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PS Vita Slim: Sony’s last chance of handheld success?

PlayStation Vita has had a rough ride of it since launching in December 2011. Sure, we as PlayStation and gaming aficionados know that it’s a great piece of kit, providing console-quality gaming on the go and a host of other great features under the hood to boot. However, Joe Public hasn’t taken to Sony’s high-powered pocket brick as much as the electronics giant perhaps would have liked, and after an initially strong launch period, sales have tapered off.

Fast forward to early 2014, and Sony has launched a revamped version of its latest handheld in an attempt to stimulate sales and appeal to the more savvy consciousness consumer — but is this the handheld’s last chance at commercial success?

The release of a new hardware revision doesn’t typically come this soon in a console’s market life. With PS3, Sony had been losing money on every console sold, and so the arrival of the Slim, and later, the Super Slim, ensured it was finally making a profit on its aging machine. Also, it provides a suitable entry point for newcomers as a new generation comes along. With PS Vita however, it’s clear that Sony has acknowledged the handheld’s original incarnation wasn’t moving enough at retail, and as such the Slim version can be seen as an attempt to reinvigorate sales and give the system a new lease of life.

PS Vita Slim certainly looks the business, and the fact it doesn’t take up as much room as its clunkier cousin is a plus, especially if you’re lugging it around in your pocket on the go a lot of the time. One of the criticisms aimed at the PS Vita early on is that consumers aren’t likely to adopt a new piece of hardware that’s heavier and bigger than the ubiquitous smartphones that every Tom, Dick and Harry is equipped with nowadays. PS Vita Slim certainly rectifies this to some extent. However, the main sticking point with gamers is the fact the sumptuous OLED screen is now replaced with a more standard LED version, although Sony has insisted the difference isn’t too major.

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Ultimately, it will be the software that determines the handheld’s success, and this is what is such a major concern. Already, PS Vita has seen a number of high-profile games released – Tearaway, Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation, Call of Duty Black Ops: Declassified, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Persona 4 etc – but these have still failed to significantly alter the system’s performance. If that wasn’t enough to entice crowds to pick up a PS Vita before, then one has to question the impact that the Slim model will have, regardless of the improvements it has over its predecessor. Sony needs some killer games announced this year, or Vita is going to be dead in the water come 2015.

A major problem is that PS Vita is competing in a market that is constantly evolving away from the days of dedicated gaming platforms. Smartphones, tablets and other devices have made a significant puncture in PS Vita’s market share, something which wasn’t a problem back with the PSP. In fact, Sony only this week admitted that it didn’t foresee PS Vita selling as much as PSP, unless something remarkable happens with sales.

Factoring all this, I feel that Sony knows that PS Vita is probably on its last legs as a major contributor in the handheld gaming landscape. If PS Vita Slim doesn’t give the system the shot in the arm it needs, then it will have to settle for the next best thing: a companion device for PS4, with Remote Play being the obvious pull. It’s clear though, that PS Vita Slim is probably the last ditch attempt at mainstream success for the flagging handheld, and I can’t see Sony releasing a true successor to the device if things keep going the way they are.