Sony Drops All First-Party Support For Vita

[Hairless Mammoth]

We've known they've barely acknowledging the Vita even exists for over a year. It's just good Sony finally admits third parties are what is keeping the thing alive and Sony has no desire to try anything Vita related other than make the hardware.

My fear is that someone at Sony might get them to make another handheld, and they could make the same mistakes over again. Overpriced, proprietary accessories and extraneous features are what put the Vita where it is now. Sony didn't fix the key issues soon enough (and never fixed the memory cards), and instead, when the system didn't perform as they had hoped, backed away from first party support when it was needed most.

 

[Blitsie]

No surprise there, the final nail was hit in its coffin when they cropped it up with the PS3 as a "legacy" console and announced dropping support for legacy consoles straight after (their half-assed correction when people confronted them about it notwithstanding).

Its a pity really, the Vita had amazing potential but ultimately Sony just couldn't stop pointing fingers at everyone but themselves when it hit a few snags and didn't reach the highs they expected, so instead of learning from their mistakes and improving\changing where they can to make it a successful system instead, they threw the towel in and called it a day.

Meh, at least the 3DS is doing alright, sold my Vita for one and haven't looked back since.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

No surprise there, the final nail was hit in its coffin when they cropped it up with the PS3 as a "legacy" console and announced dropping support for legacy consoles straight after (their half-assed correction when people confronted them about it notwithstanding).

Its a pity really, the Vita had amazing potential but ultimately Sony just couldn't stop pointing fingers at everyone but themselves when it hit a few snags and didn't reach the highs they expected, so instead of learning from their mistakes and improving\changing where they can to make it a successful system instead, they threw the towel in and called it a day.

Meh, at least the 3DS is doing alright, sold my Vita for one and haven't looked back since.

Thing is that the vita not doing well in the west is due to the system being too powerful for a handheld and due to smart phones and tablets existing. Sony can't really do anything about either of those things. Even if they did something it'd entail them making some other non-vita portable which is as weak as the 3DS and thus cheap enough to make games for it be sustainable with a smaller number of sales, which wouldn't actually solve the issues the vita has.

As much as I love my Vita...and I did love my PSP too...though probably a considerable margin less. I probably wouldn't say I'm surprised that Sony seemed to try to do everything possible to kill it in the West (and I guess in general at this point) just like they did to the PSP.

Shouldn't be too bad, though, weeb/anime/JRPG developers will probably keep it going for a little while in the same manner anyways. Which is what I'd personally be most concerned about. Considering that, this announcement really doesn't seem so bad. I can't think of a single first-party Sony title I actually have or have considered getting on my Vita save perhaps Gravity Rush.

Oreshika: Tainted Bloodlines is also published by sony I believe. It's a great game.


But yeah, Sony released it digital only so it really hasn't made much impact. It's art style is like Okami so I'd expect more people to know of it.

 

[Lightspeaker]

... The Vita had firsty party support?

Basically this.

Sony did pretty much bugger all with the Vita. Couple that with the absolutely insane decision to keep pushing the goddamn proprietary memory at absolutely obscene prices and its pretty much no surprise at all that Sony has decided to give up. Honestly they never put much effort in in the first place.

I play with my 3DS about as much as I play with my Vita. And frankly I can't really see this decision impacting much of anything at all. I think the only games I have that are first party for the console are the two that came with it as downloads (Tearaway and Little Big Planet).

 

[OldNewNewOld]

And another handheld that tried to be a home console failed horribly. Why is anyone surprised? Why do people think that throwing 3rd party console game ports onto a handheld will fix anything?
Also didn't Sony already announce this like over a year ago? I'm pretty sure I've already read that Sony dropped any future first party support for the Vita even before this years E3.

 

[balladbird]

Sony's first party games haven't exactly been what anyone who owns a vita has been playing or talking about in the past 2-3 years, so the symbolic gesture is more important than the actual impact. Kind of sad to see them throw in the towel, but eh, the console was always under-utilized. I'll stick with it until the niche JRPGs that don't make it over the pond any other way dry up.

 

[Hero of Lime]

Well, that's what happens when you make all the big Vita games simultaneously available on the PS3 and now PS4. I remember when Sony would announce some brand new title for Vita, they would also remind everyone you can get the same game on the home console. Now that's great for the consumer, but it helped kill the Vita's viability as an attractive console.

 

[Fairly Chaotic]

I sold my vita and bought a PSP Go, so my opinion can probably be gleaned from that.

 

[Zeras]

Well, that's what happens when you make all the big Vita games simultaneously available on the PS3 and now PS4. I remember when Sony would announce some brand new title for Vita, they would also remind everyone you can get the same game on the home console. Now that's great for the consumer, but it helped kill the Vita's viability as an attractive console.

But not all of the games released on the Vita (or even the PSP) were able to be played on the PS3; the sequel of Valkyria Chronicles looks like it'd be something I'd want to play, but it's only on the PSN so that you can then download it to your Vita/PSP.

 

[Sheo_Dagana]

Poor Vita. Any time I see any news for it at all it's never GOOD news. It's a pretty solid handheld but Sony never really seemed to care for it much at all. I personally sold mine a few years back because there just wasn't anything worth having on it, although it would be cool to have now to stream games from my PS4, but that's about it.

So basically it looks like Sony is just now saying something verbally that they have been saying with their actions for years.

 

[The Bucket]

So this means what, two less games a year? (not counting ports)

 

[Lvl 64 Klutz]

This is such a tragic story of terrible marketing practices. When the 3DS launched, Nintendo was FLAILING to get folks to support a system they just couldn't get behind, a perfect opportunity for Sony to swoop in and steal the handheld market with what is absolutely the superior device. But Sony didn't do that, they just let it out to the wild and hoped it would somehow just magically sell itself.

I HATE the 3DS, I've yet to see a game on it that actually impresses me graphically, the main thing that separated it from the original DS has long since been mostly abandoned, and the online store/digital content is shoddy at best.

 

[Solo-Wing]

Well, that's what you get for forgetting how much of an uphill battle the PSP was before it reached popularity, and then you tried to replace it with an undertalented new system that wasn't even backwards compatible. (The workaround does not count, as it didn't support all games.) Not everyone wants to buy the games again. Not everyone wants a new system, especially when it didn't have much on it. Not everyone will go through the same thing again when they already did for the PSP.

Also Proprietary memory cards more then Double the cost of an SD card of the same size and a Awkward Backpanel that did nothing but boost the price of the device. Also the relentless need to boast and push AAA quality games on the handheld. Not enough people bought the system so making games for it would never pay out enough to cover the costs of AAA development.

There were good ideas in the system but those were not them.

 

[immortalfrieza]

It turns out when you don't bother to put much in the way of worthwhile games on a platform it tends to fail. The only games I know of worth buying on the system were remakes that weren't significantly altered enough from the originals to justify buying if you already bought them. Probably the worst example I can think of a game that COULD have been a great system seller that they put no effort into is Tales of Hearts R, which finally got a western release... that they lazily half assed the localization on it then put the game on the Vita even though it was the worst selling of the two handheld systems by a massive margin and was originally a DS game anyway. They either expected Hearts R to be a system seller but couldn't be bothered to put much work into it or just put out a half assed port so people would stop bugging them for a localization and thus didn't care if it sold well.

 

[Zulnam]

Poor Sony. Guess they don't have the resources available anymore, what with all the games and PS4s they're making... and the music... and movies... TVs, audio systems, phones, tablets, digital cameras, high-tech medical equipment, toasters, refrigerators...

Guess the guy working on PS Vita improvements had to go do Lara Croft's breast physics.

 

[The White Hunter]

Well, Sony. You tried, I guess.

But in the end, nobody has ever beaten Nintendo in the handheld market...
Ever...
From the moment they released the Game Boy in 1989, nobody has ever really managed it.
Sony got closest of anyone, but I guess now they'll join Atari, Sega, the wonderswan, neo geo pocket and a bunch of other things that just... Died out.

Then again, Nintendo may well lose out now to mobile phones...
So it's not like their position is invulnerable.
But... If it gets to the point that even Nintendo can't manage a dedicated handheld device anymore...
Then I doubt anyone else can either...

The end of an era is in sight it would seem.
The death of the handheld gaming device.

The key thing Nintendo has over mobile titles is that the first party support on nintendo handhelds offers a much richer experience than most mobile titles do. With more RPG's, more traditional styled platformers and sidescrollers, generally more interesting and polished experiences. I do use my mobile for games now but it's mostly low-investment time killing, which is fine, but my 3DS has more games I put many hours into.

Edit: Oh and yeah the Vita.... I havenm't played a Vita game on it in 3 years \o/ just PS1 and PSP stuff.

 

[gorfias]

I haven't finished Uncharted on the Vita. It is an amazing, polished experience. I wish there were more coming.

Phones are the wave of the future in hand held. The Vita as a fun last hurrah but I doubt we'll see more hand held proprietary systems in the future.

 

[EbonBehelit]

I HATE the 3DS, I've yet to see a game on it that actually impresses me graphically, the main thing that separated it from the original DS has long since been mostly abandoned, and the online store/digital content is shoddy at best.

Granted, the 3D is super janky, but isn't expecting awesome graphics from a handheld gaming device kinda missing the point? I mean, it's kinda hard to get immersed when the screen is like 5 inches wide.

 

[Lightknight]

Eh, as long as they continue with their stupidly expensive memory cards they simply aren't going to be useful for the market that would actually purchase them.

I love the Vita. Tons of functionality and beautiful screen. Very easy for travel and much more gaming friendly than a cell phone or tablet.

But I can't store shit on that memory stick and their proprietary costs are more than $1/GB in a world where I can get multiple Terabytes for under $100 (<$.05/GB on a 2 TB drive) elsewhere. On my PSP, I bought a bunch of games off the PSN and still take it out and play those games. I could even store movies and whatever I want. This makes me WANT to buy from the PSN. But the vita? Way too expensive to have a high-density memory stick and so I don't buy games for it or otherwise.