Topic: what is the future for the Vita and Sony handhelds in general?

• Sony will continue to support the Vita as is......for at least a couple more years with a mix of indie titles, Japanese games, and the ocasional port and / or Sony published third party title (ala RE: R2 or Borderlands 2). Perhaps a small hardware iteration but nothing major. The Vita lasts until about 2018 or so until Sony decides to either get out of the portable market or give it another shot.
• Sony releases a new iteration of the Vita with a button layout that supports R2-3 and L2-3 with improved streaming connectivity. Sony pushes hard that this new iteration is ideal for PS4 remote play and PS Now. Slowly Sony phases out dedicated software support for the Vita in order to make it more of a dedicated mobile PS4 / PS Now streaming device. Japanese approach remains somewhat the same as the current conditions.
• Sony supports the Vita for another year or so with indie titles and Japanese games, but ultimately decides to neglect the western market in favor of Japan. Sony eventually gets out of the portable business or focuses on Japanese centric hardware from now on.

What do you personally think?

I'll see what's behind door number three
pauses for tension

Ahhh that's what I thought. It's the most likely future for Sony's handheld business... Seriously though I think this is the last iteration of any handheld Playstation device. It'll survive in Japan for a few more years but after that they'll put a fork in the poor Vita.

I kind of hope Sony slowly phases it out. Try to land a few big third party games, obviously keep the indies coming for a while since many are suited to handheld gaming but slowly get out of the portable market. I like the Vita, the PSP was also great, but I think PlayStation was at its best when Sony focused solely on the home market.

Dead duck. I'll enjoy it while it lasts. Future handhelds? We'll see, I think streaming and such might just kill it off.

Hopefully dead.

Considering they've been trimming the fat I don't see another handheld happening even though I still want another.

It would be nice if they made a handheld specifically for streaming. Basically a DS4 with a touchscreen instead of a touch pad, slimmed down of course.

So basically a Wii U gamepad in a sense which didn't work out for the big N much.

I think he means a Vita variant thay mimics the DS4 layout. Why? Because with just the touchpad, it cripples quite a few experinces via PS4 remote play or PS Now.

Put the extra money on the PS5 and forget about your handhelds

Just like Nintendo should go completely handheld or a "fusion", imagine all the developers nintendo have on just 1 system, it would be the best system ever created

Sony should run Nintendo's console business and Nintendo should run Sony's handheld business.

Pachter should run the World

Games keep trickling out for Vita, people keep saying it's proof it's not dead while it dies a slow death, Vita dies, Sony don't make another handheld console ever again, life goes on.

As much as i would like to see Sony produce another handheld post vita I believe the biggest stumbling block in the forseeable future is that the whole original premise of the vita, console quality gaming on the go, means that is it unlikely to be technologically outdated for some time. It would be bizzarre for Sony to release a new handheld that wasnt a substantial upgrade on the prior one yet if they did it would presumably fall foul of everything that the vita has. I wouldn't rule out the possiblity of some sort of portable dual shock 4 with a screen (as alluded to in the original post) but as for a dedicated handheld, i would guess it would be some years (if ever) that Sony would produce another one.

I love it. I'd love for it to thrive and survive as it is now. As it's very much become an indie darling, support can continue for quite some time.

As for the future, Remote Play is it. I doubt very much that Sony will make another dedicated handheld again. Not at least while they keep their mobile arm, which they are rumoured to be dropping after the next round of flagship Xperia.
If that happens, then perhaps they may consider it but it's doubtful.
Streaming services are the future of Playstation in the mobile/handheld space.

Off topic, but can somebody tell me if the Jak and Daxter collection on the Vita ever got patched for improved performance?

So why do you want the vita to die again? O.o

And are you a Vita owner yourself?

Why do you want the vita to struggle so badly? It is like you have a pessemistic side of it...

It has nothing to do with what I want, those questions imply Vita has risen beyond death and bombing and come back for another round. It hasn't. Still dead, still a commercial failure, nothing has changed, it's in an even worse position than the somewhat similarly fated Wii U.

If the amount of people moaning about the fate of the Vita could get at least one person to buy a console it would be in a much healthier position.

Wii U's saving grace (potentially) is Zelda. At least it has something of a saving grace though. Saying that, Splatoon is my most wanted game this year.

Explain "dead" in your eyes. What do you see in your crystal ball? Is it 100% accurate? Where are you getting your sources from?

Edit: We will just leave it there boss, I do not want to read too much on this...