The Daily Five: Reasons Why the Vita Failed

"With the official confirmation that Sony will be cutting back its first-party support of the PlayStation Vita, owners of the handheld must deal with the realization that they own the PlayStation equivalent of the Wii U’s GamePad, but with the added ability to play indie games and the occasional third-party port on the go. Really, we should have seen this news coming sooner. The Vita never really got a good start out of the gates and, looking back, seemed doomed to fail from its very beginning.

But why? Why did the PlayStation Vita, a portable console that has seen some truly spectacular games, fail? How could a portable gaming system with such power and promise fail to catch on and give Nintendo and the 3DS a little competition?" - Travis Tucker

[admiralvic]

Eh, the Vita only failed largely for three reasons.

The first was memory card prices. I am willing to bet that the Vita would have sold at $250, if it had simply supported Microsd. This is because the Vita, practically by design, made the 4 GB card worthless, since several games (even F2P titles like Phantasy Star) too large to fit on the card. Let that sink in, at the time you were asked to pay $20 for a card that couldn't even hold every game available on the system. This made the 8 GB card the first "real choice," though many viewed 16 and 32 the only "real choices," especially after plus was implemented.

The next reason was marketing. When push comes to shove, Sony never really marketed the Vita and due to that, many people never bothered with it. This problem was only amplified by what they actually bothered to market. The first commercial I recall was an MLB ad, which really made it out to be more of a remote play device, than a device all its own. The other big one was for Declassified, which is arguably one of the worst titles on the system. Sony really should have pushed Uncharted, Gravity Daze, WipEout, LittleBigPlanet and Soul Sacrifice a lot more than they did, as they might have painted a better picture.

The final reason was Sony's slow reaction times. You figure, it took months for the device to get the power to play PS1 classics and even then it never supported every title (leaving some of the best like Spyro / Crash unavailable). PlayStation Plus took close to a year (going off the Japanese release) to get implemented and was never quite that grand. For instance, Sony really should have swapped out the evergreen titles (Wipe / Gravity / Uncharted stuck around for nearly 2 years and were ultimately never replaced) with something more current and interesting to get new sales and many people were put off by Sony offering PSP titles instead of Vita titles. Even memory cards were poorly implemented going forward, as it took Sony way too long to finally release a 64 gb card.

Overall, if Sony had a clearer plan, cheaper memory cards (or just microsd cards) and actually marketed the thing, it probably would have sold much better.

[dcj0524]

100% agreed. The last physical Vita game I bought was killzone. The rest of my 20+ games are digital and I have a 16GB card. I want to get a 64GB one but there's no way in hell I'd pay $100 for it. The memory cards make as expensive as a damn ps3. Nobody knows in the mainstream about the fantastic exclusives. I mean even here on N4g a site for gamers people still think that the VITA has no games when that is comepletly false. Hell people think there are no exclusives coming when Freedom Wars, Tales of Heart R and more are coming THIS YEAR, the Vita has more exclusives this year alone than the ps4 has in 2013,2014 and early 2015. It's sad that Sony doesn't know how to market, people still call my Vita a PSP and don't know what the games are. Oh well,still got Japan.

[jujubee88]

The Daily Five: Reasons I wont click this article

1. VITA is awesome
2. VITA isn't dead
3. same as 1 and 2
4. same as 1 and 2
5. Click bait title is obviously click bait

[OtakuDJK1NG-Rory]

2. VITA isn't dead

Tell me where in the article it says Vita is dead

Another you are being delusional if you don't see Sony faults.

Failed =/= dead

[jujubee88]

You only crap talk the VITA, so why should I care what words you put on me?

You think you are being constructive by just going by all VITA articles and calling people like me "delusional" for simply liking their VITA.

[HarryMasonHerpderp]

I love my Vita, it's an amazing piece of kit with some excellent games. Sony just aren't giving it enough support though.
With barely any in house AAA games Sony give off the impression that they just don't care. Not to mention half assed ports and franchises like Resistence and COD been made with no effort and quality what so ever.

If they cared they would have at least managed to get Final Fantasy type zero for the system instead they have ignored the fanbase. I know it's up to sqeenix at the end of the day but if Sony really wanted to do it then they could have worked out a deal.

That and the memory card prices it just feels like Sony have taken a dump on the Vita and that my friends is a damn shame. Don't get me wrong there are still great games for the handheld, but it deserves much more than this and so do the people that have supported the Vita and still do.

[KonsoruMasuta]

Sony doesn't care. Don't expect them to pump out money on deals and first party titles. They're just sort of praying that indies and third parties will keep the Vita afloat at this point.

Yoshida came out and said that it will be getting less first party support than before. This is obviously extremely troublesome. It looks like Sony gave up on it. This means no more Uncharted, no more Killzone, and who knows what will happen after SCEJ finishes their last batch of first party titles that they've been working on since last year.

They want to make indies and remote play the Vita's main attraction.

[sanosukegtr123]

Its just the beginning and for starters they should lower the price tag on memory. the memory card is too small for such a price.

[rpd123]

Dude, the Vita failed. Sony has thrown in the towel, after very minimal effort to begin with.

[imXify]

It didn't failed.

It's underperforming.

[OtakuDJK1NG-Rory]

It failed to keep promises Sony made.

[Spotie]

You failed to explain your case, which would justify why a Nintendo fanboy is in a Playstation article putting down a Sony product.

The Vita isn't doing nearly what anyone would like, sales-wise (barring fanboys like yourself). But it's still getting games and seeing its feature set updated.

That's not dead, like you constantly claim.

It also hasn't failed to deliver on any Sony promises, unless you're referring to sales.

[MultiConsoleGamer]

Just ignore Spotie, he is the banned user formerly known as Hicken.

[RexDD]

Lol at yet another click bait article. It's true that the guys at Sony are idiots and treat the Vita as a bastard child, but the third party support from Japanese devs has been great.

I'll have fun with my Danganronpa 2, Project Diva 2, Senran kagura, SAO, Tales of hearts R, Disgea 4, Neptunia and more.

Vita is dead to those who don't own one.

[itBourne]

Yeh I am pumped for SAO! Have fun with my vita, with ps+ it is beyond worth the buy. Just wish I had the time to play all my ps+ games between the 3 systems lol. League of Legends ruined my gaming life too = ( so that does not help.

[RexDD]

I know exactly what you mean! I just want to get to level 30 so I can move on with my life.

[itBourne]

Wait what? Level 30 is where League starts not where it ends lmao. That is just the beginning. Got 90 days (2,149 hours)put into league just on my one account, it ruined my gaming life lol, I have been playing it for 3 years.

[RexDD]

True but I don't want to start playing ranked games too soon, scared of ELO hell. I'll keep playing once I reach lvl 30 but just not as much. I play for at the very least 6 hours a day. So once I reach lvl 30 i'll just play like 2 hours. That's what I meant by it. When I think i'm good enough i'll head into ranked.

[snarls200]

conception 2

[Foraoise]

Flamebaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aait.

[Fel08]

I own one, and I love it. It's a powerful hardware and great to play ps4 games on the go. It's a pity that Sony is treating it now more of a PS4 accessory than what it was meant to be in the first place, a portable gaming machine to play PS Vita games.

[sin7279]

failed article!

[lnfiniteLoop]

Only problem with the Vita is the price of the memory cards... it is now selling in the UK at the right price for a handheld game system got mine for £129 (inc 8 DL games) from Tesco... the Vita just needs some more AAA titles to get released...

[jujubee88]

I can respect that side of things. Boarderlands 2 sold very well, as did AssCreed on VITA. And we all don't like the prices of the 32GB and 64GB cards.

[iceman600]

"The Daily Five: Reasons Why the Vita Failed"

you dont even need 5 just one, and that's because sony made it.

[breakpad]

Vita is underperforming cause of one reason and only ..Lack of Japanese third party quality titles ..end of story ...Monster Hunter was ridiculously stolen by lame Nintendo (and utterly left the series unevolved for a whole generation of consoles), Square enix with crap FFXIII and other idiotic descisions didnt support Vite a t all and Capcom except the tragic mistake with MOu HOu never really supported Vita with a killer app ...the r s one rule in portabels if it ill succeeds in Japan it will succeed everywhere..now it just has problem in Japan and to the rest of world seems like failure

[dcj0524]

Lol. Dude, that's the on thing the Vita has. Ys:memories of Cecleta,Project Diva For, Conception II, Demon Gaze, SAO, Tales of Hearts R, Raganork Odessy, Phantasy Star Online&Nova,God Eater 2,Dragon's crown,Disagea 3&4, I could go on for hours. All of these are 2 things, Japanese and Third party.Those are keeping the Vita alive along with the endless stream of Indies and the occasional First party titles every now and then.

[breakpad]

from all these games you mentioned . im asking you to answer me frankly, iS any of them killer app or Gem game?? the answer is NO, i dont say they are not good but just they do not shine ...i own a Vita and is the best handheld machine ever ..but with crap support from its homeland it is difficult

[memots]

the reason its failing is because media called it dead from the get go. They just won't give up.

No one i know at work knows what a Vita is and lots of them enjoys gaming and have ps3/ps4 and 360. Even my wife's nephew who's now 12 years has no idea what a vita is and he use to have a psp. They should have never called it Vita psp2 would have worked but oh well that's another discussion.

On subject i love my vita and i don't think its dead. still working perfectly lol and i have a huge backlog on this too

[jessupj]

I'm loving my vita.

Haven't bought a single game, but because I have psn plus I around 25 games to play. Huge back log.

[fOrlOnhOpe57]

Is there a time limit whereby something can be said to have failed or not? I don't think my Vita's failed yet anymore than my PS3 or PS4.

[jegheist2014]

more like 3ds failed with lack of jrpgs vita hasnt failed it now booming with rpgs i have like 6 jrpgso n this sucka now i bought im hurling htru them im bout to wrap up toukiden i havel ike 100 plus hoursi n that cuz i been farming heck out the game.

[KonsoruMasuta]

3DS has plenty of JRPGs, but that has nothing to do with failing or not.

When a company says that they will be supporting a handheld less than they did before, you know something is wrong. Sony bluntly said that there would be less first party support on Vita. It's a sad things when the company that owns the product gives up on it,

[joeorc]

First of all its very easy to sit there and say that about the psvita vs the 3DS but the truth of the matter.

The 3DS development costs and team size requirement to triangle is no d@mn near the size vs what it takes for the PSVita.

And again

Even when Sony made a d@mn AAA budget release for the d@mn system every one and their freaking grand mother called it a water down port of a ps3 game.

Why do you think Sony made the d@mn freaking playstation TV . People been harping on well if I'm going to play a AAA game for a handheld than I would rather play the game on a PS3.

So that is to be blunt what Sony is doing, they are making sure AAA vita games are being targeted to the living room or bed room now.

But fear not the standard PSVita will still be able to play those games also. So once again how are Sony right now giving up on the d@mn psvita?

[Nerdmaster]

My problem with Vita is that there isn't a single game I'm expecting for it. The last game I played on it was FFX HD.

[PhucSeeker]

Only 2 reasons in my opinion :
1/ Lack exclusive big AAA games .
2/ Bad marketing .

[RosweeSon]

Everyone says the memory is expensive and yeah it's not exactly cheap but shop around , the console isn't that expensive and a lot of games if signed up to ps+ are free enough to keep you just anyway, they have to make the money somewhere and the majority if it is clearly memory cards but I paid around £40-42 for a 32gb around 6-9 months ago, I can still go trade that in for £38 so hardly lost anything and if I wanted to I could get a 64gb for £60 off eBay so not too bad if I just get rid of my 32gb overall I think the price is reasonable but they should bring the 64gb to uk and maybe lower the prices slightly.

[DualWielding]

the price is not reasonable when compared with a standard memory card.... some people refuse to buy Vita on principle because they just aren't willing to pay 4x the price of standard memory card (and it used to be 5x before the price cut)

[joeorc]

Its been put or really painted into the market in a negative light for so long vs what "Nintendo is doing" with the 3DS an already will determine if the PSVita can be a success, never mind they are no way shape or forum the same to develop for in size of team required or for resources needed to be payed just to make a single AAA game.
SONY'S Change for the PSVita as a platform is to start new in a market outside of Nintendo's shadow and without the "Vita" name attached to it, with a more Focus on indie and 3rd party games to power the Playstation Tv. On as a Micro game console. Because many a gamer has told Sony just that.

"If I was going to play a AAA game , I would just play it on a living room console"
This does not mean that the PSVita will not get AAA games it just means do not expect many because there really is no reason too when the vast majority of gamers will just give the game a shout out as just a "watered down port"
Sony is I think to be blunt will no longer trying to convince gamers when after every attempt to make a AAA game is always seen by the gaming media an gamers as just a "damn port" after a while they just said well if its a port machine they call it I guess it will be just that.

A d@mn port machine.
They are now Starting off the Playstation Tv into a market where its target is "Casual Market price point living room console" the very fact that Sony is doing this allows Sony to in effect lower the cost on entry point for developers to make a "living room game console" game but instead of the costs involved for PS3, or PS4 to publish Playstation Tv will be the cheapest living room console that is a Playstation for the living room on the retail shelf currently, the PS3 would still cost more than the playstation tv to develop for.
By switching the PSvita from mainly being a mobile platform Sony is now offering developers the option to develop for it as a micro console instead.

[DualWielding]

a port is a port and a exclusive is a exclusive, most people know the difference, nobody calls Vita AAA games that are exclusive ports.....

[joeorc]

bull crab, and you know it, they call it a Port of Playstation 3 game, who are you trying to Kid?

Yourself, or other's because on this forum and Many other's that's what many said over and over again on here.

You do not think Sony hear's that? or see's the post after post on the official Playstation Blog?

Just look at the section about Playstation Vita games what was the number one thing many gamer's claim that Uncharted for the Vita is? yeah a freaking Port! even though UNCHARTED :ga IS ONLY FREAKING FOUND ON THE PSVITA!

but yet ON THIS GAMER FORUM AND OTHER'S its indeed called a port! WHICH IT IS NOT A D@MN PORT!

So no i do not really think many gamer's today really know what a d@mn exclusive is.

[swansong]

A price drop to 169.99 with a minecraft bundle and lots of advertisement pointing out that minecraft for Vita is the full console version and only console version for a handheld. Done right,it could capture a wider audience.

[joeorc]

@swansong

"A price drop to 169.99 with a minecraft bundle and lots of advertisement pointing out that minecraft for Vita is the full console version and only console version for a handheld. Done right,it could capture a wider audience."

WHY SO EVERYONE COULD THAN JUST SAY, WHY NOT PLAY IT ON THE ps3?

Look i own the PSVita myself, but i already have known the problem with the system's dynamics and what Sony was going to do to fix it, when they launched the PSVita, before that they called it NGP, on stage at the unvailing they also showed off Playstation Mobile or ie: the playstation Suite.

Not even really a full 1 year later from than they showed off Playstation Vita TV! do people not get this? You do not see what Sony is doing?

Sony knows the dedicated Hanheld area of game consoles is pretty much capped with Nintendo having the only real large market share , Smartphones and Tablets have made sure of that.

How do you get games on your platform: make them yourself or convince 3rd party developer's to make games for your platform, right?

So Sony instead of trying yet again a 5th time, in a Market that is mainly Nintendo's other than that its pretty closed off to get more 3rd party developers on board when most if not all main publishers for mobile devices are on smartphones and Tablets..

think about this is if Nintendo 3DS is so far ahead why is Rockstars Grandtheft Auto : San Andreas also not on the Nintendo 3DS? I can see it not being release for the PSVita because of the low sales number's, but why not the 3DS?

and its not just Rockstar only, look at EA, the 3DS IS MORE ROBUST HARDWARE THAN THE PSP was so it could indeed handle Rockstar'S GTA:SA but if it was doing so well why is it only on Apple iOS and Google's Android?

Its very Simple:
The Smartphone and tablets are more lower cost Higher Return on investment, and if Nintendo's 3DS is cheaper than the PSVita to develop for, what does that tell you what cost's and team size required to make a game?

what Sony has now done is instead of trying to etch out more market share in a part of the market where there is very little left, they have done something far better for platform growth for the "Vita"

this i would advise for people to let sink in :

"By switching the PSvita from mainly being a mobile platform Sony is now offering developers the option to develop for it as a micro console instead."

again

Playstation Vita will now be the Lowest cost New released livingroom or Bed room console platform offered by Sony..its pretty much entry point wise a souped up playstation 2...How do you get games onboard the platform, convince 3RD partys to make them. They sure was not convinced for a Mobile playstation , but maybe for a Micro- Game console they may be more ready to make game's for it.

They are now Starting off the Playstation Tv into a market where its target is "Casual Market price point living room console" the very fact that Sony is doing this allows Sony to in effect lower the cost on entry point for developers to make a "living room game console" game but instead of the costs involved for PS3, or PS4 to publish Playstation Tv will be the cheapest living room console that is a Playstation for the living room on the retail shelf currently, the PS3 would still cost more than the playstation tv to develop for.
By switching the PSvita from mainly being a mobile platform Sony is now offering developers the option to develop for it as a micro console instead.

[jujubee88]

You argument falls apart when you consider Sony didn't do that on stage at E3. They literally only talked about streaming when the PS TV was shown.

Go back and watch that portion and the commercial they released for PS TV. Sony made PS TV look like it can and should only be a streaming box.

[joeorc]

Falls apart? Sony is set to release playstation Now, a streaming service and you just are saying my argument falls apart? Oh My god just Wow, even when its shown right with the freaking bundle a psvita card and a game that by the way is a playstation vita game.

Just because they show off streaming does not mean that its only just a streaming only system box! They just showed the system off the christmas marketing is not even started yet.

Do you really think that they are only going to be talking about streaming option only?

The japanese PSVita Tv showed plenty of game use in the tv spots in japan, the fact if they show the game being streamed or from a vita card really does not matter because it will still be showing GAMING!

They will be promoting the playstation tv as a game system for living room or bed rooms what does it matter if the game is ran local or streamed in the tv ad..its still a game shown from the device!

Nintendo or Microsoft do not have a Micro Game console for the Fall @ a price point of $99.00 Sony does, this is conveyed to the consumer as a brand new Playstation That is $99.00 for people that may not have $399.00 to spend.

[jujubee88]

"Just because they show off streaming does not mean that its only just a streaming only system box! They just showed the system off the christmas marketing is not even started yet. "

Fair enough. I have nothing to say to you since you write a lot and I don't feel like leaving a long response (which would only seem thoughtful since you do write a lot).

But you are passionate about the VITA because of it. So I can appreciate that. I'll just say that. :)

[patchzon]

Im so sick of these articles!The vita did not fail at all and i have it since day 1,as a matter of fact i bought a Ps4 because i could remote play all the games using my vita.Yes it is expensive,of course nothing is free in life.It is a very capable handled,and i don't know any other handled on the market that can handle Ps4 quality games so that for me is enought.Yes it could have been this and that have better games and so,but there is still many thing you can do whith it,and games that you can play,games in development and soon ps now.So it might not be perfect but its a damn good little piece of hardware,long live the VITA!

[jegheist2014]

since when did psp best games first party lol most best psp games were 3rd party cough cough crsis core star ocean phantasy star portable etc

same with the vita except sonys first party studios r now 3rd party freedom wars um soul sacrifice.