP. I only got a vita as a surprise present and would never have bought one for myself.
The memory cards are terribly priced as well.

You have to buy a ticket to win the lottery and Sony didn't even try.

Course it's their fault. There never was any place in the market for propriety memory cards... . A sinister, cynical, downright greedy ploy and the sole reason I (and 1000s of others) didn't jump in at launch. Someone at Sony was actually employed to create a new memory card with the sole goal of fleecing customers ... By fixing a problem that didn't even exist!... Micro SD cards have been fine for every other mobile device. EVERYONE who bought a Vita has suffered from this shambolic, loathsome decision as it meant a vast extra expense and fewer units sold... ie, Less reason for devs to get involved with it. How hard is it to give the people what they want... Market Research - Which can be done by asking 1 random person on the street, "with our new consoles would u like industry standard, cheap micro sd support OR ridiculously over priced Sony memory cards that do the same thing for over 10 times the price?" That one question could've (maybe) had quite an impact on the systems success. I still enjoy my Vita. PS plus and PS4 compatibility still make it worth having.. I'd still have loved to see big franchises on it though!

What demise? Titles like these contribute to the negativity surrounding the Vita. Games are still coming out for it and I still play on it.

I enjoy my vita but really sony offers cheaper vita games digitally and stabs themselves in the foot with their proprietary memory cards, unit 13 and little deviants were not very good, and they held the expectation that word of mouth would sell it like the playstation move.

I paid $100 for a 64gb memory card from japan, I'm down to 14gb and I have no idea what I'll do when that runs out.

For another handheld they need to differentiate themselves. New Vita could be built around backwards compatibility incl. Vita games, PSP and before, add PS3 (is it possible now? Should be!), PS Now, which is already on the Vita and it's a good start. Since PS4 doesn't do that very well, this could help it position itself on the market as it's own thing. Then there are the memory card prices, ridiculous and aggreviating, probably not what you want your crowd to feel when buying a system.
Then get Android on the system, open it up a bit (follwing on from the memory cards disaster). That will never happen but then you have Xperia phones so why not get a slice of that cake aimed specifically at games, and it would be fairly easy to do. That way turn into a multimedia device with Skype, Netflix and whatnot.
Of course you'd have to do market research if all of this would stick; and I haven't mentioned new software so you'd have to be serious about that - a few big exclusives; positioned as 'more of something different' than 'less of what we've already got elsewhere'.

Sony badly damaged the Vita.... ... by creating the PSP Go.

I had a PSP, was nice, bought a PSP Go.. and couldn't be bothered with another portable from Sony for many, many years.

Did buy Vita eventually, and it's nice. Favorite is playing MGSV on PS4 but listening to the tapes thru Remote Play. Nice.

The Vita was real pricey at first, so I waited a long time to get one. Now it's my favorite system, but only because it has the most JRPGs...that's the market where it really counts to have a Vita.

If a company isn't satisfied with a 50 miliion unit player base to try and sell too then they need to rethink how much they are investing in producing,procuring etc games. 50 million units should be more than ample for a company to give it 100% dedication. This in my eyes is solely Sony's fault because once they sold the vita they don't give a toss anymore. I've never had a vita due to only moving to ps4 from xbox 360 and therefore I couldnt warrant the investment solely for a handheld device which I had to purchase games again for a handheld. However with Ps Plus and cross platform stuff etc now I have a PS4 I was looking into a vita in the near future. I won't be doing that now as it's being written off. Shame but Sony have a track record of pushing out new innovation and then once the initial sales are in kicking it to the wayside. The blame rests solely in Sony's court IMHO.

Also everyone continues to avoid the main reason it's in trouble which is that the general public in the West mainly get handheld consoles for children and so automatically gravitate to the cheaper, more family-friendly and we'll known product.

Even if someone knows nothing of handheld gaming they would be familiar with Nintendos legacy in that spot due to the gameboy (heck it remains the sole console my parents use even though they hate gaming) and DS to a lesser extent, 3DS' are ofcourse cheaper than vitas and about 95-ish percent of the software for the machine is aimed at kids so we can analyse it all we want but to the general populace i.e...the CONSIDERABLE MAJORITY of people those are the main reasons, trust me the only people who stave off the platform for something as minor as the memory cards (they AREN'T cheap but they aren't unbearably high priced as people make them out to be either) are people who wouldn't get it any way.

Sure the markets changed, but Sony didn't help themselves much with the vita. The memory card choice and subsequent prices were ridiculous, while they had some good first and second party games initially those have all but disappeared now. They never really tried to give us a second screen ability for PS3, you can't download games on your ps4 (which they claim the vita is perfect with) and then copy to your vita, they have poor ps1 support on the vita, and it currently isn't hardly marketed and when it is, it's only for playing ps4 games. I love my vita, hardware wise, more than my Psp, but it leaves a lot to be desired for actual vita games currently. While I have a decent collection, most are third party and a vast majority of those are from ps plus. They already refreshed the system, which I actually like for the lighter we it and better battery life. The problem with the refresh was that it was a perfect time to address the glaring memory card issued switch to micro sd or anything mainstream, but they didn't. Don't tell me about fragmenting your users either. I'm sure people who had an original card would be fine with buying a 64gb micro sd for $30-$40 or even a 128 for about the price of the current Japanese only 64 vita card. They could and should offer a larger card for the few fans they have like me who have almost filled up their 64, and since this is the only device that uses these cards, cut the price by at least about half. The hardware is solid and very capable. Try playing the ratchet and clank games, tear away, or killzone and not be impressed by the devices capabilities. There's still time for Sony to try to get some traction here but they continue to ignore the device and the few fans they have. I'm not asking them to spent a tons of money making amazing games at this point for so few to buy, but start making more ps1 and Psp games available on the store for the vita. They have a massive catalog of games and the device is perfectly backwards compatible, yet a majority aren't even available for us to buy here in the us. That's an easy cheap way for them to make some money while also pulling in new hardware sales. I'm sure plenty of people would buy the vita for such a massive collection of class games.

I tend to agree with the author of this article that the Vita was doomed to be a niche product simply because the market was not there by the time it launched. It was targeted at teens and young adults. That happens to be the demographic that is most obsessed with smart phones. They live their lives on their phones.

I think Sony started out really well with the Vita, but the lack of exclusive games dropped like a lead balloon and some big games (like Bioshock Vita) that people were looking forward to got the plug pulled on them. I love my Vita, I think it's great, but I just wish it had more content.

I'm glad this next year it's getting a good chunk of multi-platform titles.

Why is this article so defensive? I acknowledge it's an opinion piece, but even so, it sounds like the writer is taking the failure of the Vita more personally than is healthy.

It's a great little system, but the market is a fickle beast, and sometimes crushes beautiful things. 'Nough said.

Sony did make mistakes, but Sony also gave us gamers the handheld system which we had been asking for, dual analogue sticks, a cracking screen, a vast selection of great games, and it still did not sell as well as it should.

I think the biggest mistake they made with the vita was the lack of a L2/R2 and L3/R3, the rear touch pad never really made up for the lack of proper buttons. I'm not saying more buttons would have sold millions of more systems, but it would have been easier to port more games.

demise?

drama

I can't tell you how many times I was in the video game department at best buy or walmart etc and they only had 5 games for the system, half of them junk games to make it worse. This has been the case for well over a year, the only store you can find a broad selection of vita games is gamestop. Go to a retail store and look at the 3ds section taking up a full shelf and then look at the 5 games for the vita in the bottom corner, I have to assume this is a major reason for the system not selling aside from the horrible expensive memory card system sony adopted.

Everyone be like: "I'm not buying one because Sony's is not even trying."
Sony be like: "We are not trying hard because Nobody is even buying one."

@get2sammyb I've said it before, but I don't think the market has changed as much as people are saying. When we look at the handheld sales;

GB (+GBC): 118 million
GBA: 82 million
DS + PSP: 235 million
3DS + PSV: 65 million (and counting)

Last generation was an anomaly. Remember that this generation hasn't ended yet, and I'm sure the combined sales of the 3DS and the Vita will reach 80 million if not more. Also, the GameBoy and GameBoy Color are grouped together, whilst they were clearly different systems. With several hundreds of exclusive games, it's hard to call it a mere upgrade or the original GameBoy.

Anyway, the market has shrunk compared to last generation, but just as what happened with home consoles, happened with handhelds. The casual market came and went. We're back to where we were before the 7th generation.

At first the Vita was expensive and just lack advertisement.
I would say it's a mix of Sony's fault and the way of the times.

I still enjoy my Vita. There are a handful of great games coming to the system.

But the outrageous cost of the memory cards (which are still obscenely high) really did a lot to sink the system. Plus, there was no marketing for the North American launch of the new Slim model. Just before that in early 2014, Sony let stock of Vita dry up completely in many stores to the point that it was almost impossible to find one to buy.

Awful post-launch marketing and bad business decisions are what helped sink Vita in my mind - even though I still love mine.

"It was"? It's not even dead yet. Just because you don't like JRPGs and Visual novels doesn't mean there aren't new games. Come on.

I do blame Sony for the most part. The marketing was ridiculous. I have met a S**t tonne of people (gamers) that have never even heard of the Vita. Just the other day someone thought I was playing on a PSP and when I told them what it actually was they were really shocked.

Also Sony cancelled an Infamous game and a sequel to Uncharted Golden Abyss.The Uncharted sequel got as far as having the game engine built. They forced us to use there own memory card that were way over priced which was a real turn off for alot of people, including me. I sold my first Vita because of those reasons but, I recently got myself a Vita slim and a 64gb memory card and I have now fallen back in love with it.
Their are loads of games for it but because most are digital when you go into a store it looks like their isn't very many games at all. I was really surprised when I got my new Vita slim and went onto the PlayStation store as their are tonnes of games, and having a 64gb memory card allows me to take my massive games collection with me everywhere I go. Next I want a 128gb card as I want to get as many games as possible before Sony decide to stop supporting entirely.

I think Sony should at some point start making bundles that include the PS4 and PS Vita together as it may just help sell a few more. I love remote play and being able to join partys with my friends on PS4 via my Vita. Being able to go on holiday and while you're chilling in the hotel room late at night and talking to my friends on PS4 and also playing certain cross play games is a great feature.

@stevie85 Uhm Netflix on vita works fine. I was watching bleach on Netflix on my Vita like 4 days ago.

I'm not sure if you mean by the internet browser but I'm alluding to the fact we never received a a dedicated app for it in the UK.