Will Vita be Sony's last handheld?

Seems likely considering they don't really support Vita with first party games anymore. It's little more than a PS4 extender.

Yes.

It looks like it will.

Lol Vita

100% yes, as far as traditional handheld.

No. The Ps5 will be needing an expensive controller, too.

Can someone who is more industry Davy than I explain to me why when the vita is "dead" and is a handheld that few have and fewer want. Why am I not seeing a significant drop in the price of the games?

Yes.

As much as I love my Vita, Sony just doesn't know how, nor probably has the resources anymore, to make a handheld successful in a mobile phone market. They barely advertise it (E3 had zero presence of it), they barely support any first-party titles anymore, they still persist on using expensive memory cards (no one's going to pay $60 for a 16GB memory card; that's insane!) Their best-selling title (Uncharted: Golden Abyss at 1 million) still sold less than a 13-year old port of a Nintendo 64 game. Hell, a port of Super Street Fighter IV sold better than Uncharted: Golden Abyss. Yeesh.

It's sad because the PSVita is probably my favorite handheld design-wise but if it wasn't for PlayStation Plus, I'd have a hard time turning it on every month. Such a missed opportunity.

they'll probably continue making them as an add-on just like MS with the Smart Glass, with enough power to maybe run some indies, old games and streaming.

Since Sony learned nothing from PSP failures, they'll probably learn nothing from Vita's failures. I wouldn't be surprised if they **** it up a third time around and continue to lose massive amounts of money on handhelds.

Absolutely.

Smartphones have chewed the f#ck out of its market. I give mad props to Ninty and Sony for having balls of adamantium & firmly sticking to their once-successful strategy and thus putting millions behind these devices knowing they're on their last legs.

#Respect

If we're lucky no handhelds period. Time to embrace the superior alternative, mobile gaming.

Yes, and it's a damn shame.

Unfortunately smartphones are taking over handheld gaming :(

Embrace the superior alternative. :)

@R4gn4r0k said:

@ladyblue said:

If we're lucky no handhelds period. Time to embrace the superior alternative, mobile gaming.

You have no idea how wrong you're.

Stop trying to make me cry. :(

I hope so. Sony's handhelds are a reason they're bleeding money and had to sell off parts of their company and stuff. Sony always try to do too much like they're the jack of all trades but master of none. They should just focus on PS4 and PSN.

I'm sure Nintendo will make another handheld.

And if they don't... well then it's just PC and consoles for me.

@ladyblue said:

@R4gn4r0k said:

@ladyblue said:

If we're lucky no handhelds period. Time to embrace the superior alternative, mobile gaming.

You have no idea how wrong you're.

Thinking about handicapping myself like that i.e. only having a touch screen as controls to play games on the go makes me physically sick.

You sure love to exaggerate.

I bet you would feel better if you gave mobile gaming an honest try. So many games to choose from. ;)

Yes.

Nintendo has got a stranglehold on the handheld market.

The Vita better be Sony's last handheld because they're betting a lot on Project Morpheus.

@R4gn4r0k said:

@ladyblue said:

@R4gn4r0k said:

@ladyblue said:

If we're lucky no handhelds period. Time to embrace the superior alternative, mobile gaming.

You have no idea how wrong you're.

Thinking about handicapping myself like that i.e. only having a touch screen as controls to play games on the go makes me physically sick.

Agreed. And I have given it a try. Just don't like touch screen controls.

Vita is probably the best handheld ever released (hardware wise).

Shame about the support, although it still has some good games.

I think Vita will be the last handheld for sony. Vita is an excellent piece of hardware but sony didn't put any effort into the games. Sony should have produced mode exclusives for the vita instead of ports. 3ds has been successful because of its exclusives. Sony can save the vita if they put out some good games.

Shareholders probably want it to be. Going from ~80 million units to ~4 million units is a crazy failure.

Sony doesn't have the market share to compete anymore, and mobile gaming has taken away whatever chance they might have trying again. The PSP was a fluke I guess.

The idea of trying mobile gaming makes me want to cry even more. :(

Well, seeing the situation for what it really is, the 3DS is slowing down in sales, year-over-year.

The money or interest just isn't there anymore for only dedicated gaming handhelds.

And ironically, gaming is at an all time high on smartphones.

There so many ways to capitalize on this that my only hope is that Nintendo or Sony take the hint.

such as?

Good games and a price cut could save the Vita. Instead Sony made a cheaper to produce Vita and kept the price the same. Pretty sad really.

To me the PlayStation Vita is exactly like the PlayStation Portable in almost every way except obvious differences. I can only see the third handheld they make having the same misfortune as the other two, if Sony was foolish enough to make a third. They should have targeted the mistakes they made with the PlayStation Portable, in order to make improvement with the PlayStation Vita and even now, all they need to do is figure out what they are doing wrong currently. But learning is not Sony's strong point, making the same with the mistakes that they did with the PSP is.

Slowing down at ~42 million units, yeah. But still going, especially once the next Pokemon drops.

Unfortunately, smartphone gaming doesn't offer the same kind of experiences.

I don't think it will, I think Sony had to much ambition from the vita but no direction, they're turning things around beautifully now and the next handheld can be a much better successor, with easier development. In any case I believe sony will make another I could be wrong of course but it's understandable as Nintendo is dominant in the handheld market, and this could be Son;ys last but I wouldn't bank on it yet.

I don't know, but I think it should be. Sony did much better when they concentrated on one console (PS1 and PS2). I think they should stop supporting the PS3 too and just focus on the PlayStation 4.

Sony should concentrate on a single console and Nintendo on a single handheld.

Sony did learn from its mistakes from the PSP, PSP Go and PS3, but made new ones.

Yep. Vita has been a massive money sink hole for them.

Yeah probably. No reason to try again unless they go non traditional.

There might always be another day when releasing a new handheld might seem viable, all depending on whether holds good grace with the gaming community at large, and whether they can market something attractive. I think where Nintendo plays into all this is also a big consideration, as they have typically dominated the handheld market.

I think price is a big thing with handhelds though, I don't think many people want to pay more than $200. Nintendo price cutting the 3DS really helped, the Vita going to $200 though is just marginally too expensive IMO given they still have the proprietary memory card issue. I think Sony could really turn things around for themselves if they in a new model Sony decided to utilize SDHC.

I hope not, sony makes some of the best handhelds in the market and i adore the vita so much.

if they do it wont be a dedicated handheld.

i do think sony should look at taking a second crack at the xperia play again. with gaming taking off on mobile devices a proper gaming phone could be an interesting proposition in a very crowded market. certainly more interesting than another slab design.

have android on it but also have a second OS that kicks in when playing vita 2 (im just going to call it vita 2 for simplicity) games.

apply the console business to phones and it could make things very interesting (i.e. sell the hardware at cost or for little profit and make the money on games). high end specs...mid range price. the vita was very cutting edge when it was released and still cost a lot less than a high end phone so its doable.

just make sure it uses standard SD cards.

the play failed becuase it was priced too high, android gaming sucks and the controls were mostly useless.

android gaming still sucks (as does IOS) but more games have controller support now (what with nvidia making a push for it and so on) and backed by sonys own developers and exclusive vita 2 games it could make for an interesting phone.

but it would have to be a proper gaming device. badly implemented controls at the hardware level would kill it stone dead. sony would also have to be commited to supporting it (they will only make money off the vita 2 game sales after all).

making another dedicated gaming device would be pointless for sony.

Sales slowing down just 3 years after its retail release is not good, in my opinion. Perhaps pokemon and high profile Ip's will sustain it for a little bit longer, but I can't see it recreating something close to the NDS.

Smartphone gaming actually makes a lot of money though, if the experience goes to places or not its subjective. I'm saying though, I'm pretty sure a Nintendo kind of "phablet" or a marketable PlayStation phone could move the dough again for Nintendo and Sony in the handhelds space. Coming up again with a 4DS or Vita 2 isn't a bankable direction anymore.

What? You thought that clip was from Team America ? No, I actually went outside and filmed myself throwing up.

In theory it's all great.

Like you have your smart phone with you everywhere, so you can game everywhere. But I never even use it. It's way too limited to do even the most basic actions in games. Like GTA: SA sounds great on the go. Controlling the camera is hell though.

1000000%

Vita has failed. They need to put it out of it's misery. PSP was mainly successful because it was easily hackable.

^^ This. If Sony comes out with a third handheld, I won't buy it. They've proven that they don't support their handheld hardware very well twice now and frankly with PSV... neither does anyone else... but indies.The PSV is the first Playstation ever to disappoint me. Even the PSP was at least supported by great third party games. I've always enjoyed Playstation systems, but PSV turned out to be a failed promise that they twisted into a fucking PS4 accessory. Granted, a neat PS4 accessory, but a mere accessory none-the-less.

explain to me why when the vita is "dead" and its a handheld that few have and fewer want. Why am I not seeing a significant drop in the price of the games?

Smartphones/Tablets will kill the handheld gaming we been used with from Nintendo/Sony

Phone gaming might kill Sony, but not Nintendo handheld gaming.

smartphone/tablet gaming without a controller is just awful. On screen controls can go to hell

^ to hell and back, bro.