Topic: What is it going to take to make the vita successful in the future?

Hi there, I am new to this site. I have been wondering... With all the talk about vita and both sides seem to say that this has a ton of niche JRPGs and Indies while some people complain about the lack of quality AAA games for this system.

What is it going to take to ensure the vita has a bright future dispite it's mishaps and to get people to agree that the vita is a success? Not trying to offend anyone here, so sorry if I come across that way.

1. Someone at Sony Japan buys a DeLorean.
2. Said Sony Japan employee reaches 88mph and goes back to when the Vita was being created,
3. That employee makes Sony realise every single decision they've made leaves the machine all but dead within eighteen months.

I think much as @rastamadeus alludes, there just isn't room in the market for this type of device anymore. It's doing reasonably in Japan, but the rest of the world has moved on. Nintendo has kept the 3DS relevent globally because it has a stronger stable of brands. I just don't think the handheld market makes sense for Sony anymore.

That said, the device that they did make is very cool, and personally I'm happy with the software selection we're getting. I know I'm in the minority, though.

I like my Vita, but it would be better if it didn't have a rear touch pad, and had analogue shoulder buttons. It also doesn't need the cameras. Basically, if Sony had made a portable with less gimmicks that focused more on core games then it would have done a lot better. It's still the best handheld IMO, but it should have been better. It should have been a PSP 2.

Best answer.

I like the Vita but it was obviousy a poorly planned and honestly, ill-advised, release. Sony has always been better in the home console market and its best years were the PSone generation and prime years of PS2 when it focused solely on the home market. That never should've changed.

So does the future look bleak for this system and will prevent us from enjoying it?

You enjoy as much enjoyment as you put into a system. There are games out there and even if they discontinue the system and games there is nothing stopping you from enjoying it.

Why do people think that they wont enjoy the Vita if Sony stops supporting it. Heck I enjoy the heck out of my older systems like the NES, SNES, Dreamcast etc., and the companies that supported them have long since stopped.

The future looked bleak for the machine even back in the early months of its life cycle. Didn't stop me from enjoying plenty of games like Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Gravity Rush, MLB The Show, Mortal Kombat, Killzone Mercenary Injustice: Gods Among Us, Muramasa Rebirth, Dragon's Crown, Guacamelee and many more games. Like @Tasuki posted, you get out of the system what you put into it. Dreamcast only had a 2 1/2-year run, hardly what most people would call a success by any means, but I'd put that in my top 5 favorite systems (home or portable) of all-time without hesitation. I owned one during those years and while it only lasted a short time there was no shortage of great games which hit retail on a regular basis.

First you drop the price of the memory cards, then make an Infamous game, bundle Vita up with a game, and have 2nd party studios make AAA games.

I bought my Vita off eBay least year for £65 and the guy selling it forgot to remove the 16GB memory card so all in all it was a bargain for me .

I really like the Vita and think is has some great games. My favourites are Swapper, Minutes, Whoa Dave, Resogun and Rock Boshers DX. The remote play to my PS4 is great, but, I agree with @Wesker with regards to the rear touch pad, it'd be far better to have 2 shoulder buttons. Playing FFXIV remotely looks perfect, but, it tricky to play using the touch pad.

Is the Vita doomed? I'd really hope not, but, I'm still to find the absolute must have game for the Vita.

They could be turned into clogs? It maybe should have been dumped earlier and they should have released a new version which is more or less just a dualshock 4 with a lovely screen

Best post I''ve seen all day!

The Vita is just like the Wii U. It has very strong first party games that can keep you coming back to play, but after a while it just ends up collecting dust. Now, from someone who ended up getting rid of most of his old systems, you end up thinking that's a better choice then...only to realize that it was the dumbest mistake. Just think to yourself this...If you got rid of it and your games, would you miss playing them, or would you end up wanting to play one of those games again maybe 10 years down the line. After reading some of the other posts from others, they have a clear idea...if it has games on it that you enjoy, and you're getting your money's worth of the system itself, then it's a good system for you. I had a dreamcast too...at times I played it more than the N64. I loved the dreamcast until my system ended up dying completely...lots of great games on it! The vita has a lot of great games on it, so it's loved too!

Yeah, even if the Vita never got another game, I still have stuff like Persona 4 Golden in my backlog. It's got a lot of life left in it for me - and while the situation does look bleak for big-budget Western stuff, it is still getting niche games from Japan and tons of indie stuff.

I prefer playing the bitesized games on the Vita, to be honest.

The Vita has a future, but Sony is dead serious when they see it as an extension of the PS4 in the west. With PS Now and remote play, you theoretically get more AAA titles than you could ever finish. Now, I know this isn't what the hardcore Vita faithful want, but this is the reality of it, hence why it seems like all of the handheld Sony developers have jumped ship to the PS4 minus Studio Japan. So yes, you'll get indies, you'll get some Japanese titles, you'll get collections and ports, and you'll get the rare third party AAA title backed by Sony (Borderlands 2 and Revelations 2).......but for everything else, it's called remote play and mostly PS Now.

If you want a bunch of exclusives, take your Vita with you during your flight to Japan, or buy a 3DS.

Whether the console is dead or in vibrant health your own time with it is what matters. The Saturn and Dreamcast were abysmal failures sale-wise yet are in my top five consoles, each with dozens of games I still play today.

Again, Sony aren't remotely interested in developing a game for the Vita and even if they were bar a handful of people who's gonna buy a Vita for inFAMOUS? People wouldn't buy it for COD or Assassin's Creed. I doubt even a quarter of the money making the game would be made back so what would be the point in making it (from a business perspective)?

What are the first party games? Since I finished the story mode in Gravity Rush I've not touched a single first party game. Not starting a row or anything, just curious. Only first party game I'd consider a MUST HAVE (which, lets be honest, is what nearly all of Nintendo's games are if you own a system of theirs) is Tearaway and even that only lasted a few hours. I can get comparisons between Vita and Wii U in several ways, just not that one. Nintendo support their machine whether it's doing good or bad, Sony jumped ship at the first sign of trouble and haven't shown any interest in coming back aboard.

To be honest I feel like sony have developed/funded more first party games for the vita than they get credit for; LBP, Sly Cooper thieves in time, killzone, resistance, modnation, wipeout, uncharted, PSAS, Freedom wars... and a few more besides. However i feel that the release schedule for such games was pretty poorly spaced such that there hasnt for some time been a consistent stream of new first party games. So in that sense i agree that they did somewhat 'jump ship' when it became apparent that the vita wasnt going to be massive sales success, but personally when you look at the raw numbers (not accounting for quality) of first party games I dont think they have done as poor job as they are generally credited with.

Bill Cosby to start ranting about how much he loves his 3DS.

Thing is, not one of those games you listed are system sellers in any way or even must have titles if you own the handheld. The majority of the first party titles (LBP, Killzone, Uncharted, Sly, Resistance) are console games put on a handheld, which is not what you do on a handheld. It's no surprise the only WOW game Sony have released on Vita is Tearaway as it is built from the ground up for short plays. The rest aren't - even the good ones like Gravity Rush and ModNation. If you look at how many games Sony have done on Vita and there's only one success it shows they really don't give a toss. They never did. They wanted some of Nintendo's money, created a powerful and beautiful machine but, once again, failed to even look into what the market wants from a handheld console. Nintendo have seen off every single pretender in the handheld market because they get it, Sony don't and never seemed like they wanted to sadly.

Well to be fair they had the right idea with KZ, as that was clearly designed with bite-sized chunks of play in mind.

Also, some of the biggest system sellers for 3DS are Monster Hunter and the Zelda games, which started out life as console games/series before being brought to handheld. It's not really all that different to what Sony tried at all, it was just incredibly poorly marketed, leading to a reduced consumer appetite as most of the general public weren't even aware of it's existence!

But, either way, as other's have already pointed out, you get out what you put in and I love my Vita, so I'll be happy whatever happens