Yes they were but Killzone was never going to move any units, neither Tearaway. Tearaway Unfolded charted 33 on it's first week in UK and I don't think the situation is different anywhere else. While both games were great, their target audience is way too small, so problem wasn't really the device.
Those games I listed wouldn't save the Vita, but they could make meaningful impact with more consistent first party support. When you have a new handheld on the market that is struggling, you should give the message to potential buyers that you are still supporting the system, what exactly did they do in E3 2012 and 2013? I guess they were too busy with Wonderbook, lol.
I mean the 3rd party games you listed are big titles, I agree but they did more harm than good on the long run. Worst CoD in the series, a mediocre AC with performance issues, a 2 year old port of a game running on 15-20 fps most of the time. Do you think they left a good impression on people who were on the fence? What they should have done was to secure Monster Hunter, SE didn't even touch the system until recently (I'm quite surprised and happy about the recent announcements), Capcom completely ignored it as well, nothing from Level-5 etc. What I'm saying is, while Vita had 3rd party support, the games it had was mostly for a specific niche.
Yes, dedicated handhelds are a dying breed, but I think there is still a market for it, even though it is much smaller than before. In the end I won't be thankful to Sony just because they are doing the things they should normally do. I understand your point of view, but I just don't see it that way.
Sony aside, I'm satisfied with the quality of the product and 3rd party games, I would be a lot happier If we received a few more localizations though.
I don't disagree with any of your points -- I don't doubt that AC and CoD weren't the best entries. Likewise, Borderlands had performance issues.
But stuff like that happens -- and it's not necessarily Sony's fault. Even when a Vita game performs amazingly, like KZ: Mercs, it got shredded for other 'portable' related issues (shorter missions, etc). Reviewers gave it a hard time for being short, but personally? I had a blast replaying each level in various ways as it was meant to be played, and the MP was great.
As for Monster Hunter? We don't know enough about that. Maybe it wasn't Sony's decision. Or maybe there was an amount of money required that Sony wasn't able to meet. Maybe one dumb exec made one big dumb decision. Maybe one exec made the only decision s/he could given other factors out of their control.
You're also doing a bit of backseat driving [I don't mean this aimed at just you - i mean this at all of us, really] -- you know, now, that CoD wasn't great, or that AC wasn't what you wanted it to be. But when Sony was getting those games produced, they didn't have precog and know in advance the games wouldn't meet expectations. They were doing their best to secure solid franchises, but people instead blame them for inferior games.
Likewise, you're dismissing great games like KZ and Tearaway. If they never greenlighted Tearaway, we could sit here and be like 'oh, and Sony should have brought more of it's patented -unique- games to Vita, you know, take chances on light hearted games like they did on PS3 -- games like LBP or Puppeteer" But they -did- do this, with Tearaway, so instead of being upset they didn't do it, we find reasons for Tearaway's failure (oh, it released at a bad time, or Sony didn't market it right, or whatever).
But all of that backseat driving is easy in retrospect. We can aim our complaints with laser precision, because we see all the final results. But at the time, imo, Sony was throwing a -lot- at the Vita. Securing major franchises, getting us great entries in Sony franchises like KZ, bringing us unique experiences... and the only thing that -stuck- (aka, sold well) was indies and localizations. I just can't blame Sony for recognizing that. I can understand why people wish it wasn't so.... but from a business perspective, I can't get mad at them.
Ultimately, we can all point to many reasons the Vita didn't sell to expectation. Where some of us disagree is where to place the blame.
Ignorance is such a bliss.
You're still here, and your posts continue to be borderline worthless, borderline trolling. Congrats on not getting banned yet, I guess.