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[James Scott]

Surprised how open they've been with this. Basically dropping Vita first party support and now this. Not something you see from console manufacturers while the generation is still going

 

[TI82]

Dedicated handhelds are a dying market. The 3DS is considered the success story of this gen with 50 million, and that's Nintendo's worst selling handheld (outside of the questionably portable virtual boy). Worse than the GBA which was out and discontinued by now launch aligned.

 

[……forgetit]

Surprised how open they've been with this. Basically dropping Vita first party support and now this. Not something you see from console manufacturers while the generation is still going

To them it isn't still going for the Vita, they're treating it the same as the PS3, they still sell them, but it's a zombie in their eyes.

 

[matmanx1]

Not shocking news but still disappointing. I love my Vita for many reasons (right now it's a fantastic way to Remote Play Destiny!) and I stand by my opinion that it is the best handheld that I have ever owned.

 

[JordanN]

I mean, this shouldn't surprise anybody. The Vita's sales have been extremely poor throughout it's entire lifespan. It's not all due to mobile games, it's also due to Sony not putting in the enormous first-party effort to prop up demand for software. Nintendo's still heavily invested in 3DS software, and that's the only reason the 3DS isn't as dead as the Vita.

I'm reluctant from shaving off all blame on Vita for Sony but this part is not true.

They came out with games. They just didn't sell. These games are also expensive to make so it was never viable to dedicate an endless stream of making games that barely turn a profit. There was bound to be a point where investment had to stop.

3DS is lucky its games are still PS2-like in terms of dev cost, making the risk ceiling far lower. Had they cost the same as PS3 games did and were failing, I doubt Nintendo would have invested the same amount of games in it.

 

[sörine]

Smartphones have become somewhat commoditized in recent years and there really isn't much room for a single SKU with a unique feature set to do well in the market. It's either a top of the line phone that competes with S6 and iPhone with no compromises, or a bottom end phone that competes on price. If Sony were to create a Vita phone they wouldn't be able to compete in any of those categories because compromises would be made, not to mention that Sony is losing mind share and market share in the smartphone business.

The best strategy would be to push all their PlayStation Online services to mobile including PlayStation Mobile, Now and Vue. Open up their services to all devices I say.

Well, yes sure that's the inevitable future. Not just for mobile but also their home consoles, PlayStation will transition from platform to service over the next decade probably. So will Xbox and maybe Nintendo too.

I just think there could be a good short term opportunity here for a PSPhone that plays downloads natively, but it may be too difficult to really realize successfully given everything.

 

[Durante]

I love the VIta, but that market (high-end dedicated gaming handhelds) is obviously dead.

I'm sure I'll enjoy some more JRPGs on it in the future, but that will be it for the system -- and Sony's presence in dedicated gaming portables.

 

[gundamkyoukai]

Capcom moved their PSP team(s) to 3DS. That's really what everyone should've done in 2011/2012, they'd all be better off for it now as it would've been a more lateral move and they'd have built up fanbases on a hardware line with a future.

Of course we're probably facing a similar potential crossroads issue now with NX if it craters. Still publishers would've bought themselves another gen at least.

I don't see how they would have bought there self another gen .
We don't know how successful NX going to be and pubs should just move to mobile instead if the want to expand .
Japan is a dead end market and companies going to have to expand into Asia \WW and NX not going to help with that but mobile will.

 

[MUnited83]

No one said its easy. But with a constant stream of good exclusives, you can still manage to build up a decent userbase.

They went all out in the launch year with a crapload of exclusives. Didn't work so well

 

[RibMan]

Shu's right: The handheld market has really changed. In this case however, Sony should have had the foresight to see that the Vita wasn't going to do the trick.

Basically, they brought a knife to a gunfight. As much as I like videogames, the Vita (and 3DS) are archaic in functionality. They are terrible devices for anything other than gaming -- "one trick Pony" devices. Now there was a time where a handheld could succeed by just doing one thing really well, but the keyword is was.

I'm glad that Sony seems to have realized that the dedicated handheld gaming market isn't worth it anymore. A Vita 2 would have died quicker than the Vita 1, and given the resurgence in success for the PlayStation brand, it would have been a bad mark on the PlayStation folks. The PS4, if managed correctly over the next 2-3 years, will lead to massive gains for Sony. A Vita 2 would have the potential to completely disrupt PlayStation's momentum.

I apologize for the following being slightly off-topic, but I really hope the Nintendo execs are paying attention to the handheld market climate. The old "Never count Nintendo out" mantra won't help a portable NX in the impending 'last stand' against iPhones. They have the money and brainpower to create a handheld that outclasses these smartphones in every single way. I just hope they're thinking beyond gaming with the portable NX.

 

[TMaakkonen]

For Vita successfor the only thing at this point that could even remotely work would be some sort of Premium portable. Just accept that it will sell only to certain audience. Design it so that it is easy to port games for it. Marketing/selling price would be adjusted so that it would very profitable. Share library with PSV/PSP/PS1.

Ive heard a lot of people suggesting updatable consoles like how PC works, but if done with proper planning it might just fit Vita better. Heck, just a Vita 3.0, might work, if its designed right.

Still, would a small audience but proftable premium system be doable?

 

[Mass_Pincup]

Tools get cheaper but expectations for better graphics are always getting higher.

So games actually cost more than they did in 2006.

If the point is then to sell budget games, that makes less reasons to release a successor. If current Vita games don't max the hardware, what's the point of making a more powerful one?

Yes, for an hypothetical VITA II games will cost more to make, but compared to a VITA. It won't cost as much as current PS4 games.

Thanks to the PS3 being a pain in the ass to work with, esp when there are older hardware (OG PS3) induced issues included it actually takes more effort to do a game on that system than a PS4.

Why do you think last gen there were so many problem with multiplat titles...

Problems like that do not change and those types of problems effect the schedule and budget.

I don't really see how that has anything to do with what I'm seeing. Yes the PS3 was harder to develop for but the cost of making a game on it still decreased over time like with any other platform.

 

[ZhugeEX]

Well, yes sure that's the inevitable future. Not just for mobile but also their home consoles, PlayStation will transition from platform to service over the next decade probably. So will Xbox and maybe Nintendo too.

I just think there could be a good short term opportunity here for a PSPhone that plays downloads natively, but it may be too difficult to really realize successfully given everything.

I don't see home consoles transitioning exclusively to mobile any time soon. There is still a large enough base for traditional home console gaming to survive. Especially this generation when adoption of gen 8 has been somewhat fast and publishers are ever increasing ARPU to make up for rising dev costs.

At this point I certainly see a next generation of consoles coming out. But at that point we'll need to see how much demand there is for these consoles but also if the supply for consoles is there or if games have already transitioned to more convenient platforms. I am optimistic that console support will still be there next gen for AAA games and also a rising mid tier/indies.

 

[ArtHands]

I'm reluctant from shaving off all blame on Vita for Sony but this part is not true.

They came out with games. They just didn't sell. These games are also expensive to make so it was never viable to dedicate an endless stream of making games that barely turn a profit. There was bound to be a point where investment had to stop.

3DS is lucky it' games are still PS2-like in terms of dev cost. Had they been PS3 level and were failing, I doubt Nintendo would have invested the same in it.

Can we really say it is lucky, or that it is part of the plan though? We have seem various handhelds attempting console-quality games that died, such as Sega Game Gear. The Vita is an even better example of what happen when you attempt console-quality game on handheld. I'll say Nintendo learnt that lesson from Game Gear and try to keep dev cost low for handheld. At least, lower than console .

 

[sörine]

I don't see how they would have bought there self another gen .
We don't know how successful NX going to be and pubs should just move to mobile instead if the want to expand .
Japan is a dead end market and companies going to have to expand into Asia WW and NX not going to help with that but mobile will.

We know NX exists and Vita 2 doesn't. That's another gen.

Also 3DS will end up being the 3rd best selling dedicated game platform in Japanese history, behind only DS and Game Boy but ahead of every PlayStation and Famicom. It's still a sizable market and second only to the US in terms if national console+handheld markets.

 

[DarkLordMalik]

I wasn't really expecting there to be another Vita successor.

I am also curious to see Nintendo's take after the current situation of handheld market, which is slowly dying.

 

[Parakeetman]

For Vita successfor the only thing at this point that could even remotely work would be some sort of Premium portable. Just accept that it will sell only to certain audience. Design it so that it is easy to port games for it. Marketing/selling price would be adjusted so that it would very profitable. Share library with PSV/PSP/PS1.

Ive heard a lot of people suggesting updatable consoles like how PC works, but if done with proper planning it might just fit Vita better. Heck, just a Vita 3.0, might work, if its designed right.

Still, would a small audience but proftable premium system be doable?

At this point since they were dumb enough to add stupid shit like touch front / rear and the gyro sensor, if they were going to do another system they would need to add all that garbage back into the system if they wanted it to run PSV titles anyways.

Honestly if they wanted to make something very market focused, leave out all the gimmicks and make it just a simple to develop for w/ proper internal resources for developers to use to make games on.

But as we all know that is not going to happen.

 

[ZhugeEX]

For Vita successfor the only thing at this point that could even remotely work would be some sort of Premium portable. Just accept that it will sell only to certain audience. Design it so that it is easy to port games for it. Marketing/selling price would be adjusted so that it would very profitable. Share library with PSV/PSP/PS1.

Ive heard a lot of people suggesting updatable consoles like how PC works, but if done with proper planning it might just fit Vita better. Heck, just a Vita 3.0, might work, if its designed right.

Still, would a small audience but proftable premium system be doable?

You say this, but even if there is demand for a premium portable (I assume you mean high spec) there may be no supply.

Yes you may get some indie/smaller titles developed for the console as you do with Vita now. But that doesn't mean that publishers are going to risk spending millions on game development for the console with little to no return. What a lot of people don't realise is that it's a two way system and that's why Sony and other large publishers stopped supporting the system with new unique games.

It's why we now see indie/small titles and ports only.

 

[sublimit]

Vita will live.

Yes in out hearts.

And yeah not the least surprising.In fact i believe that even Nintendo's next handheld system will have a very difficult job to stay relevant.

 

[tuffy]

The dedicated handheld market has traditionally been Nintendo's offering plus a rounding error's worth of competition from others. Systems like the Lynx, Game Gear, Nomad, Neo Geo Pocket and WonderSwan never gained much traction and are largely forgotten. If Sony exits the market also, the PSP's modest success looks like an anomaly and we return to the status quo.

 

[Future]

Mimic the ps4 controller exactly and market it as a ps4 companions and I'm in

They tried to market the original vita as kind of a companion, but you always feel gimped playing ps4 titles on it because of the controls. Most debs don't spend much time making remote play work at all

 

[RibMan]

Surprised how open they've been with this. Basically dropping Vita first party support and now this. Not something you see from console manufacturers while the generation is still going

Sony have literally come out and said the Vita is a "legacy platform". It's dead my friend. The only reason they haven't halted production is because Ken Levine still hasn't decided if he wants to make a Vita game or not. That, or the Vita manages decent hardware sales in one region and thus it makes more sense to leave the casket open for now.

 

[2+2=5]

The title lacks "Shocking News".

I REALLY love PSP and Vita but honestly sony has no chance to sell me on anything else.

I think that my future is the steamboy(if it will ever be), the only way Sony could convince me to buy another handheld is to make a PS4 portable, i mean a TRUE PS4 portable that plays natively PS4 games, so sony won't have a different platform to heavily support and i would be sure that sony won't leave it.

 

[……forgetit]

I wasn't really expecting there to be another Vita successor.

I am also curious to see Nintendo's take after the current situation of handheld market, which is slowly dying.

Ironically it's also their biggest market. Unless their console business suddenly takes off they'll need a lot of help with the NX.

 

[AmyS]

It's what Sony didn't say that's most important.

They're going to focus on PS5 in the long term.

 

[CamHostage]

It was abandonned by Sony the first year. I mean, it had basically 5 minutes presence at E3 2012 SCEA conference iirc.

But Sony needed all that time for WonderBook...

E3 representation means little when it comes to handhelds. Sony never gave PSP more than cursory exposure even when it had major titles on the floor. Even Nintendo only gives some sizzle reels and maybe spotlights a new Pokemon or Zelda, but they were always careful to not treat any of their portable game as showstoppers because even the best portable games go over like lead balloons when the audience is waiting for the next AAAA console blockbuster.

(BTW, 2012 was the same year The Last of Us, Beyond, PSASB and GoW Ascension SP; even the lovely Gravity Rush, which was out that same week and had been at previous shows, could have suffered in comparison.)

I hope Sony never makes the successor.

It's going to take tremendous amount of resources away from the PS5.

Not really a factor. It's not like there's a shortage of game designers in the world, and if all the titles made money, Sony would make more titles. PSP never took away any resources from PS2/PS3, there was always some hungry little studio out there happy to subcontract a spin-off game of a console franchise hit.

And it's not like you could look at Tearaway and Gravity Rush and say, "but what if they had been on PS4 instead?" because chances are they wouldn't have existed or would have been drastically different and much later in release if there hadn't been a platform with a market to support. (Plus some of Vita's exclusives are on PS4 now, is that giving that console a rise?).

Hmm, I think it's a non issue at the moment anyway, so I'm not worried too much by those thoughts. TGS came by and a whole bunch of PS4/Vita games got announced. World Of FF, Builders, 13 sentinels, Setsuna, vita has some games coming.

I hate to bring this up, but all of those have to be localized in order for it to matter to us (unless you speak Japanese.) Even of the big Vita games, not everything at TGS will come over, even if the PS4 version does get translated. Hopefully the digital market will continue to bring those games over (and Square has the right games to ideally give a chance or two again to Vita retail.) The opening of the Asia market (which is open to English translation) is promising, we've seen a lot of bad work on that front but at least the games get a release.

Maybe some kind of gaming smartphone then? Xperia Play 2? Xperia PlayStation? PlayStation Phone?

I find it strange, but people do not seem to want anything but a big screen and a slim profile with their phones. Nobody's interested in any gimmicks, even if they make for a more useful phone for a certain segment of people; even that segment seems like it will choose lighter-thinner over anything that makes a phone stand out.

I do think there was opportunity at one time in selling an 'official' latch-on or a 2-in-one that had a join-up joypad ala Surface's keyboard or the MOGA controller (there was talk a while ago that Sony was working with Android to be the official provider of "buttons in gaming" on Android as Google explored TV and controller accessory possibilities, but nothing came of that.) I'm not sure what business that would do in this market, however?

Nintendo still has their own "Minecraft" in Pokemon so that should sustain their hardware for a while still as basically the only one doing dedicated handhelds as long as they don't fuck it up.

The crazy thing is that even Pokemon shows signs of perhaps slowing down, for titles like Minecraft. Pokemon's not a game you can YT all day long, and kids have two dozen F2P Pokemon clones or collecting-oriented games on their phones. It's still a monumental franchise, but it's not invincible and it's probably not enough to sustain a platform like when grandmas and babysitters bought GBCs and DSs to play Pokemon ... you're right, it seems inconceivable but Nintendo has to be careful to not fuck up.

 

[ZhugeEX]

The dedicated handheld market has traditionally been Nintendo's offering plus a rounding error's worth of competition from others. Systems like the Lynx, Game Gear, Nomad, Neo Geo Pocket and WonderSwan never gained much traction and are largely forgotten. If Sony exits the market also, the PSP's modest success looks like an anomaly and we return to the status quo.

Someone is completely out of touch.....

 

[Percy]

Sony handhelds to mobile phones:

Seriously though, refreshingly straight answer there. The market for a dedicated handheld games console that doesn't have the sales pitch of being the only way you can play new Nintendo games is dead at this point after it started dying midway through the PSP's life.

Sony would be smart to not continue throwing good money after bad on the handheld front and to focus more on their strength in the home console market.

 

[Darius]

Despite some making every excuse possible, if Sony supported the system better it wouldn´t have been such a failure. Starting with disappointing quality of most launch-phase games and some shoddy ports, the E3 presence was ridiculously small from the get go, starting in E3 2012.

Also in retrospect some really ironic quotes from Sonys entrance into the market.

 

[Jarod McChicken]

Capcom moved their PSP team(s) to 3DS. That's really what everyone should've done in 2011/2012, they'd all be better off for it now as it would've been a more lateral performance/userbase move and they'd have built up audiences on a hardware line with a future.

Of course we're probably facing a similar potential crossroads issue now with NX if it craters. Still publishers would've bought themselves another gen at least.

Haha, lord Tu put it simply, it's like you even wonder how and why the PS Vita dare to exist in the first place.

It's generous of you to worry about the studios who touched the PS Vita, but I'm sure the lost lambs are going to be fine by moving to the Nintendo ecosystem. It's the only one we need after all ;-)

 

[Mass_Pincup]

The dedicated handheld market has traditionally been Nintendo's offering plus a rounding error's worth of competition from others. Systems like the Lynx, Game Gear, Nomad, Neo Geo Pocket and WonderSwan never gained much traction and are largely forgotten. If Sony exits the market also, the PSP's modest success looks like an anomaly and we return to the status quo.

Modest success? It sold 80M units....

Capcom moved their PSP team(s) to 3DS. That's really what everyone should've done in 2011/2012, they'd all be better off for it now as it would've been a more lateral performance/userbase move and they'd have built up audiences on a hardware line with a future.

Of course we're probably facing a similar potential crossroads issue now with NX if it craters. Still publishers would've bought themselves another gen at least.

They were payed to do so, and let's not forget that the 3DS was a failure to at that point.

 

[arevin01]

Mobile games are getting better and better by the year while 3DS and Vita remain stagnant and offer just mainly inferior console versions of games. Only a matter of time before 3DS is no longer relevant.

 

[gundamkyoukai]

You say this, but even if there is demand for a premium portable (I assume you mean high spec) there may be no supply.

Yes you may get some indie/smaller titles developed for the console as you do with Vita now. But that doesn't mean that publishers are going to risk spending millions on game development for the console with little to no return. What a lot of people don't realise is that it's a two way system and that's why Sony and other large publishers stopped supporting the system with new unique games.

It's why we now see indie/small titles and ports only.

Correct and the only reason we still seeing some games on it in Japan (same for PS4) is because of the PS4\PSV ecosystem.
In west they don't care about that so it's a indie/small titles and ports only like you said .

 

[Durante]

Basically, they brought a knife to a gunfight.

I think it's closer to them bringing a set of brushes and a color palette to a finger-painting competition.

But either way, yes, they misread the market.

 

[TMaakkonen]

You say this, but even if there is demand for a premium portable (I assume you mean high spec) there may be no supply.

Yes you may get some indie/smaller titles developed for the console as you do with Vita now. But that doesn't mean that publishers are going to risk spending millions on game development for the console with little to no return. What a lot of people don't realise is that it's a two way system and that's why Sony and other large publishers stopped supporting the system with new unique games.

It's why we now see indie/small titles and ports only.

So the expenses would still be too much? Oh well...

In this age of mobile 3DS' 50 million seems incredible, while its actually quite bad for Nintendo's old stantards. I wonder how much 3DS successor will be able to achieve. At this point its kinda hard to say yet.

 

[ZhugeEX]

Correct and the only reason we still seeing some games on it in Japan (same for PS4) is because of the PS4\PSV ecosystem.
In west they don't care about that so it's a indie/small titles and ports only like you said .

If anything TMaakkonen literally described Sony releasing another Vita...... but this time it'll do even worse.

So the expenses would still be too much? Oh well...

In this age of mobile 3DS' 50 million seems incredible, while its actually quite bad for Nintendo's old stantards. I wonder how much 3DS successor will be able to achieve. At this point its kinda hard to say yet.

It's really hard to say what Sony need to do in order to be successful in the dedicated hardware sector. The reason being that it has shrunk so much and become a really hard market to be successful in. Who knows, perhaps Nintendo will be able to do well in the portable space next gen. But right now I don't have high hopes outside of it being something that a small core audience buys, certainly not another 50 million+.

What you described, in regards to a premium portable would just be asking Sony to release the Vita 2.0 basically. It wouldn't work at all or have any big unique software. At this point I think they'd have more success focusing on mobile software services than dedicated hardware and software.

 

[JordanN]

Can we really say it is lucky, or that it is part of the plan though? We have seem various handhelds attempting console-quality games that died, such as Sega Game Gear. The Vita is an even better example of what happen when you attempt console-quality game on handheld. I'll say Nintendo learnt that lesson from Game Gear and try to keep dev cost low for handheld. At least, lower than console .

They're lucky that Vita showed up in time to act as the guinea pig and lost.

In truth, Nintendo too could have almost been a victim of this. Even Iwata admitted that 3DS games were going to cost a lot more than DS, and that it could negatively affect how they actually sell.

CEO Satoru Iwata addressed this issue during a Q&A session at a recent investors briefing. Said Iwata, "We don't believe that the world is in a state where high priced software will sell well, so we don't believe it will be in a price range too far off from current DS software."

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=409278

Combine this with the 3DS failing at launch, they were just one gen early from feeling the full brunt of it.

 

[Maximus.]

No one said its easy. But with a constant stream of good exclusives, you can still manage to build up a decent userbase.

Sony has done a lot more in depth market analysis than what you suggest. You are wrong. Plain and simple. The system, as good as it was designed, just did not resonate with people who rather game on their phones/tablets or at home. Yes, it didn't help from the lack of titles, but it would not have changed the outcome of Sony's decision.

 

[Oregano]

Modest success? It sold 80M units....



They were payed to do so, and let's not forget that the 3DS was a failure to at that point.

The 3DS was a failure before it even launched? Because that's when Capcom started developing Revelations, Street Fighter and Monster Hunter. Two of the three were announced prelaunch and all of them came out in the first year.

Spoiler

They weren't paid to either.

 

[DarkLordMalik]

Ironically it's also their biggest market. Unless their console business suddenly takes off they'll need a lot of help with the NX.

NX will do fine in Japan, but it will need all the help in the West. Nintendo are the next in line after Sony to abandon one of their primary platform (Wii U) if they plan to make the NX any success. Sony atleast managed to find major success with PS4, but we can't say the same for Nintendo's next console/handheld.

There was a time when the DS used to sell more than a million in a month and now the 3DS barely manages a fraction of these sales.

 

[Canis lupus]

Well I hope they're satisfied selling 10-50k on PS4 then. Because that's looking like their future once Vita fades out completely.

What nonsense. Why are you assuming the Vita base won't upgrade to PS4 once supports stops? Day and date releases of PS4 ports from Vita or PS3 now make up 40-50% of total sales in Japan, even more if you count Western sales. To say they're gonna sell 4-5x less because the year old ports did is ridiculous.

In my opinion all of them, because they put support behind building a platform with no future prospects or line successor. It's more a problem in retrospect and some publishers still did okay in the iterim, but publishers are looking at a very clear dead end here. Even Sony realized this years ago and got out asap.

It's just a shame everyone else didn't have Capcom's foresight.

They keep coming back to Vita, make profit and more games, yet you still claim they made a mistake. I think you don't understand their business. When the Vita falls, they'll go to PS4, the ports to that platform is already easing that transition.

If Capcom made MH on Vita it would've sold as much as it did on 3DS, and Japan handheld market could've used a strong Vita.

 

[Screamapillar]

I'm reluctant from shaving off all blame on Vita for Sony but this part is not true.

They came out with games. They just didn't sell. These games are also expensive to make so it was never viable to dedicate an endless stream of making games that barely turn a profit. There was bound to be a point where investment had to stop.

3DS is lucky its games are still PS2-like in terms of dev cost, making the risk ceiling far lower. Had they cost the same as PS3 games did and were failing, I doubt Nintendo would have invested the same amount of games in it.

Sony came out with games at the beginning, but they stopped. If Sony was putting out 3 to 4 big games every year, Vita would be doing a lot better. As for dev cost of games, you're absolutely right. You're basically just confirming that Nintendo is a lot smarter at running a handheld business than Sony is, which is clearly true.

 

[DXB-KNIGHT]

They can't add anything more to life.
Life remains life.

 

[Percy]

Despite some making every excuse possible, if Sony supported the system better it wouldn´t have been such a failure. Starting with disappointing quality of most launch-phase games and some shoddy ports, the E3 presence was ridiculously small from the get go, starting in E3 2012.

Yes it would. It launched targetting an audience that simply didn't exist anymore. Nothing they could have done was going to change that.

Also in retrospect some really ironic quotes from Sonys entrance into the market.

http://digthatbox.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/NeoGAF_is_Always_Wrong.gif[/IMG*][/QUOTE]

It's probably not healthy to hold a grudge over stuff some random posters on the internet said over a decade ago. Most of those guys are probably dead now in fact. .. [SPOILER]From salt poisoning.[/SPOILER]

 

[ZhugeEX]

NX will do fine in Japan, but it will need all the help in the West. Nintendo are the next in line after Sony to abandon one of their primary platform (Wii U) if they plan to make the NX any success. Sony atleast managed to find major success with PS4, but we can't say the same for Nintendo's next console/handheld.

There was a time when the DS used to sell more than a million in a month and now the 3DS barely manages a fraction of these sales.

Yup, Nintendo have released the "NEW" 3DS worldwide this year which is the equivalent of the DS to DSi launch yet total 3DS sales will most likely remain flat YOY (around 7.5 million) whilst DS/DSi sales were 29 million for 2009.

So 3DS sales aren't growing at all but instead the NEW 3DS is just delaying the inevitable decline. Not to mention that the NEW 3DS has been introduced slightly earlier than the DSi was.

 

[tuffy]

Modest success? It sold 80M units....

Which is about half of what the DS sold, I think; surely a lot better than any competitor that came before. But with the 3DS unlikely to do as well as the PSP, the market's in a bad place for a foreseeable future.

 

[Cqef]

I'm totally fine sticking with my Vita for a decade more if it can, as long as games keep their current steady release pace.

 

[msdstc]

I feel bad, because in these threads vita fans still somehow cling to hope. Theyve say
Peru much straight up says it's dead and they're done with handheld, unfortunately its over.

 

[BLACK AMERICAN PSYCHO]

Even Nintendo's next handheld is going ri struggle.

 

[Screamapillar]

Yes it would. It launched targetting an audience that simply didn't exist anymore. Nothing they could have done was going to change that.

Actually, no. They could have released attractive first-party titles for it at regular intervals every year, like Nintendo does effectively with the 3DS. That would have propped up demand for the system, albeit probably nowhere near PSP levels, but it still would have been something.

The last major release for Vita I can recall is the port of Borderlands 2. Releasing stuff like that each quarter, every year, would for sure increase demand for the system. Probably would have enticed kids to stop playing their 3DS and ask their parents for a Vita. That's a sizeable market that Sony never even tried for.

Sony gave up on Vita. So consumers did, too.