Sony: Vita Is A PS4 Extension Device For Us

Notably, the company is shifting gears in how it sells the PlayStation Vita, looking upon it less as a standalone game console and more as an accessory that extends the PlayStation Network.

"We’ve taken a more holistic view with our platforms. With Remote Play, Vita has now essentially become an extender or an enhancer for the main platform for other rooms in the house, or when someone else wants to use the main screen," says House, claiming that Sony is also hoping to market it to younger players in the future.

SOURCE

This is just sad, and on every level, it looks like Sony has absolutely given up on the Vita as anything more than a PS4 companion device- so this is what the world's most powerful handheld device has come to- a glorified, overpriced PS4 accessory, and an extender for Sony's online network.

Just sad. Clearly Sony doesn't know how to handle a handheld device.

The good thing is that Vita still has a lot of games for it coming in the near future like Tales of Hearts R, Freedom Wars and a few other games by Sony Japan but once all those games are out whats next?

VITA = DEAD.

Wow, Onlive mobile handheld.

The Vita is being salvaged confirmed.

And that's where I officially declare the Vita situation EVEN WORSE than the Wii U.

#VitaMeansDeath

Vita is fine if you like Japanese games (and Indies I guess). More than 70 games are in development by Japanese 3rd Party developers according to Famitsu magazine. Problem is people for some reason expected the Vita to have big AAA 3rd Party Western support. That is weird considering traditional handhelds have always been dominated by Japanese development. I'm not bothered by how Sony treats the Vita in regards to Western support since I prefer Japanese games and import regularly. It does suck for those who want AAA Western games though. Sell your Vita and move on at this point.

They announced games for it....I think rumor's of it's death are exaggerated.

Pretty much the only reason I'm keeping my Vita, Japanese support.

You're solid gold! Brilliant punchline.

Okay, so the Vita is dead. Isn't this old news? (no offense.)

best thing they could do. Without pokemon for the western market and monster hunter for japan the vita never stood a chance. Most western devs don't even care about handhelds while japan dev support is completely one sided in favor of nintendo. There's nothing sony could do. They created the most impressive handheld ever but people didn't believe in it. And no sales mean no games.

You know what Sony could do? Invest in the Vita themselves, create compelling, original content, and try to sell it, instead of always treating it as a second class citizen that gets scrappy seconds, leftovers, and hand-me-downs from the console, and actually shifting some of their console focus to it instead. As an analog, look at the Wii U, its situation is as bad as the Vita's (possibly worse), but did you see Nintendo abandoning it and doubling down on the 3DS or something like that? No, instead, they decided to create compelling content for the Wii U to sell it themselves, because they knew no one else would. Sony, Sony should have done that. Instead, they hung the handheld out to die. Having the 'best handheld ever created' doesn't mean squat if you won't create games that show us exactly why it is that.

The vita had so much potential and yet don't kinda fucked up because they didnt know what to do

@charizard1605:

In all seriousness, I would have liked to see Sony invest more in the PS Vita as well, instead of just ignoring it. It had potential and I have nothing against the 3DS, but unfortunately, any non-Nintendo handheld usually flops, It's been like this since the original Gameboy.

Very sad. I played a Vita yesterday and was very impressed by its hardware and what it's capable of. Too bad it's dead.

Guess it's a good time to trade in your Vita for a 3DS if you haven't already.

lol charizard are you 1000 branches on GAF?

Whether you are or not, the OP on gaf just got banned for posting this because he didn't even apply context lol.

Throw it in the PS4 box for free and @ 400 bones with DC packed in - I'm there. :P

Nope, not me lol. I do get asked that a lot though >.>

I saw the context later- he talks about the focus on indie games, but that doesn't really change the fact that the device is being treated more as an extension of the PS4 and PSN (explicitly so, in fact) rather than its own system. Sony's treatment of the Vita at E3 should really be proof of that, if any was needed.

lol was just weird, exact same tone, view point. Not to mention avatar.... are you sure? *fry.gif*. And you read the context after...

It was mentioned as an extension for remote play specifically....well which is a feature I guess.
It needs to sell more to get the first party treatment I feel. Maybe they're waiting for the possible huge bump it may get from Minecraft as that seems to sell well on nearly anything.

@misterpmedia said:

@charizard1605 said:

Nope, not me lol. I do get asked that a lot though >.>

I saw the context later- he talks about the focus on indie games, but that doesn't really change the fact that the device is being treated more as an extension of the PS4 and PSN (explicitly so, in fact) rather than its own system. Sony's treatment of the Vita at E3 should really be proof of that, if any was needed.

lol was just weird, exact same tone, view point. Not to mention avatar.... are you sure? *fry.gif*. And you read the context after...

It was mentioned as an extension for remote play specifically....well which is a feature I guess.

It needs to sell more to get the first party treatment I feel. Maybe they're waiting for the possible huge bump it may get from Minecraft as that seems to sell well on nearly anything.

Absolutely. I've had two accounts on GAF already, how many corporate email IDs do you guys think I have? xD But yes, him (her?) and me often say the same things... about the same things.

And no, it needs first party games to sell. it is Sony's job to create reasons for it to sell, not our jobs to buy it to create reasons for Sony to support it. You know that's how it works.

Minecraft might just work. We'll see.

I'm sure that was the view they had at the start, but I guess when you see that the product isn't selling maybe different strategies have to be undertaken as I would imagine pumping money into Vita FP content wouldn't see a great return if there's not many vita players out there to buy it in the first place. But yes I agree it still is Sony's job to do that work, but I can kinda see why they aren't, which sucks lol.

Yeah we'll see what minecraft does. Still need to grab and OLED before they become extinct. Got a wealth of PS+ games to play straight off the bat.

See, if they had that same view at the start, they didn't actually act on it much. Why were none of Sony's A teams (outside of MM) ever assigned to the system? We got a bunch of B team sidestories and spin offs in the first six months, then we got a bunch of unoptimized PS3 ports (and they were almost always delayed), and then we got... actually, what do we get from Sony now? If the Vita did not sell, it's their fault. You can sell anything with compelling content, even the Saturn managed 10 million units worldwide because of Sega's support for it. In my opinion, Sony never exhibited enough confidence in the Vita for it to sell enough.

And yeah man, make sure to do that. The OLED screen is beautiful, it made it hard for me to appreciate any other screen after that, even the one on my iPad lol. And when you do grab it, make sure to pick up Persona 4 Golden. Greatest game ever, yo.

I want to trade in my 3Ds for the Vita for PS4 remote play :D

You can play more games on VITA than on WiiU :P

@charizard1605 said:

@misterpmedia said:

@charizard1605 said:

Nope, not me lol. I do get asked that a lot though >.>

I saw the context later- he talks about the focus on indie games, but that doesn't really change the fact that the device is being treated more as an extension of the PS4 and PSN (explicitly so, in fact) rather than its own system. Sony's treatment of the Vita at E3 should really be proof of that, if any was needed.

lol was just weird, exact same tone, view point. Not to mention avatar.... are you sure? *fry.gif*. And you read the context after...

It was mentioned as an extension for remote play specifically....well which is a feature I guess.

It needs to sell more to get the first party treatment I feel. Maybe they're waiting for the possible huge bump it may get from Minecraft as that seems to sell well on nearly anything.

Absolutely. I've had two accounts on GAF already, how many corporate email IDs do you guys think I have? xD But yes, him (her?) and me often say the same things... about the same things.

And no, it needs first party games to sell. it is Sony's job to create reasons for it to sell, not our jobs to buy it to create reasons for Sony to support it. You know that's how it works.

Minecraft might just work. We'll see.

brb reporting you to EviLore

@Obviously_Right said:

@charizard1605 said:

@misterpmedia said:

@charizard1605 said:

Nope, not me lol. I do get asked that a lot though >.>

I saw the context later- he talks about the focus on indie games, but that doesn't really change the fact that the device is being treated more as an extension of the PS4 and PSN (explicitly so, in fact) rather than its own system. Sony's treatment of the Vita at E3 should really be proof of that, if any was needed.

lol was just weird, exact same tone, view point. Not to mention avatar.... are you sure? *fry.gif*. And you read the context after...

It was mentioned as an extension for remote play specifically....well which is a feature I guess.

It needs to sell more to get the first party treatment I feel. Maybe they're waiting for the possible huge bump it may get from Minecraft as that seems to sell well on nearly anything.

Absolutely. I've had two accounts on GAF already, how many corporate email IDs do you guys think I have? xD But yes, him (her?) and me often say the same things... about the same things.

And no, it needs first party games to sell. it is Sony's job to create reasons for it to sell, not our jobs to buy it to create reasons for Sony to support it. You know that's how it works.

Minecraft might just work. We'll see.

brb reporting you to EviLore

k

I finally bought a Vita a few months ago. I was really looking forward to the remote play functionality. The remote play itself works well, but for me personally the screen is just too damn small to enjoy playing PS4 games on the Vita. I feel like I need one of those old gameboy magnifier add-ons to play, and enjoy it.

I got mine just a couple of weeks ago.

There's an unbelievable amount of content on it for me now, but it's because I'm extremely late to the party.

I'll tell you in a year how I feel about it. I've spent $200 on worse purchases.

As I never fail to say, make sure to get Persona 4 Golden >.>

**** off, Sony.

@charizard1605:

Got it on sale. :) I've got a trip to Boston coming up so I plan on digging in to it then.

So far I've been playing Spelunky and Hotline Miami.

That's how it should be. Handhelds suck. I'd be damned if they assigned AAA studios to make vita games, what an awful idea.. The thing will work well as a remote play/psnow device for losers who actually play games while they are away from the home

Maybe so, but at least Nintendo's actually doing something with Wii U. Sony's treatment towards the Vita is a joke.

That's why I bought it. I wish most WiFi networks could handle remote play outside of the home... then it would be something truly noteworthy to talk about.

RIP

Vita

My condolances. .. @Blabadon: @darkspineslayer:

Spot on.

honestly it needs a bunch of rpgs and puzzle games.

sony studios isnt known for doing those things well.

maybe in 10 more years....

Vita is done. Even when Sony themselves say it, some cows are delusional enough not to take heed.

At least the 3DS is not going anywhere anytime soon, esp. since their com. just gave up lol

Told you

I had the Vita for about a year, and I got rid of it because I realized a while ago that Sony doesn't know how to do handhelds.

The system had some good downloadable titles early on - Escape Plan, Tales from Space, Super Stardust, to name a few. There were only a few really noteworthy games to buy for the system on cart for the longest time. Gravity Rush was great, but short, and felt like it could have been something more. People were divided on the Uncharted game for the system, but quite a few people enjoyed it. But it didn't take long to realize that the Vita isn't a system for lengthy, original adventures. It functioned best as a device for playing smaller downloadable games and older hits.

It's a shame, considering how powerful the Vita was, and the graphics it was capable of showcasing. But tbh, I look at the 3DS, and even though it is doing a lot better it's still in the same boat as the Vita. I think the fact of the matter is handhelds are having a really tough time competing nowadays. And developers want to make games for consoles, especially these brand new consoles that have a lot to prove right now.

Good

AAA games dont work on handhelds. Things like GOW or Killzone always gave that "Why not just put it on PS3?" feeling. Its got plenty of japanese support so it's doing good imo. If anything, Sony should get smaller devs to do more work for it. Things like Gravity Rush and Tearaway

Thank god jpn devs give the system support.Since thanks to them I have alot to play for my vita.

An extension? More like they're reaching. Did they even show Vita games during their conference. They just talked about how you could use a Vita as a controller and watch stuff on. Like their Move controller, Vita will not be talked about next E3.

And I just bought the BL2 bundle...

And now I question myself on why I bothered buying one in the first place.... Still not willing to sell it though.