Why isn't the Vita considered a failure universally? Sony Fanboyism?

[endlessdecay666]

I think most recognize the vita as a bit of a flop over here in the UK, but it certainly has it's fans still. The thing that shocked most people in my opinion what the price of the games and memory card for the vita, a total of put to some people. I personally bought one but sold it due to the lack of games at the time but I am open to picking another up at some point.

Me and my partner have just come back from tokyo and it was amazing to see the large vita sections with all the Japanese exclusives, it wasn't as big as the Nintendo DS or 3DS sections but they weren't to far off. I wish the exclusives were ported more often I think it would help with the vita and Wii U's sales.

[pizzasafari]

I get that it's a JRPG niche system that fulfills a gaping hole in RPG lovers hearts.

This is why. No-one's denying that the Vita was a commercial failure, and there are many reasons as to why, but there's a small niche of gamers that the Vita is a goldmine for. There's some genuinely amazing games on the Vita. A lot of them are being ported to other platforms now so the Vita is becoming somewhat obsolete but at the time it was fantastic.

The Vita lacks many things but hardware and good games are not among them.

Danganronpa 1 & 2, Virtue's Last Reward (if you live in the UK and you want English voices the US Vita version was your only option at the time), Freedom Wars, Persona 4 Golden, Persona 4 Dancing All Night, Gravity Rush and Superbeat Xonic are all games I absolutely love, and I can count on one hand the number of games other handheld consoles have that I'm genuinely interested in.

If Sony didn't do such a piss-poor job of marketing the thing and making it appeal to developers more it would've done so much better. Thing is a lot of niche Japanese game fans latched onto the Vita because of its library, and because of this niche Japanese developers tended to develop for the Vita, so if you're into that sort of thing the Vita is literally the console for you. Or it was. It is kind of dead now. RIP. You will be missed.

[athmaus]

It was a decent system, i loved playing quite a few games on it.  I think the tablet/phone market really took a huge marketshare.  Only reason why 3DS is still popular is all the game support.  For most part really rare to see any quality games released on the Vita anymore.

[wowgek7]

I think solely because it does have games.  Wii U did not have a big library at all.  It was also generally popular in Japan, hence all the game support it got, but over here, it didn't do particularly well...The Vita has something around 1400 games on it going by wikipedia.  Wii U had 700 and the Vita is still getting games.  The Vita is this weird system that didn't do well, but had such fan support, despite Sony eventually ignoring the handheld.  The Vita is supposed to be the best for JRPG's and such from what I understand, which is probably why it did as well it did over here.

While it does have more games and a larger library, i feel the Wii U's library is way more diverse.  Vita seems to be 70-80 percent JRPG.  Which is awesome but some people like party games, action adventure, racing and such.  And vita is very limited in those .   I think Wii U has a more rounded and more iconic library of games. But in fairness i havent dove too deep into the Vita's library so i might just be biased.  .

those numbers are way off I Might be the biggest vita collector in my country  (not saying I am but I actualy might) and your numbers are way of at least with english releases  I would say about 50% is jrpg and that is an high estimate mind you.  and the vita actualy has quite a lot of racing games more then the wiiu at least

wrc 3 4 and 5 need for speed sonic all star racing ben 10 galactic racing and I know I forget a few.

the vita has some cool fighting games too and even games like civilisation and some awesome mosou games.

My goal is to have an copy of every physical released game thats playable in english  and with the games that are on the way I should be around 80% of that goal.

also its not fair to compare libaries yet since the vita still gets games every month and the wiiu is just dead.

the vita libary has all kinds of games and yeah japanese rpg is the biggest genre but far from the only one

and yes the vita is a commercial failure mostly due to sony being relay stupid about it but the vita is an amazing system

and for the people who dont believe me I am big in on vita this should prove it:)

http://imgur.com/a/KC7ei

and yes this was my collection 2 weeks agoo or so:P

[marvelvscapcom2]

I think solely because it does have games.  Wii U did not have a big library at all.  It was also generally popular in Japan, hence all the game support it got, but over here, it didn't do particularly well...The Vita has something around 1400 games on it going by wikipedia.  Wii U had 700 and the Vita is still getting games.  The Vita is this weird system that didn't do well, but had such fan support, despite Sony eventually ignoring the handheld.  The Vita is supposed to be the best for JRPG's and such from what I understand, which is probably why it did as well it did over here.

While it does have more games and a larger library, i feel the Wii U's library is way more diverse.  Vita seems to be 70-80 percent JRPG.  Which is awesome but some people like party games, action adventure, racing and such.  And vita is very limited in those .   I think Wii U has a more rounded and more iconic library of games. But in fairness i havent dove too deep into the Vita's library so i might just be biased.  .

those numbers are way off I Might be the biggest vita collector in my country  (not saying I am but I actualy might) and your numbers are way of at least with english releases  I would say about 50% is jrpg and that is an high estimate mind you.  and the vita actualy has quite a lot of racing games more then the wiiu at least

wrc 3 4 and 5 need for speed sonic all star racing ben 10 galactic racing and I know I forget a few.

the vita has some cool fighting games too and even games like civilisation and some awesome mosou games.

My goal is to have an copy of every physical released game thats playable in english  and with the games that are on the way I should be around 80% of that goal.

also its not fair to compare libaries yet since the vita still gets games every month and the wiiu is just dead.

the vita libary has all kinds of games and yeah japanese rpg is the biggest genre but far from the only one

and yes the vita is a commercial failure mostly due to sony being relay stupid about it but the vita is an amazing system

and for the people who dont believe me I am big in on vita this should prove it:)

http://imgur.com/a/KC7ei

and yes this was my collection 2 weeks agoo or so:P

 Awesome collection man . 

I know the Vita is an awesome and innovative system.  I was probably a little liberal on my percentage statement. Sony just dropped the ball on Vita just like Nintendo did with the Wii U.  The Wii U is an incredible masterpiece loved by so many of us.  But i was just wondering why the Vita doesn't seem to get the same amount of heat for it's screw ups.  We all can admit it is a commercial failure but it never gets talked about.  It always seems like the Wii U is the punching bag.  Vita has almost twice as much software through all regions and still sold less physical copies which is crazy.


It's a really amazing and innovative console just like Wii U is and both deserve all the love they get but all the heat Wii U gets for being a "failure" and a "flop" should all be thrown at the vita as well.  It gets outsold by 3DS 5 to 1 and sold like 1/5th of it's predecessors sales.  It was very underhwelming even more so than the Wii U was.  .

   Looking back i do see a few system sellers with the Vita.  Sly theives in time, little big planet vita and playstation battle to name a few but where sony made a msitake was they made those games for PS3 as well which ruined their need for the Vita.  Vita could have had those and others like the sly collections and FFX HD remaster as exclusive and dominated. 

[wowgek7]

wel the switch is not only a commercial failure due to nintendo mistakes there is more to it while the vita failure is 100% sony's own fault.

due to those expensive memorycards
lack of  first party support and that was an issue when it wasnt even out yet.

also many people didnt like the hardware the wiiu was (myself included)

so the switch has just more reasons to bash the name the tablet the wii motes etc

also the vita has very little shovelware most games arent games that deserve 9 or something but verry little games that you can considder bad as well.

they are at least ok or meh games.

[exhuminator]

I've own an OLED Vita for years and I love the thing. I totally realize it's not a mass market demographic pleaser. But as someone who loves niche games, especially Japanese niche games, this thing is great. I own 80 or so games for it, and there's a dozen more I want on the horizon. I can admit to being a Vita fanboy, and I can also admit I understand why this device doesn't appeal to everyone. The only thing keeping it alive are all the niche Japanese releases, but that genre is a lucrative angle that's still producing profit.

[mephitblue]

Is the Vita a commercial failure in North America and Europe?  Yes.  Supposedly it still sells well in Asia.

I love my Vita, it is a great system and if you love quirky games from Japan and Indies (which I do), it is an excellent system that is still alive.  Games are still coming out for it and until the Switch came out, it was the nicest handheld you could get.

Unfortunately Sony dropped the ball on the Vita.  It was a bit too expensive, had a back touchscreen nobody wanted, and those horribly expensive memory cards.  When the Vita stumbled out of the gate in North America due to those things, Sony just gave up on it.

Bottom line, great handheld that just didn't do well in the marketplace.  I'm still very glad I got mine!

[weirdfeline]

Outside of hardcore gaming audiences people see it as a failure.

A vocal minority kept Vita alive and they continue to support indie games and JRPGs on the platform so that's why it's still alive today despite being pretty much discontinued since you can no longer buy a new one at GameStop, Best Buy, Target, Walmart, etc.

The Wii U is considered a universal failure because people expect more from a home console than a handheld console.

Another point being that Sony has the PS4, so it would be pretty stupid to expect people to say Sony is dying while the PS4 is putting up huge numbers that no one expected.

[ferraroso]

Is the Vita a commercial failure in North America and Europe?  Yes.  Supposedly it still sells well in Asia.

I live in Japan, and I can assure that you are absolutely right! Of course, even here the Vita is a niche console, but it still is as hot as it has ever been and I don't see Sony killing it anytime soon. There simply is no competition in the market in which the Vita is inserted.