PS Vita a 'Great Machine' But 'Too Late,' Says Former Sony Exec

Despite Vita being a "nice machine," Jack Tretton believes it struggled because of the dwindling interest in the dedicated handheld market.

[CocoaBrother]

"Tretton looks back on PlayStation Vita as "a nice machine" that launched "at a time when very few people needed a dedicated portable device."

As much as I love my Vita, the notion that few people want a dedicated portable device is a poor excuse. The insane prices of the proprietary memory cards and lack of first party support is what led to poor sales.

[Neonridr]

agreed. Sadly my Vita's primary use is so I can play my PS4 in bed.

[PoSTedUP]

And poor marketing.

[miyamoto]

The PS4 and PS Vita development compatibility was a stroke of genius on Mark Cerny's credit for designing hardware but it's in the limited variety of software that held the PS Vita back.

The choice of games was not on par with what the PSP had to offer. The PSP's broad range of kiddie to adult games was just like the PS1's and the PS2's. The PSP appealed to the Nintendo DS market so much it sold 87 million units to date.

PS Vita focused too much on the 19 and up adult gamers.
Also the lack of AV TV connectivity was a real deal breaker for me.
I mean I still can connect my PSP 3000 to my 1080p TV and play Black Rock Shooter.
Even my cell phone can connect to my Smart TV with no problems!

... but isn't that interviewer the biggest Xbox fan at IGN that Shuhei Yoshida confronted on Twitter?

[Ravenor]

No one with the money to buy software wants or needs a dedicated handheld. No one wants console experiences on the go, Kill zone Mercenary was a clunky mess and did nothing but make the console games look 100 times better by comparison.

@OP
The first party support and memory cards might not have helped, bit let's be real. Who wants to carry around two devices? Who wants to play games designed with long play sessions on the go? Persona 4 Golden's a great package but I would rather that version exist on the PS3 or PS4.

Handhelds are dead in NA, live with it and move on.

[LAWSON72]

I think the whole console experience on the go is as big a gimmick as the Wii, this is coming from someone who got the PSP the year it came out and was blown away running GTA on it (was 12 btw). Maybe gimmick is not a fair way to put it, rather who really needs to play a game like Uncharted on the go (very few people). Nintendo handheld games are usually always dedicated or implemented to mobile well, and just make sense whether it be a 10 minute or 2 hr session. Sony markets the thing the wrong way (the Vita and PSP had these kind of games but got barely any love at least outside of JP) and charges an arm and leg for storage that is why the Vita failed.

The PSP was very lucky and something like it will never happen again, that and part of the HW success stems from homebrew and piracy. Sony was at it peaks with the PS2 at the time and the idea was fresh in a non competitive market. A HDMI option and kid games would not fix this system.

[Vegamyster]

Yup which is shame because it is a very nice device and had a lot of potential.

[kraenk12]

Actually the lack of sales on the US were the reason for the bad support. Vicious circle it is.

[Automatic79]

The lack of first party and third party support messed it up for me. I thought the Vita had so much potential.

[rainslacker]

I kind of agree. It was Steve Jobs that said that customers don't know what they want until you show them. That's true of any new product. Sony could have gotten people to want the system, but they put so many barriers making it less than appealing, and didn't sell the reasons why people would really want it.

I don't think the support was the problem at first, as the lack of support came later. Despite what was said in forums, Sony seemed pretty committed to trying and making it succesful, but they were so hellbent on protecting the systems security, that it made it less appealing to the general consumer, and the actual benefits of the system were overlooked due to those factors.

[ABizzel1]

Vita's biggest problems were:

1. 3G support stuck to AT&T at launch (more people would have bought one if they could use their carrier)
2. Not using standard SD / Micro SD, and instead Proprietary Memory cards that were ridiculously high.
3. Smartphones & Tablets did everything Vita did better except first party exclusives.....
4. Dire lack of first party support, and eventually 3rd party.
5. Poor marketing and advertising (few commercials, no PSV + PS4 bundle, Remote Play not highlighted enough)

I think there's still room for a PlayStation handheld, that being said it can't be a handheld in the traditional sense. Simply make a PlayStation gaming tablet like NVIDIA shield tablet.

1. Launch at no more than $299 depending on the performance / screen size(s)
2. It has to use Micro SD (people are going to try to pirate, the majority of us however, buy our games / PS+)
3. Improve Remote play to the level of the Wii U + Wii U gamepad, for PS4 / PS5 streaming.
4. Get the majority of PS1 / PS2 / PS3 games code into easy to run emulation, and let the tablet run them (720p).
5. Dual OS, Have a PS OS that runs all the PS content, then Android in the background to help reduce piracy, but offer all the apps and advantages of Android OS.
6. Market the device, and let to use 4G on most networks (Sprint would probably be the only issue)
7. Refresh every 3 / 4 years.

It won't match the PSP sales, but it should definitely be a solid 40m in sales, which for any tablet not named iPad is a overwhelming success.

[Gaming4Life1981]

I may be wrong on this but isn't the 3ds ( all models) selling well?

ps vita failed because of support and bringing the same games over from ps3 and expensive memory cards. I still have my vita but it collects dust and I mean major dust, I think about selling it everytime I see it and dust it off.

[Ravenor]

Not nearly as well as the DS.

[Vegamyster]

It's closing on 60 million sales so while it won't hit DS numbers, it still shows there is a market for dedicated handhelds.

[RosweeSon]

But neithers Wii U compared to wii or the Xbox one compared to 360... all this tracking higher than 360 utter rubbish, it's not and no one actually knows as they've stopped releasing sales figures 25 million max over 3 years... 9 years that approx 75 million Xbox sold 80-85 million by that point, they gonna keep that up over next 6 years... no chance, 50 million max for Xbox this gen, only Sony really smashing it sales wise currently and that's because they went for it all games blazing. Not that sales matter the slightest if it's something you want. I didn't buy the ps4 because it sold well I've never bought any console down to sales purely based on games. Otherwise I'd have never bought a Wii U or a dreamcast, or the original Xbox or GameCube.

[k2d]

Bought a 3DS in 2016. The real problem isn't timing, but lack of killer apps. PSP handled this better, I think.

[RosweeSon]

Had mine since day one still playing it often don't think it's ever been out of sleep mode it's always on and charged in too busy with the games the AR games and streetpass were cool to start with but it's all about the proper games streetpass is a great idea and is pretty cool shame not implented well in proper games but as for sales 60 million and counting many new games coming out this Christmas for 3ds and a couple of new pokemons. Think it'll be clearing 70-75 million before that goes anywhere 2ds/3ds-XL "New" Xl's not like there's plenty of options and many many awesome games.

[nevin1]

I'm sorry but charging $100 for memory cards was stupid.

[Eidolon]

Right, games usually being more expensive on PS Store and up to 4 gigs + memory being $2+ a gig.

[RosweeSon]

Just wait for a sale and barely any of the games I got were over 3.5gb max i think killzone was larger but i had physical. Metal gear 2/3 3.5ishgb, walking dead 3gb God of war collection 1/2... 3.5 gb psp games on average around 1gb I have 10-12 of them and 10 or so vita games not to mention 30ish ps1 classics plenty of gaming on the go for 32gb ;)

[Eidolon]

I know, but with PS+ free games and my attention span for games.. I filled up 32gb in no time and now about to have the same problem with 64gb. lol

[RosweeSon]

They weren't cheap sure but if you got a big enough one and shopped around for a good price I don't see the problem too much got a 32gb never needed another one sure there's juggling involved but it's manageable, apple charge the same for their GB's if not more and sure home consoles were talking 500gb or 1/2TB's but the price difference between the larger consoles to the smaller ones is normally pretty large when you could go get your own memory for a fraction of the price they charge, for example 500gb slim £250 1tb £309 that's £60 for an extra 500gb... I paid £70 for a 2Tb drive and sold the 500GB for £15-20 more to the point the 2Tb drive was £70. I paid barely £60 for my 32gb vita card and as GAME were asking for £80! It meant they were also taking them in for trade in at £40 so barely £20 lost not that it's been lost as its still in console and won't be going anywhere anytime soon just shop around or wait til get voucher or something on stuff like that at set prices or premium? Prices. Fact is when you get minor HDD space improvements off anyone be it Sony Microsoft Apple they all charge through roof should just do a nintendo low hard drive barely non existent file sizes i know VC games are getting only but some of those games are barely MB's.

[3-4-5]

* Vita game selection is very niche and far too many of the same type of rpgs....not traditional rpgs, and little variety in game type + way too expensive memory card.

Vita is awesome as a gaming device...there just isn't much awesome content for it.

[RosweeSon]

Dwindling interest... yeah tell that to Nintendo and Apple, sure even Nintendo aren't selling what they used to but Japan loves handhelds and 3ds have sold what 60 million+ the only thing that dwindled on Vita was AAA games that used the full power greatness indie games, psp, ps1 classics. Could have added ps2 classics surely, not to mention have barely 3 AAA games Uncharted, Killzone, Gravity rush, Tearaway was fantastic those last 2 you'd expect a sequel for vita no both jump to ps4. The fact psp was properly supported with its own GTA titles (multiple) Metal gear peace walker, Gran turismo, God of war all the big franchises got a psp game, vita just got forgotten still got mine for a few games and mainly ps1 classics but could have been so much more still... add ps2 classics for a start.

[ParanoidFreak]

(1) No SD card support
(2) No micro-USB charger port on the OG
(3) No dedicated L2/R2 buttons
(4) Overpriced memory cards
(5) Loss of first party support and lack of AAA games
(6) Price
(7) Bad marketing
(8) No TV out
(9) Unnecessary features like touchpad and dual cameras drove up manufacturing costs

All the things combined killed the Vita. That said I still love the damn thing. Sony never learned and its downfall was written on the wall for a while. So sad.

[OtakuDJK1NG-Rory]

Well the 3DS has dual cameras so it not that bad of idea. Except the 3DS actually use it for games and 3DS face tracking.

Where the Vita is photos and AR.

[Blaze929]

mobile iOS/Android apps killed the handheld market for a lot of consumers. Why pay $40 etc for games, pricey memory cards, and more when you can spend $4.99 in the app store for a device you use everyday?

The excuse it launched at a bad time is poor tho because i bought one at JPN launch and loved it, but it had NO games i cared about. Not even a GTA? It was just a technically amazing device that had no use.

[SynestheticRoar]

W0w. Serious question. Does anyone know if Jack Tretton sick?

[rezzah]

High memory card prices and a poor variety of games is what caused its downfall, it needed more games.

What solidified it what Sony announcing their lack of support for the system.