Andrew House: PS Vita a 'legacy platform' outside of Japan and Asia

Sony's treatment of the Vita (I suppose SCEA..) is a glaring issue that has partially caused me, as a Playstation fan for 20 years, to not jump on board the PS4 bandwagon, and may never will. Such a bad taste in my mouth.

I don't think there was anything they could have ever done to match the PSP's success - the market has changed too much for that. But a taco bell campaign and an abysmal "play your MLB game anywhere!" commercial was about all the mainstream marketing it got. They give us a joke of COD, slapped together without a care in the world, a choppy Borderlands 2 port at least 2 years too late, stuck to their guns on memory card prices, and basically said "Fuck it we hate this thing and want this to die. Don't bundle Minecraft!"

Thankfully there has been some solid indie and Japanese localization support. I rank it up there with Dreamcast, and will look back at it just as fondly, if not more, a decade from now.
 
IvorB said:
I still have a bunch of games that I haven't played on it and I don't really use a portable that often so I'm all set. Doesn't mean I'm not bitter though...
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Oh no doubt, you have every right to be upset with how the Vita was handled, but for me all the games I play and own for it more than justifies its value for me; regardless of my feelings for its failed potential and perception/market reality.
 
So in the end, the PS Vita is a 2nd screen for remote play. Not the end of the world. I still play it a lot on it when I want to chill on my patio in the sun or lay in bed while playing video games.
 
Not surprised. The Vita was my most regretful video game purchase ever. By the time I sold it I hadn't touched it in a year, and I was a huge champion of the original PSP, even bought a PSPgo. Sony fucked up and won't ever sway me into buying one of their handhelds, given that they even try to do another one. It's a waste of time, tbqh.
 
Makes sense. Support it by way of PS classics ports, remote play and cross buy stuff, but dedicating any real resources to Vita specific content would be a huge waste at this point.
 
GSG Flash said:
Fuck you Sony. It's your own damn fault that the Vita did so poorly outside of Japan, and now you're giving the people in the west that did buy a Vita the finger.
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Eh. I wouldn't really say that. Mobile devices are killing dedicated gaming devices hence Nintendo making mobile games now.
 
Rezae said:
Sony's treatment of the Vita (I suppose SCEA..) is a glaring issue that has partially caused me, as a Playstation fan for 20 years, to not jump on board the PS4 bandwagon, and may never will. Such a bad taste in my mouth.

I don't think there was anything they could have ever done to match the PSP's success - the market has changed too much for that. But a taco bell campaign and an abysmal "play your MLB game anywhere!" commercial was about all the mainstream marketing it got. They give us a joke of COD, slapped together without a care in the world, a choppy Borderlands 2 port at least 2 years too late, stuck to their guns on memory card prices, and basically said "Fuck it we hate this thing and want this to die. Don't bundle Minecraft!"

Thankfully there has been some solid indie and Japanese localization support. I rank it up there with Dreamcast, and will look back at it just as fondly, if not more, a decade from now.
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The two biggest red flags for me were:

-No Gran Turismo Vita game (2nd highest selling game on PSP and Sony owned IP)
-No Minecraft Vita Bundle (a game that continues to do relatively well on the platform with no marketing. In fact, I can see Minecraft becoming one of the top selling Vita titles by the end of its lifecycle.)
 
SCEA didn't show much of an interest in the platform. They didn't even care to dedicate a portion of their E3 presentations to it. Completely ignored the complaints from gamers about the expensive memory cards and other system limitations. The demise of the Vita on this side of the globe was mostly their fault.
 
Remember the day the PSN servers screwed up and you could send any PS1/PSP game to the Vita?

Man, it never felt more alive to have a Vita then.
 
Tobor said:
I completely disagree with anyone who contends Sony didn't properly support the Vita. They tried. The market simply wasn't there anymore.

Smartphones and tablets killed the Vita, not Sony.
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.

It is true. I'm quite happy with what they have gotten on the system given how few people care about dedicated handhelds who aren't Nintendo fans.
 
That1BlackGuy said:
The two biggest red flags for me were:

-No Gran Turismo Vita game (2nd highest selling game on PSP and Sony owned IP)
-No Minecraft Vita Bundle (a game that continues to do relatively well on the platform with no marketing. In fact, I can see Minecraft becoming one of the top selling Vita titles by the end of its lifecycle.)
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Neither of those things would have done jack shit to save the Vita and in the case of GT would have been a waste of resources. There simply isn't enough of a pie anymore for high-end AAA portable gaming. Nintendo has eaten up what's left of it and even they are seeing a huge drop off in userbase. the 3DS is going to lose like 50% of the DS' audience when it's all said and done.
 
UGw1mKB.gif

Basically...
 
Tobor said:
I completely disagree with anyone who contends Sony didn't properly support the Vita. They tried. The market simply wasn't there anymore.

Smartphones and tablets killed the Vita, not Sony.
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Well they shouldn't put out a system and take people's money if they're not ready to support it all the way. Things weren't going right for Nintendo's latest handheld but they actually made moves to correct it and are still supporting the platform. They operate in the same world of smartphones and tablets as Sony does.
 
I'm just glad he's telling the truth. At least they brought over Oreshika and Freedom Wars. I don't understand what people expect Sony to do at this point. People don't want it there isn't much else to do. They tried with first party software and no one bought them.
 
Good. I know it sucks for Vita people, but enough is enough. Glad Sony is not going to devote resources to the thing anymore, not that they did that much to begin with.
 
I think that the games that would be best on Vita have found their way to Vita, more or less. I'm thinking of games that can be played in bite-sized chunks, like many indies such as Kick & Fennick, Spelunky, Project Divas (OK, not an indie), Olli Ollis, Velocity 2X, Steamworld Dig, Luftrausers etc. I'm also thinking of games that you can pick up and put down in sleep mode, JRPGs and VNs such as Danganronpas, P4G, Ys, FFX/X-II etc.

To my mind, experiences such as Uncharted Golden Abyss, Gravity Rush, Borderlands 2 etc are much better suited to the big screen. Making them exclusive to the Vita is not economical, and I think that most publishers would share that view. In other words, market forces have acted to make the Vita home to the games that most suit it and which most people would buy on that platform over other platforms. Realistically, these are the only games we should expect on the Vita from now on.

In the early days of the Vita, I think Sony was trying to make it something that it could never be - a AAA portable console. It's not the Vita's fault specifically, people would still prefer Uncharted on a big screen even if it were available not just for Vita but for any mobile device. The Vita's key strengths are its controls, its screen and its suspend mode.

I don't blame Sony for treating it as a legacy platform at this point. The market for portable AAA simply isn't there. Since AA doesn't really exist anymore, I think that Sony is still doing great things for Vita by making it easy for indie devs to put their games on it.
 
Ninja Scooter said:
Neither of those things would have done jack shit to save the Vita and in the case of GT would have been a waste of resources. There simply isn't enough of a pie anymore for high-end AAA portable gaming. Nintendo has eaten up what's left of it and even they are seeing a huge drop off in userbase. the 3DS is going to lose like 50% of the DS' audience when it's all said and done.
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First off, I don't deal in 'saving' platforms; those two things would've made the Vita sell substantially more than it currently has. Also, GT wouldn't have been a waste of resources had they developed it during their initial support/wave of software. No one is denying that the market for dedicated portable gaming is shrinking into a niche either, people have been saying that for years.
 
Lol, people are just weird about this stuff!

I played Frozen Synapse Prime today on my Vita at lunch and the game really shines with touch controls. The game came out for Vita last fall and I picked it up at the last Flash Sale for $5. It's awesome

I"m a new Vita owner, and I'm not complaining. Especially since I've been alternating Frozen Synapse with Race the Sun...on BART...and they are both great.

There are so many negative comments (against Sony, against the Vita) in these threads!

Personally, I look at a Vita or WiiU or an XBO and think, "Man, there are some great games to play there."

Sony is basically saying to their investors...the Vita didn't work out for us outside of Japan/Asia. That's not news.

I'd considered Nintendo handheld for a quick second, but why would I with all the free stuff I'm getting in the Sony ecosystem, and the great deals to boot.

I'd happily play strategy, puzzle and board games on an iPad, but the Vita is an awesome pick up and play, on the go system for anyone with a foot in the Sony ecosystem.

I don't expect that to change soon, no matter what the news of the day is.
 
Zambayoshi said:
I think that the games that would be best on Vita have found their way to Vita, more or less. I'm thinking of games that can be played in bite-sized chunks, like many indies such as Kick & Fennick, Spelunky, Project Divas (OK, not an indie), Olli Ollis, Velocity 2X, Steamworld Dig, Luftrausers etc. I'm also thinking of games that you can pick up and put down in sleep mode, JRPGs and VNs such as Danganronpas, P4G, Ys, FFX/X-II etc.

To my mind, experiences such as Uncharted Golden Abyss, Gravity Rush, Borderlands 2 etc are much better suited to the big screen. Making them exclusive to the Vita is not economical, and I think that most publishers would share that view. In other words, market forces have acted to make the Vita home to the games that most suit it and which most people would buy on that platform over other platforms. Realistically, these are the only games we should expect on the Vita from now on.

In the early days of the Vita, I think Sony was trying to make it something that it could never be - a AAA portable console. It's not the Vita's fault specifically, people would still prefer Uncharted on a big screen even if it were available not just for Vita but for any mobile device. The Vita's key strengths are its controls, its screen and its suspend mode.

I don't blame Sony for treating it as a legacy platform at this point. The market for portable AAA simply isn't there. Since AA doesn't really exist anymore, I think that Sony is still doing great things for Vita by making it easy for indie devs to put their games on it.
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The reason I liked Gravity Rush so much is because it reminded me more of a PS2 game than a PS3 one. That is what I was hoping for the Vita, a return to games that were larger but not similar to the movie action extravaganza recent games try to emulate.

People never gave the console a chance. Uncharted doesn't belong on the big screen simply by the mere virtue of having the name uncharted. The game as it stands was suited for the vita and really would have felt more subpar on a console next to the other entries.

vicoakland said:
There are so many negative comments (against Sony, against the Vita) in these threads!

Personally, I look at a Vita or WiiU or an XBO and think, "Man, there are some great games to play there."

Sony is basically saying to their investors...the Vita didn't work out for us outside of Japan/Asia. That's not news.
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I love the Vita but this is worrying thinking about if it will have a successor. Sony is catching alot of flack for this because despite releasing games for it the really didn't put much effort into it themselves which left it into this situation. Sony released a ton of games on the Vita but the quality for most of them were ok to simply forgettable. The biggest titles that could have brought attention were treated so poorly the did more harm than help. Hiring Nihlistic for resistance and COD was a poor move. The poor port of borderlands 2 and other PS2 classics were terribly done. They ported PS3 games to the Vita and they didn't run well so people actually think the Vita has trouble with PS2 assets as well. Sony shares alot of the blame on this because when you pick up and play most of the first person titles in comparison to the titles made on other Sony console it is glaringly apparent they didn't try very much. Gamers felt it too. Even those of us that has supported it from the start.

timetokill said:
It's been a legacy platform in the west pretty much since launch. It's a stillborn platform. Sony didn't give a shit about it, so they have little reason for anyone else to.

There's no shame in being crushed under the Nintendo handheld boot. Every other competitor in handheld history has as well.

Nintendo will dominate this space until it's fully replaced by mobile.
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Let us be honest. Sony did much better than most of the competition that went against nintendo over it's long dominance of handheld arena.
 
Understandable, it's been on life support since release basically. Still love the device, fantastic piece of hardware, full 64 GB card and no regrets. The smaller arcade/indie titles that are still being released are a good fit for the platform, will always keep it around for a quick round of Spelunky or Lumines at the very least. Just hope it gets a proper swan song or two before the curtain actually closes.
 
It's been a legacy platform in the west pretty much since launch. It's a stillborn platform. Sony didn't give a shit about it, so they have little reason for anyone else to.

There's no shame in being crushed under the Nintendo handheld boot. Every other competitor in handheld history has as well.

Nintendo will dominate this space until it's fully replaced by mobile.
 
No issue in my eyes. Vita works great as a companion device to the PS4. Cross play, cross save and remote play. As a stand alone gaming device it sucks shit and always has.
 
Bought a vita a couple of months ago and love it. I hope it doesn't stop getting cross buy indie ports. If they keep them coming, I'm happy.

But I think the biggest crime here was not porting Xcom to vita.
 
Ponn01 said:
I think most current and active Vita owners home screens look about the same at this point.
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You obviously not only don't have a Vita, but know nothing about its library. I have a ton of games I play on mine and the only ones from that screen that I own are P4G and Muramasa, both amazing games with great acclaim, which happen to be available only on Vita currently.


Mikey Jr. said:
Good. I know it sucks for Vita people, but enough is enough. Glad Sony is not going to devote resources to the thing anymore, not that they did that much to begin with.
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Mandatory "pls Sony don't waste resources on a platform I don't own and hence, I don't care about" post.

Every. Single. Vita thread.


Zambayoshi said:
I think that the games that would be best on Vita have found their way to Vita, more or less. I'm thinking of games that can be played in bite-sized chunks, like many indies such as Kick & Fennick, Spelunky, Project Divas (OK, not an indie), Olli Ollis, Velocity 2X, Steamworld Dig, Luftrausers etc. I'm also thinking of games that you can pick up and put down in sleep mode, JRPGs and VNs such as Danganronpas, P4G, Ys, FFX/X-II etc.

To my mind, experiences such as Uncharted Golden Abyss, Gravity Rush, Borderlands 2 etc are much better suited to the big screen. Making them exclusive to the Vita is not economical, and I think that most publishers would share that view. In other words, market forces have acted to make the Vita home to the games that most suit it and which most people would buy on that platform over other platforms. Realistically, these are the only games we should expect on the Vita from now on.

In the early days of the Vita, I think Sony was trying to make it something that it could never be - a AAA portable console. It's not the Vita's fault specifically, people would still prefer Uncharted on a big screen even if it were available not just for Vita but for any mobile device. The Vita's key strengths are its controls, its screen and its suspend mode.

I don't blame Sony for treating it as a legacy platform at this point. The market for portable AAA simply isn't there. Since AA doesn't really exist anymore, I think that Sony is still doing great things for Vita by making it easy for indie devs to put their games on it.
Click to expand...

Great post. I fully agree with you. To develop AAA games that really do justice to the Vita, only for the Vita seems to be really costly. That's another reason why I think some of the platform's greatest successes comes from the various multiplats it gets.

Another issue was the back touchpad and Sony forcing most games to adopt at least some touch controls at the beginning of the Vita's lifespan.

And yes, the games you mention on your first paragraph are definitely best on Vita. It amazing how a great screen/portability/instant suspend and resume can help you invest hundreds of hours that you normally would not be able to on a console (speaking for me at least).
 
Two questions:

1. How far along is the Vita homebrew/fan-translation scene? A bunch of stuff is getting localized, yes, (Even stuff I never thought would 5 years ago, like Criminal Girls and Monster Monpiece) but not everything. A hard working group of fans working on making translations for stuff like God Eater 2 and Cyber Sleuth would put my troubles at ease.

2.Gravity Rush 2 seemed like it was announced ages ago. Was it ever officially canceled? Can we expect it to move to PS4 like Tearaway did?
 
Sounds like business as usual, I still have seven retail Vita games I plan on getting for the rest of the year.
Toad.T said:
Two questions:

1. How far along is the Vita homebrew/fan-translation scene? A bunch of stuff is getting localized, yes, (Even stuff I never thought would 5 years ago, like Criminal Girls and Monster Monpiece) but not everything. A hard working group of fans working on making translations for stuff like God Eater 2 and Cyber Sleuth would put my troubles at ease.
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There aren't any Vita mode hacks, so fan translations aren't possible right now. Both of those games have the possibility of being localized, though, especially GE2 since it was trademarked in Europe.
 
Toad.T said:
Two questions:

1. How far along is the Vita homebrew/fan-translation scene? A bunch of stuff is getting localized, yes, (Even stuff I never thought would 5 years ago, like Criminal Girls and Monster Monpiece) but not everything. A hard working group of fans working on making translations for stuff like God Eater 2 and Cyber Sleuth would put my troubles at ease.

2.Gravity Rush 2 seemed like it was announced ages ago. Was it ever officially canceled? Can we expect it to move to PS4 like Tearaway did?
Click to expand...

1. No idea really.

2. Yup, it is widely expected that GR2 will be a PS4 title now. Although I image the meltdowns if it turns out to be PS4/Vita.
 
Toad.T said:
Two questions:

1. How far along is the Vita homebrew/fan-translation scene? A bunch of stuff is getting localized, yes, (Even stuff I never thought would 5 years ago, like Criminal Girls and Monster Monpiece) but not everything. A hard working group of fans working on making translations for stuff like God Eater 2 and Cyber Sleuth would put my troubles at ease.
Click to expand...
Non-existent, because even if you can rip the cartridges or intercept the PSN downloads (possible), there aren't tools to patch the .pkg files (at least AFAIK) and there's no way to install .pkgs on most firmwares, never mind with or without the license files/signatures/checksums.
 
I expected this.

My question to those who are unbiased(meaning no console warriors and no vita diehards allowed) would be,

Was the failure of the Vita Sony's fault for not supporting the unit with good content?

Or was it just not something that was supported by the mass market and as such Sony's support for it turned to dust once they realized it was a dead end outside of Asia?
 
Tapejara said:
Even there was a successor, how many people would buy it after how quickly they dropped the Vita?
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I love my Vita so I probably would but they probably isn't a rational decision.

It's probably one of my biggest downers of the last while in gaming, how badly the Vita did in the West. It's such an amazing platform, had so much potential.
 
AmanoBuff said:
You obviously not only don't have a Vita, but know nothing about its library. I have a ton of games I play on mine and the only ones from that screen that I own are P4G and Muramasa, both amazing games with great acclaim, which happen to be available only on Vita currently.
Click to expand...

Good god people take a post so literally. Vita is a great handheld for indies and I know thats a draw for some people but my point was the JRPG fanbase that has built around it is the main draw at this point (next to indies) Just hangout out in the former Vita community thread/current PS network thread, or better yet look at the upcoming retail game lists on Amazon. Xseed, Nisa, IF and Atlus are just about the main publishers left for a reason. Floating anime girl head screens is a meme for a reason. I currently have a floating anime girl head screen. (Atelier Totori, Deception IV, Project Diva and Neptunia)

And I bought a Vita at launch, i'm one of the OG supporters of VIta and have been here from the beginning.
 
I think the question for a while has been will there be a successor to the Vita? Hasn't it been out for around the average lifespan of a handheld at this point?
 
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