Why PS Vita was a no-show at E3 2016 (you've heard this one before, trust me)

[Vyse]

Speaking during a chat with 4Gamer, Sony Interactive Entertainment Japan and Asia chief, Atsushi Morita, shed light as to why the PlayStation Vita was conspicuously absent from Sony’s E3 2016 press event.

According to Morita-san, the market for Sony’s handheld isn’t particularly large in the west, and due to E3 being held in the U.S. and targeting mostly consumers in that region, Sony’s focus reflected this.

Interestingly, he also said that he’s unable to comment right now as to whether or not Sony will produce another handheld system.

Source

The truth, according to what Ryan and Yoshida stated last year, is that they are no longer in the business of AAA development of games for PS Vita and are instead focusing on PS4 and PS VR. No one should be surprised at PS Vita being a no-show at future video game trade shows.

 

[Sir_Scud]

Yeah, it was really no surprise that Vita saw no love at E3. And as mentioned, with focus shifted away from AAA development on the Vita, there's really nothing to show for it anyways. Maybe a few obscure titles yet to be released, but it would've probably brought the presentation down unfortunately.

 

[Christopher]

Actually, I'm still amazed at the number of games Vita is still getting. Nothing first party, obviously, but this year its gotten Xcom, Zero Escape, Severed, and Atelier Escha & Logy Plus. All received good to great reviews.

Truth is Vita is not that far behind 3DS in number of games being published for it from 2015 forward.

I think folks need to get off the AAA expectations. That pipe-dream died early in Vita's life.

 

[Syphon_Filter]

This stupid Sony is killing the VITA. The VITA is an amazing device to have and it's shame Sony is doing that to it. Believe it or not. Last week I was at Ebgames trying to buy some VITA games but I didn't find any. I asked the guy where are the VITA game? The guy said that Ebgames received a letter from Sony to remove all the VITA games! Even Sony didn't bother to bring the 64GB of memory to North America so we can buy digital games.

 

[jj03]

i knew it was only a matter of time before the vita was killed off. lovely hardware, was just entirely the wrong time to release a handheld vs mobiles etc. glad i never bought one...

 

[Sir_Scud]

Yeah, the Vita I think just came out around the wrong time. I think it would have helped the Vita if it didn't focus on so much touch screen features and somehow had two triggers. For me, I have played some really great games over the years but the biggest advantage has been the remote play feature.

Replaying The Last of Us trying to get the platinum, the whole beginning is so slow. Nice to just breeze through it on the Vita while watching football instead. I just can't imagine a new owner emerging on the Vita unless it becomes a bit cheaper as for most, remote play does not seem to be a factor and just the games.

 

[WaxWeazle]

Fuck Sony. There, I said it.
Can make loads for PS4 and PS VR, but your fucking PS Vita handheld deserves way more praise and love than you buttheads give it.
If you actually supported it properly yourself it'd be even more popular around the globe, but no, you fucked up. It could've been a solid successor to the PSP but instead you fucked up.
And even with you fucking up, it's still a brilliant device loved by more people than you'd know.

I wish they'd get their shit straight and get more proper development going for some class A games.

 

[MacP]

[QUOTE="WaxWeazle, post: 6516956]Fuck Sony. There, I said it.
Can make loads for PS4 and PS VR, but your fucking PS Vita handheld deserves way more praise and love than you buttheads give it.
If you actually supported it properly yourself it'd be even more popular around the globe, but no, you fucked up. It could've been a solid successor to the PSP but instead you fucked up.
And even with you fucking up, it's still a brilliant device loved by more people than you'd know.

I wish they'd get their shit straight and get more proper development going for some class A games.[/QUOTE]
There is no way that the PSP could contend with Nintendo in the hand-held market

 

[Christopher]

[QUOTE="jj03, post: 6516922]i knew it was only a matter of time before the vita was killed off. lovely hardware, was just entirely the wrong time to release a handheld vs mobiles etc. glad i never bought one...[/QUOTE]

It hasn't been "killed off". And there are still games being made for it on a regular basis. You missed out on a lot of great games, frankly. But yeah.....its timing was horrible. That....and the damn memory card price fiasco. Regardless, it is worth the buy when I owned mine and I got more than my moneys worth.

 

[WaxWeazle]

[QUOTE="MacP, post: 6516959]There is no way that the PSP could contend with Nintendo in the hand-held market[/QUOTE]
That's not what I said either.
I said that the PSV couldve been a solid successor to it, the PSP had a nice range of games and was properly supported.

 

[Christopher]

[QUOTE="WaxWeazle, post: 6517003]That's not what I said either.
I said that the PSV couldve been a solid successor to it, the PSP had a nice range of games and was properly supported.[/QUOTE]

PSP was awesome. It sold 82 million units over its life. Nothing to sneeze at. Vita would have been the perfect successor to the PSP and could have continued its momentum. But Sony gave us PSP Go instead. sigh

 

[AsterPhoenix]

I think it was hard with mobile gaming gaining more momentum made it difficult for Vita to do better. Vita itself was a great machine it a shame it didn't do as well as it could of done despite memory card prices being expensive. Lot of the games I got I enjoyed even though now most of them got ported to Steam. Not sure if a Exclusive Dissidia or GTA would of made a massive sales difference.