Extra Credits: Why the Vita failed.

I like this guy, level headed, reasoned arguments.

But 5 minutes clydeeeeeee?

I think the vita is really good unfortunately it is a commercial failure.

JUST WATCH THE VIDEO! ITS WORTH YOUR TIME!

I did. It's a good video. I get the point. THe only thing I disagree with is the indie presence the vita has gained. While the vita yes did fail commercially it's a perfect handheld for middle tier games and PS2/PS3 ports. I think it'll have an interesting lifespan with a lot of interesting little games, ports and so on. Nonetheless if you have PS+ it's just essentially the "free game" system

Great video. Pretty spot on. I still don't think the vita is as dead as some want to believe but I agree with this guy about its commercial success.

I own one and for me personally it's great. I only play it when I travel (which isn't too often) so for me it has plenty of games and lots of life left in it.

I think if you are the kind of person that is going to game on a handheld on a daily basis it would be a bad choice.

What's a Vita?

IMO it also had quite a bit to do with the Vita competing with the 3DS and smartphones at the same time to a larger extent thane either of those compete with each other.

Vita was going for "Its a dedicated handheld gaming platform like a 3DS, but look at all these extra features and apps it has too!!!".. only all those features and apps are the same as those featured by most phones now. It was lodged in a middle ground between dedicated game platform and multimedia device that nobody really cared for.

The argument made in the video about the development cost spiral is very, very convincing though.

nothing that hasn't been said a thousand times before, except for the part of being too good for its own good. But that argument is not very strong either considering that the developers are who manage the budget however they want. If they only focus on delivering PS3 level of graphics then it's their own fault.

Vita development according to devs, including John Carmack, said that Vita was made in a way that makes development to be easy just like the PS4. Both systems were made under the same philosophy after all, so making games that look good because of an art-style while taking advantage of better Res and AA shouldn't be that hard. But Vita's problem is not so simple as not having enough quality software because it does! The problem here is a matter of public perception.

For the amount of quality games on the Vita right now its sales are way below of what anybody would expect, the freaking thing is losing even to the GameGear which only had like 10 games and I think this is what scares 3rd party's the most. Sony had to fight hard for the PS3 [has no games and it sucks just because], really hard but I don't think they feel confident enough to win this uphill battle in their current financial situation.

What Gue said is spot on imo. this is an assumption more than anything... and a choice by the developers... not a forced outcome.

Its price... the dependence on memory cards at launch... and still now... PSP sold 80 million largely because it was piratable I bet... and its media features were ok before smart phone domination (or at least during.).

The vita is an amazing device.... I woudl love for them to try again in the future... but oh well.

For those of us that like AAA or at least AA games like Uncharted, Tomb Raider, Resident Evil and the like, the PSV is dead as of this October when the second season of The Walking Dead releases. At that point, everything that will have caught our attention for the handheld will be available to buy.

There are a couple games that I have yet to buy for it that would round out my collection, but the PSV as a stand alone system will join the ranks of the Dreamcast and Virtual Boy at the end of 2014. No cell phone game will change my mind on that.

At least it can be used as a media player and accessory for my PS4. What a damn waste.

it's this big, dumb looking remote for the PS4

@lostrib: What the **** is a PS4?

is this wobbly black box that plays netflix

@lostrib: Honestly, Netflix and the DualShock 4 are probably the best two things about the PS4, and I don't even have one of the two.

Life, man. Vita's Life. :P

Watched the video, and I'm sorry but I can't agree with Most of what the guy is going for.

- He claims the Vita is sitting at 4 million units, when it's at least double that install base. This does not inspire confidence in his analytical prowess...

- He asserts that development on Vita titles are so expensive that smaller developers can't afford to bring games to the system, when it's precisely those small developers that remain so excited by their prospects on the Vita.

- He completely misses the fact that the Vita has an Amazing attach rate, which inflates the market for its games way beyond a typical platform with it's install base.

What he (and many others) fail to understand about the Vita is that it was designed to be a portable providing home console type games. That's exactly what the PSP went for and rode to be one of the more successful platforms - console or handheld - ever released.

That means lots of ports of console games, (which incidentally reduces the development cost for "flashy graphics" that he was concerned about) and spinoffs of console franchises. Unfortunately, neither the PSP nor the Vita has been very good at making their own franchises that get western gamers convinced that they have to buy it to play those games. People buy a Vita because it is the system they want to play on, not because it's the system they need for most titles. It's a luxury item.

So he makes a very fair point that Vita might have fared better with more emphasis on Vita-only franchises to sort of "coerce" people on to the system. Nintendo never has brought a real Pokemon title to consoles despite the promise of huge sales for that very reason. I think we all agree that IF Vita had a smash hit the franchise would appear on other Sony platforms ASAP. Because Sony.

I'm not here to try and fool anyone into thinking the Vita is a smash hit laying in wait. I do however think the primary reason for its comparatively weak sales compared to the PSP is a shrinking market for handhelds all together (which we see in declining 3DS sales compared to the DS as well) and price concerns which were inflated by Sony's disgusting insistence on requiring proprietary memory cards at grossly inflated prices. While I think his argument for more "Vita only" titles is fair, I think it's hard to point to that as the primary cause as he tries when the PSP rode the same formula to far more success.

TL;DR? Ah, screw it. Blah Blah DOOOMED.

@clyde46: I'm no fan boy, I think Hand held gaming in general is stupid. I do want to say that I recently went and purchased a PS Vita. I had a hell of a hard time finding it. It wasn't for me, it was for one of my kids birthdays.

Everywhere I went I was told the same thing "You know we couldn't give these away but now that the Ps4 is doing so well, we can't keep them In-Stock or even get them".

Which is funny, cause the only reason I was looking to get this for him is because he has a Ps4 and plays it all the time. It's pretty cool, He can play the Ps4 - Yes the actually Ps4 Games on the thing anywhere with Wi-Fi. I was pretty impressed. It even plays stuff like DCUO and War Thunder, You name it, it plays them. Same graphics and everything!

I'll start this off by saying I love Extra Credits. They are always spot on.

This video was no exception.

The fact the Vita has sold 4 million units in over two years means it's over. That is one of the worst selling platforms ever, especially for such a huge brand name as PlayStation. Sony needs to write it off and move on. Perhaps to a new handheld, or quietly retire from the handheld market entirely. They are enough financial trouble as it is right now, even with the PS4 moving so many units, they need to concentrate on staying afloat.

I still hope handheld gaming doesn't disappear, because mobile games are not in the same league, and never will be. Not when pay-to-win models dominate the market.

Handheld gaming in general is on the decline and the PSP really didn't leave an impression on anyone to make them want to invest in Sony's next venture.Add that to the fact that more people, especially in Japan, uses Smart Phones and tablets for their pick up and go gaming, and the Vita just didn't stand a chance.

Actually (and it surprised me too somewhat) the Game Gear ended up with over 300 titles, and the Vita is tracking well ahead of it in sales for the time on the market.

Game Gear was on the Market for about 6 1/2 years and sold 11 million units all told.

Vita has been on the market for about 2 1/2 years and has sold somewhere north of 8 million units to date.

Vita isn't going to be knocking on the top 10 install bases... Ever. But it's going to end up comfortably ahead of GG.

I dunno guys, every single Ps4 game on the Market and everyone in development basically works on the PSV thing. Just look at the back of the box.

(Hey I'm surprised to, personally I would never use it and the I owned a PSP and that was a POS).

Yeah, Vita's Remote Play will stream any PS4 game that doesn't use the camera or Move controllers. And most play very well on it, at least on local WiFi. It's really handy when you live with others and TV time can be hard to come by.