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[PocoJoe]

Vita means life.

Kind of sad that it didn't get enough support from Sony, still brilliant system.

Build quality feels like premium item instead of toy(switch) and OS is nice and have more features than switch.

And the OLED screen looks like candy.

Epic piece of hardware, doesnt even feel like it is aged, still modern tech feel.

 

[16bitwarzvet]

wait till you hack and install custom firmware. The homebrew scene is alive and there's a lot of cool things you can do with the system. It's really a shame that Sony didn't give it the support it deserved.

 

[SleepDoctor]

Its an awesome piece of hardware. Sucks Sony did a shit job supporting it. I haven't turned mine on in a few years either.

 

[PhoenixTank]

 

[Xaero Gravity]

wait till you hack and install custom firmware. The homebrew scene is alive and there's a lot of cool things you can do with the system. It's really a shame that Sony didn't give it the support it deserved.

I've been thinking of doing that actually. Do you know where I can find an idiot proof guide to that?

 

[Breakage]

Never owned a Vita, but the revised slim model in black is a handsome device.

 

[j0hnnix]

I thought this was going to be a third "I dropped it thread".

 

[sublimit]

Epic piece of hardware, doesnt even feel like it is aged, still modern tech feel.

I agree. I don't have a Switch in order to compare them but yeah it still feels and looks great (at least the first model with the OLED screen)

 

[16bitwarzvet]

I've been thinking of doing that actually. Do you know where I can find an idiot proof guide to that?

Youtube and reddit are your friends.

 

[Husky]

I've been thinking of doing that actually. Do you know where I can find an idiot proof guide to that?

Vita Hacks Guide

A complete guide to PS Vita (TV) custom firmware, from stock to Ensō.

vita.hacks.guide

They've got guides for 3DS, Wii U, and Switch as well.
You might run into problems if your firmware's been updated too far.

 

[Grinchy]

It felt pretty damn futuristic back in 2012. It's so painful that Sony didn't put 4 shoulder buttons on the thing.

 

[TGO]

Because it is...

 

[MagnesG]

Life becomes short when you're being forced to use proprietary memory cards on that system to cut Sony's corners.

 

[Fret Runner]

Put that little fucker on the metaphorical surgery table and create yourself the best retro handheld.
Turn the game card slot into a usb extended storage slot and whack every rom (that you own by legal means, of course) on to that bad boy.

I followed guides on youtube and if I can do it, then any fucker can.
Vita might not mean Life anymore, but it sure means Frankenstein.

 

[InterMusketeer]

I did the same a few months back. Then I sold it because it feels clunky and slow to me. but hey, that's just my opinion.

 

[The Shepard]

Great system but the face buttons suck, psp's were better. I do wish sony would make a new one.

 

[ExpandKong]

The hardware is very nice, for all the good that did anybody after 2015 when Sony stopped giving a shit about the thing. I don't think I can even hack mine at this point, but man those PS1 Classics sure do look good on an OLED screen I guess.

Spoiler

Still mad at you Sony.

 

[GHG]

Its an awesome piece of hardware. Sucks Sony did a shit job supporting it. I haven't turned mine on in a few years either.

I don't think I've turned mine on in 3 years but I somehow can't bring myself to sell it.

It's one of the last versions before they switched the screen away from OLED. As silly as it sounds. I feel like I own a piece of gaming history because the hardware is so well put together.

 

[MoreJRPG]

Way ahead of its time. Given the success Sony had with the PSP, they really bungled the Vita on a scale of epic proportions.

 

[Xaero Gravity]

Vita Hacks Guide

A complete guide to PS Vita (TV) custom firmware, from stock to Ensō.

vita.hacks.guide

They've got guides for 3DS, Wii U, and Switch as well.
You might run into problems if your firmware's been updated too far.

Thanks

 

[Jigsaah]

Put that little fucker on the metaphorical surgery table and create yourself the best retro handheld.
Turn the game card slot into a usb extended storage slot and whack every rom (that you own by legal means, of course) on to that bad boy.

I followed guides on youtube and if I can do it, then any fucker can.
Vita might not mean Life anymore, but it sure means Frankenstein.

LOL why'd this guy remind me of Mark Cerny.

 

[SleepDoctor]

I don't think I've turned mine on in 3 years but I somehow can't bring myself to sell it.

It's one of the last versions before they switched the screen away from OLED. As silly as it sounds. I feel like I own a piece of gaming history because the hardware is so well put together.

Im exactly the same. I can't sell it, although i don't care to turn it on anymore. I have one of, if not the original oled models.

I was using it for remote play mostly towards the end of me playing it.

 

[yet_another_alt]

Great system but the face buttons suck, psp's were better. I do wish sony would make a new one.

On the other hand the Vita probably has the best d-pad ever made.

 

[MiyazakiHatesKojima]

 

[-MD-]

I've still never even seen one of these in real life.

 

[DESTROYA]

I still use mine fairly regularly along with my Switch and yes I will agree the Vita build quality is very good and arguably better then the Switch but I think that has more to do with the VITA being a one piece unit making it feel more solid overall , that by no means the Switch is built worse but the fact that the Joy cons can be removed makes it more delicate.

 

[bobone]

You're not wrong.

The Switch is extremely uncomfortable to play.
The removable controller things feel flimsy.
The whole console, controllers, and dock feels cheap.
The OS is laughable at best.

Vita is one of the saddest console cycles in history. So much potential.
The remote play alone was mind blowing to me. I was playing my PS4 remotely from a different state when I visited family and friends and it worked perfectly. I played through entire games like that.

 

[jts]

I used mine for maybe 5 hours total. Ugly bubbly childish UI, lack of secondary shoulder buttons and clickable sticks made it fall short of the promises of console quality gaming on the go, or of an enjoyable remote play machine, awkward back touchpanel.

Then Sony's stupid decision of not supporting connecting it to a dualshock.

€100 that went out purely for collection purposes I guess.

 

[Cert.in.Death]

Haven't used mine in years, doubtful I'll ever go back. But it was the greatest indie device ever and I remember it fondly.

 

[Northeastmonk]

I am taken back when I remind myself that I can play so many PlayStation One Classics on my Vita. Not to mention all those wonderful PSP ports. One thing I wish for is PSP/Vita support on PS5. It may seem impossible.

The Nintendo Switch and the Vita are like apples and oranges. You have the PS Classic lineup versus Nintendo's very selective eShop. My 3DS has a fantastic collection from the Virtual Console and so does my Wii U. They don't exactly cross gens very well. My Wii U eShop library has a much better selection of retro games than my Switch does. The Vita has much more streamlined compatibility list of classic games. I need to upgrade to the New 3DS just to play SNES games, otherwise I have to play them on my Wii U. I can have different folders for PS1, PSP, Vita, and mini titles on my Vita.

 

[a multicultural team of v]

I've been playing a friends 3DS for the past few weeks and it's crazy how much nicer the Vita is in basically every way hardware wise, yet they came out the same year.

It pisses me off too that a lot of the things that people gave Vita games endless shit about (non-native resolution games, stripped down versions of console games) are completely ignored and handwaved for the Switch.

They fucked up so bad with the memory cards though.


Case in point below
Vvvvv

 

[HaveButOneLife]

Wat

At least the Switch has AAA games.

 

[alienator]

Screw the vita... PStv is where its at! , i got mine hooked up with a hdmi2vga cable to an OSSC (open source scanline converter) and playing all them glorious vita games on a big screen with scanlines from the OSSC , playing my whole psp collection on it aswell in fullscreen. on a tv. with a DS4 controller. Yeah its not portable but its damn fun playing on a big screen

 

[Spukc]

try the switch lite.
much better at being an actual handheld just like the ps vita

the OG switch is crap as an handheld.

 

[JordanN]

Way ahead of its time. Given the success Sony had with the PSP, they really bungled the Vita on a scale of epic proportions.

While there where mistakes, I don't think it was possible for Vita to live up to PSP's success.

PSP came out at a time when there was no smartphones, and people were just now embracing iPods over those giant CD players. Basically, PSP successfully merged home console level gaming with that of a portable multimedia machine most people hadn't heard of yet.

When Vita arrived back in 2011, that gimmick was dead. We now had everyday devices that could connect to the internet, play games and watch videos. Vita also had the double whammy of promising PS3 graphics on the go, but that also meant the budgets exploded with it. Any developer could take a risk on PSP and still make some money back because the games were cheaper to make, and could be ported to the PS2. With Vita, the installbase was far too small to justify these serious AAA projects and once PS4/XBO came out, there was no way these games could be ported without looking technically worse in comparison.

Vita was doomed from the start. Sony had to choose between making their home console succeed or their portable one, and the choice is now obvious. When you look at Nintendo, they were going in the inverse direction. Wii U was an absolute failure whereas 3DS still kept them a float. So with Switch, they just doubled down and became a handheld developer that can be plugged into a TV.

As a hardcore gamer, PS Vita was a dream come true. But I could also understand why it seriously lacked casual appeal. Why drop $250 on this thing when the phone in your pocket now offers similar functionality? There where specifically games like LittleBigPlanet and Tearaway that were made for Vita to try and address this issue but it's clear it didn't move the needle in terms of success.

 

[Jooxed]

try the switch lite.
much better at being an actual handheld just like the ps vita

the OG switch is crap as an handheld.

Agreed I own both the lite and the OG and I much prefer playing my lite as a handheld. My OG just stays docked all the time.

 

[K1Expwy]

Vita Hacks Guide

A complete guide to PS Vita (TV) custom firmware, from stock to Ensō.

vita.hacks.guide

They've got guides for 3DS, Wii U, and Switch as well.
You might run into problems if your firmware's been updated too far.

Am I good to go if I haven't used or updated it since 2013?

 

[ExpandKong]

I've been playing a friends 3DS for the past few weeks and it's crazy how much nicer the Vita is in basically every way hardware wise, yet they came out the same year.

It pisses me off too that a lot of the things that people gave Vita games endless shit about (non-native resolution games, stripped down versions of console games) are completely ignored and handwaved for the Switch.

They fucked up so bad with the memory cards though.

I dunno, I feel like the kind of people who nitpick that kind of stuff

Am I good to go if I haven't used or updated it since 2013?

Check the linked site, it's got guides for whatever firmware version you happen to be on. Should be a piece of cake.

 

[Husky]

Am I good to go if I haven't used or updated it since 2013?

Absolutely. Might be that the instructions will tell you to download a specific update (if the cfw's made for something a bit newer) to your PC and transfer it to your Vita, but your Vita's all good, as far as I can tell.

 

[Gargus]

The knee jerk reaction is to always say sony didnt support it. Well that's untrue. They supported it well beyond the point of it not being viable anymore, kept cars in production so ever years after they threw in the towel games could still be made for it.

The real problem is the handheld market is not the same as the console market and sony couldn't compete with nintendo on their level in the handheld market so they went the more mature handheld version treating it like a console and it just didnt work out.

Handheld is a small market and Nintendo always finds a way to be exactly what the market needs and wants. They occupy so much of the limited market no one can get into it. Really nintendo is the handheld market. If nintendo suddenly dropped the portable market I think it would dry up and never resurface again.

 

[diffusionx]

While there where mistakes, I don't think it was possible for Vita to live up to PSP's success.

PSP came out at a time when there was no smartphones, and people were just now embracing iPods over those giant CD players. Basically, PSP successfully merged home console level gaming with that of a portable multimedia machine most people hadn't heard of yet.

When Vita arrived back in 2011, that gimmick was dead. We now had everyday devices that could connect to the internet, play games and watch videos. Vita also had the double whammy of promising PS3 graphics on the go, but that also meant the budgets exploded with it. Any developer could take a risk on PSP and still make some money back because the games were cheaper to make, and could be ported to the PS2. With Vita, the installbase was far too small to justify these serious AAA projects and once PS4/XBO came out, there was no way these games could be ported without looking technically worse in comparison.

Vita was doomed from the start. Sony had to choose between making their home console succeed or their portable one, and the choice is now obvious. When you look at Nintendo, they were going in the inverse direction. Wii U was an absolute failure whereas 3DS still kept them a float. So with Switch, they just doubled down and became a handheld developer that can be plugged into a TV.

As a hardcore gamer, PS Vita was a dream come true. But I could also understand why it seriously lacked casual appeal. Why drop $250 on this thing when the phone in your pocket now offers similar functionality? There where specifically games like LittleBigPlanet and Tearaway that were made for Vita to try and address this issue but it's clear it didn't move the needle in terms of success.

Part of the problem was that the system wasn't PS3 quality on the go, or even close to it. In terms of hardware was basically a souped up iPhone 4S. It couldn't run graphically intensive games at native resolution from the start, so stuff had to be scaled back. I'd rather have played most of those games on PS3, whereas PSP had all this great software that really felt like it belonged on the system.

Sony also over-designed it. It didn't need that stupid back touch pad or all the cameras or a 3G system with GPSand that weird shitty built in software like Near. All that stuff added to the cost and made it impractical.

 

[JordanN]

The knee jerk reaction is to always say sony didnt support it. Well that's untrue. They supported it well beyond the point of it not being viable anymore, kept cars in production so ever years after they threw in the towel games could still be made for it.

The real problem is the handheld market is not the same as the console market and sony couldn't compete with nintendo on their level in the handheld market so they went the more mature handheld version treating it like a console and it just didnt work out.

Handheld is a small market and Nintendo always finds a way to be exactly what the market needs and wants. They occupy so much of the limited market no one can get into it. Really nintendo is the handheld market. If nintendo suddenly dropped the portable market I think it would dry up and never resurface again.

3DS actually suffered a massive drop from the DS.

While Vita obviously did worse, people also forget the DS had the same sales as the PS2. 3DS actually sold on par with the original PSP or Gameboy Advance.

I mentioned in the home console space, Nintendo was taking a massive blow. Wii U was their first HD system and it only sold like 10 million. The choice was clear at this point, and Nintendo decided to go all in on handhelds and Sony went all in on Home consoles.

 

[Animagic]

It was ahead of its time. Shame... they could have created a dock for it and beat the switch concept to market. It's a feature I really wanted from it as well.

 

[manfestival]

That's because the vita is objectively better than the switch

 

[FStubbs]

I'd say the Vita died for the following reasons, in no particular order:

• Price. Sure, it was $250, the same as the 3DS. (And for the record, the 3DS stumbled out of the gate at that price as well. Nintendo having to prop up the 3DS would be a bullet point for the Wiii U's failure). But it wasn't really $250 because you had to factor in the expensive proprietary memory cards. So it was too expensive for a handheld.
• First party games. Nintendo's top teams worked on handheld games as well as their console games. (In fact, Nintendo's 2nd biggest franchise is handheld focused with console entries as the spinoffs). Sony has more/bigger first party teams than Nintendo, but the top ones refused to support the device, and the games that ended up releasing either were low tier garbage games, or ended up ported up to the consoles (PS3/4) anyway.
• Speaking of games, go back to the PSP. It started out ahead of the DS due to its superior specs, then fell way behind when the DS took off. That is, until Monster Hunter exploded on PSP and rocketed the console up. Nintendo (uncharacteristically) money-hatted Monster Hunter, so it went over to 3DS instead of to Vita, so Sony lost the key killer app for their handheld ecosystem.
• Lack of interest from Sony - any of these could've been overcome if Sony had decided to put muscle behind keeping the platform alive. But it was clear very early on that Sony lost interest in the Vita. Indies and companies like Idea Factory kept the device on life support, but without Sony showing any interest in their own platform, it was doomed.

One thing you CAN give the Vita, though, is that the roots of the PS4's success can be found in Vita. Vita did the following:

• It was not designed to push multimedia. Unlike every other Sony platform before it (especially the PSP which did take a hit from mobile), the Vita was not designed to push media, and was not pushing a new media format. Its main overriding purpose was gaming. This was something that carried over to the PS4, which also focused primarily on games and did not push a new media format.
• It used more commoditzed hardware. This was the first time Sony didn't create something crazy like Emotion Engine or Cell. Vita had pretty standard components which made it easy to develop against. This carried over to the PS4 which is basically a dumbed down x86 PC, but a known quantity that developers can hit the ground running with.

 

[Self High Five]

Ewww...doesn't the Vita have a bunch of ports I can already buy on PC/consoles?

What is the value of playing that on a handheld.....oh wait, it's not 2013.....the goalposts moved....console quality ports on the go is all the rage now due to the big N's "seal of approval™"

 

[Stuart360]

How many units did Vita sell?, i'm sure ii read like 16mil somewhere, or was that PSP?. You would think 16mil would be enough to continue supporting it so maybe i'm wrong.
Not really into handhelds, but if i was, Vita would of been the one i bought.

 

[Mochilador]

Vita is my least used console. I really have no idea what to play on it.
But it does feel good, like a premium hardware. I dislike the back touch screen though.

 

[Endless Fluff]

I love my VITA as well... too bad they cheaped out on the OLED. Every OLED Vita I've bought (used and sold) had a disgusting mura effect. It's so bad in dark environments that I refused to use my OLED Vita and got one of the newer models with an LCD instead.

 

[Codes 208]

How many units did Vita sell?, i'm sure ii read like 16mil somewhere, or was that PSP?. You would think 16mil would be enough to continue supporting it so maybe i'm wrong.
Not really into handhelds, but if i was, Vita would of been the one i bought.

Psp went on to sell just over 80mil.

vita theres no exact measurement but from i read it was around 13-15mil

and no, for a console, especially a handheld, getting up to 16 million sales in its lifetime (or shipped most likely) is not all that impressive. Especially when you consider how its predecessor sold over 5x as many.

which is unfortunate because i lioed the vita initially (minus memory prices) but sony decided it wasnt worth the effort.