While the PS Vita will go down as a commercial failure, its prospects weren’t that bad when it was announced. Yes, smartphone gaming was getting bigger at the time, but Sony matched the price of the Nintendo 3DS with a much more powerful machine, and the PSP had been hugely successful, selling over 80 million units.
But everything changed when Monster Hunter 4 was announced as a Nintendo 3DS exclusive.
The series had been wildly successful on the PSP, with Monster Hunter Portable 3rd selling almost five million units on the system alone.
In an interview with Minnmax, former executive Shuhei Yoshida recalled the moment the series switched allegiances, describing it as one of the scariest and most shocking moments of his tenure.
“At the launch, both the 3DS and the PS Vita were $250, but [Nintendo] dropped the price by $100,” he groaned. “I was like, ‘Oh my God.’ Then they announced the biggest game on the PSP, Monster Hunter, was coming out on the Nintendo 3DS as an exclusive. That was the biggest shock!”
Sony, in response, attempted to create various Monster Hunter alternatives, like Soul Sacrifice and Freedom Wars, the latter of which got a remaster last month. But it could never really recover, and the 3DS went on to dominate the handheld market against the floundering PS Vita.
Yoshida went on to explain that he understood how the deal may have materialised. “From a publisher’s perspective, they don’t want one company to be dominant,” he explained. “They want competition among the platforms so everyone remains honest and keeps trying harder.”
Monster Hunter would of course eventually return to PlayStation, with Monster Hunter World on the PS4 becoming the publisher’s best-selling game of all time. Later this month, it’ll release Monster Hunter Wilds on the PS5, which is expected to enjoy similar success.
But while the PS Vita had many hurdles to overcome, there’s no doubt Capcom’s decision to release Monster Hunter as a 3DS exclusive put a nail in the portable’s coffin. It’s a shame really because Sony clearly designed the system around the Capcom series, with no need for a Circle Pad Pro or anything of that nature.
[source youtube.com]
Comments 31
I remember this. Weirdly there were still lots of stories we wrote afterwards suggesting the series could still come to PS Vita later, so I think we thought for a while it was probably a timed exclusive.
Anyway, I think the PS Vita would have struggled even with Monster Hunter, but it obviously would have done a lot better in Japan.
Yup. It's something I've been saying for quite a while and that no one brings up for some reason. It all went downhill from there.
The race to 10m is the most important and with a rocky start, the vita was doomed to fail. The snowball effect is too strong to ignore.
@naruball It likely wouldn't have made a big difference globally, I think PS Vita probably would have always struggled.
But I think things would have been a lot closer in Japan if the 3DS and PS Vita had remained the same price and the PS Vita had got Monster Hunter 4.
Obviously, that alone would have resulted in a lot more games being made for the PS Vita too, and sales overall being better across the board.
Kinda interesting that after this happened they again rebuilt their relation with Capcom to the point that Playstation is just expected to be the marketing partner for major Capcom titles.
At the time it must've felt like a dagger in their back.
@get2sammyb I really think it would have. Because every single headline from that time paint Vita as a failure. And no one wants to buy a failure. Everyone wants to buy the popular/ hot item.
There was even an article claiming that the psvita isn't going to be released in the west at all, because of its performance in Japan. Public perception is incredibly critical when it comes to success. It affects people more than they realize or care to admit; there are even academic studies that prove this.
@breakneck Maybe internally they would have been upset but they'll always have known how important Capcom is to them.
They would be reckless to burn relationships as now MonHun is back on PS and doing well there!
@get2sammyb Yeah 100%. I think the relationship seems stronger than it's ever been right now.
"Sony, in response, attempted to create various Monster Hunter alternatives like Soul Sacrifice"
I'm still sad that Soul Sacrifice didn't sold well. For me, it's one of Sony most interesting IP in the last decade. If only people buy it, at least sold like 2-3 million copies then it could be grown as big as MH and right now we could get a sequel on PS5.
I personally can't get into Monster Hunter but i love Soul Sacrifice because:
The overall game is solid but how sad that people didn't buy it 😔
@PuppetMaster It was absolutely fantastic. At least we got Delta.
Now look at the Monster Hunter Wilds ads.
To be fair I think the Monster Hunter type games on Vita were good but yeah it did lower things for sure.
At least Revelations happened on Vita right? Even if did other platforms.
Either way. Yeah some IPs do make a difference with some publisher support.
Doesn't effect me but does a lot of customers. I have no issues finding games in Vita.
A bunch of AA Japanese games, odd Final Fantasy remasters like 10/10 2 or World of Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest Builders or others (blanking on them) were fair but Monster Hunter did push PSP like Ninja Gaiden, Dead or Alive and a handful of others did Xbox OG and 360.
And now the roles have flipped, Playstation get the marketing and Nintendo misses out on the new main entries (World and Wilds). But, if the Switch 2 can handle Wilds then that will be huge for Nintendo.
And I thought scariest moment for Sony was when 12 GaaSes were anounced for PS5 and that killed whole PS5 for 4 years.
@PuppetMaster I’m really sad they never ported Soul Sacrifice to PS4.
@djlard There’s been no drought on PS5, we really need to stop pretending like there has. Maybe there will be in the future, but time will tell.
@naruball Sadly i never get the chance to play Delta and now i can't find even a single physical copy on my local online store. I guess it became rare collectors item.
@UltimateOtaku91 I think Switch 2 will get MH World and Wild. Capcom don't want to missed the chance to port and slap 60-70 bones for both games. They knew Nintendo drones gonna eat it like crazy especially in Japan where MH is treated like a religion along with Pokemon and DQ.
@get2sammyb Yeah. Talk about Vita to PS4 / PS5 port, i hope someday Soul Sacrifice + Delta, Uncharted Golden Abyss, Killzone Merc, and Oreshika got port / remaster. It's such a shame those games still stuck in a dead platform...
@PuppetMaster Or it'd be cool if they added PS Vita to the emulator and brought some titles across that way.
@get2sammyb You are right... I can bath in PS5 singleplayer games... 🤦
@djlard ps5 remasters of remasters single player games lol
@djlard There are loads of them and more coming this year. Like I say, there's been no drought. But you keep complaining.
@get2sammyb
When it comes to brand new Sony single player games, it has been a drought. We've gotten too many remasters and remakes, from the first party studios. So when it comes to NEW PS5 exclusive, first party games, it has been a slow generation.
@Steel76 that sad part u guys only care about Sony first party games when their has been plenty of third party games second party games and exclusives
the vita was still one of my favorite handhelds they still had a lot of interesting games that never made it on it though, if they did make a vita successor though i'd still pick it up.
@get2sammyb Yeah emulator also could work. If Sony did it for PS1, PS2, and PSP games then they could do the same for Vita games.
@Slayer25c
I only bought the PS5 for the first party exclusives. Everything else I can play on my PC.
But I think I rather just wait for the PC ports, and sell the console.
That’s an interesting story. I played Monster Hunter 4 quite a bit on 3DS. It always hurts my hand playing MH on 3DS. No other game on 3DS did that but only MH. 😂
@djlard as much as the games as service idea did fail and slow output - there is no way you don’t have enough to play.
2024 got the following games published by sony. There are also so many games coming out that arnt published by Sony that I have no idea how anyone is looking for things to play
Astrobot
Helldivers
Lego horizon
Rise of ronin
Stellar blade
Until dawn
And world proved that it belonged on playstation
Losing MH, especially during the handheld race, was a pretty big deal for the Vita, especially with how popular the series was on handheld. Not as big here in the west but huge in Japan.
Sony didn't match the 3DS. They undercut it. The 3DS was 270 quid when it launched Europe and was like a budget gamecube. The Vita was 250 quid, a budget PS3 like hardware and an OLED screen. It was insane.
And like others said, MH World proved people would buy a brilliant current gen MH game if they bothered to make one. They were making PS2 MH games for over a decade lol. On PS2, PSP, Wii, 3DS, YEARS of PS2 looking MH games and no evolving the technology whatsoever.
That is what the no vision, multiplat only future will look like if some people get their wish.
The power of MonHun is crazy dude. I was in Tokyo when MonHun 4 came out and you wouldn't believe the lines in front of the shops. It's something that got lost as the years passed.
I love my psvita, I'm okay with it to only become indie games console. Wish sony make another portable for streaming that can play playstation games too, not ps5 games but at least it can play ps4 games.
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