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

[marvelvscapcom2]

Let's pull all console and brand biased aside. I love both brands very much.  I would consider myself more of a Nintendo fanboy.  But i do love sony very much.  I just wanted to see if anyone agreed on the clear hypocricy with the media and how they have been unfairly treating Nintendo as a flopping brand while giving Sony a pass on their mess ups. The Wii U is almost culturally looked at as a "failure"and a "flop" but in fairness it has more software sales than the Vita does with half as many games and hardware sales are similar between the two consoles.  So what justifies the unconditional love for the PSP successor?  In fairness the PSP sold over 80 million...  Vita only 14 million.  Most of which came in Japan.  International success it was even worst than the Wii U in the states.   

  But every vita owner or even people who don't own one will say "Vita is dope"  or "vita is underated"   I get that it's a JRPG niche system that fulfills a gaping hole in RPG lovers hearts.  But for the main variety of the thing and the way it was marketed.  It is not only the worst selling sony console but the only console sony has under 50 million in hardware sales.   It's abysmal and was never utilized properly.  It had the potential to dethrone 3DS.

  While everyone clammers on about how Nintendo is dying.  Nintendo has more hardware sales than sony because of the 3DS which outsells vita 4 to 1.   Nintendo dominates that portable realm and sony fanboys can't admit it.

  So let's put all our favoritism aside because i know the Vita is very loved by its cult following just like the Wii U is.  But can't we all agree that the Vita was a bigger failure than the Wii U and sony needs to take some heat for it?  Sony warms are hearts so much with the PS4 that we forget how stagnant they have been in the handheld world. The library is so one dimensional and that's why nobody ever really took to them. Over 1,000 indie JRPG titles and random RPGs but no variety.  Somehow Mario Kart 8 sold more software sales than Vitas top 3 selling games....     

   Nintendo has more hardware sales total than sony does.  PS4 is at 60 million,  Wii U is at 13 million,  but Vita is at 14 million while 3ds is at 80 million plus.   So the companies BOTH have blaring weaknesses.  Sony is equally failing as Nintendo is.   But it's almost unrecognized .

     Do you consider Vita a failure?  If so why not?   

[ignition365]

There is no denying that the Vita was a commercial failure.

I don't know how old the numbers are, but the Vita has over 15 million in global sales and the Wii U only has a little under 14 million.

Vita also has a much larger library.  The library in general I believe saw smaller print runs compared to the Wii U overall, but we're already seeing low availability for certain Wii U titles.

I don't know of any "system sellers" for the Vita, whereas the Wii U has/had many "system selling" titles.

I'd say they are pretty even in the failure department.

[kamikazekeeg]

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.

[rayne315]

I tend to get all my sales data from http://www.vgchartz.com/analysis/platform_totals/

[redblaze57]

Someone read the necronomicon ex mortis in front of the VITA during production so it's a deadite. Easy to kill, but keeps coming back

[thewelshman]

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.

The Vita is a fantastic handheld for JRPGs and is by far the platform I primarily play. Most of the games in my Vita collection are JRPGs, Action Adventures, or Visual Novels and that seems to be the driving force keeping it alive. As you said, while Sony seems to be ignoring the handheld, the fans support is strong and games are continuing the be released for it. Though, some of the larger named RPGs are making the leap to the PS4. Vita is still getting a lot of releases in Japan and we're luckily still getting releases with English support. Not to mention Limited Run Games churning out monthly releases. The cross-save feature is pretty nice if you want to play on multiple consoles.

[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.  .

[kamikazekeeg]

Basically, the Vita has every reason to fail, but through sheer force of will of the hardcore fans, and Japan, the Vita somehow manages to survive, when by all means it should not have lol I'm curious to see how it fairs as the Switch gains popularity and sales.  Vita still has the games, but if Nintendo can entice more developers over with their hardware, it could lead to the final downturn for the system.

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.  .

I don't think the Wii U's library is particularly all that diverse, anymore than some other systems or even other Nintendo systems, and the amount of really good games isn't particularly large.  The Vita continues because it is appealing to those that want JRPG's and Japan wants that also.  Like people buying a Nintendo console for the Nintendo games, it's people buying the Vita for the JRPG's and other action games, specifically from Japan, and it somehow keeps the system afloat.

[fauxshot]

Ignition is right about the Vita being a commercial failure, as far as sales and such go.

That being said, I do think the Vita is a good system, and I think it'd certainly be wrong to say or imply it's a trash handheld. It has a lot of games that are worth picking up a system for: Persona 4 Golden, Danganronpa 2, The Walking Dead S1/2, Freedom Wars, the VLR series, and Sorcery Saga (it's CUTe oK) among them. The issue (one that keeps me from buying many games for it) is that most of these games are now available on console or PC, if they weren't already. Disgaea 3 is great to have on a handheld... but when it's available on a home console, is it really worth shelling out the extra (even if you consider that you already have the Vita) for the Vita version? Or would you rather play Borderlands 2/The Walking Dead on a handheld, when a console version will look (and possibly play) better?

It's not that I obsess over graphics, but look at something like Hyrule Warriors vs. Hyrule Legends... sometimes certain things are lost in the port from console to handheld/mobile which are formative to the game's feel/experience.

Xcom is another great example. I bought the game two or three times, including once to take around on my Vita. Its good on the Vita, but is a much better experience on a console or PC as far as graphics and functionality go. What is lost in no way ruins the game, but when there's a higher-quality version out there for the same or less money, it sort of ruins any reason to buy the handheld version.

That being said, I know it's not all about graphics, and part of the reason others (like myself, I'm sure) buy a handheld game is because it just makes it easier to actually get more playtime in when you're traveling, or even just preferring to be able to play it somewhere in the house besides in front of a TV (I probably would have have a much harder time finishing console versions of P3/P4). But every time I look at Strangers of Sword City or Earth Defense Force on the Vita, I think "yeah, but I could buy a better looking version for my PC/PS console" and sort of just ignore it.

I know this isn't a very thoughtful post, but that's most of my argument in a nutshell. It's a nifty little system, and deserves some love, as it's got heart... it just didn't get the support it needed. And again, most of it's games are available on consoles, so that kind of kills some of it's purpose for me.

The real loser here is the PSTV. Now THERE'S something you can take a dump on lol.

[telly]

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.  .

I don't think the Wii U's library is particularly all that diverse, anymore than some other systems or even other Nintendo systems, and the amount of really good games isn't particularly large.  The Vita continues because it is appealing to those that want JRPG's and Japan wants that also.  Like people buying a Nintendo console for the Nintendo games, it's people buying the Vita for the JRPG's and other action games, specifically from Japan, and it somehow keeps the system afloat.

Personally, I find it surprising how much of the Wii U library is actually saturated with either shovelware, past gen re-releases, or bad movie tie-in games. Just do a quick scan through the first few pages of the Wii U library and you'll maybe see what I do. At least the Dreamcast had good third party support from Capcom and such. :/

[jsgd241]

I feel that the Vita has this public perception that Sony completely abandoned it shortly after launch. leaving it almost entirely to indie and 3rd party Japanese developers to keep it alive. making it an underdog with lots of vocal fan support.

Whereas with the Wii u Nintendo never gave up on it and put out a lot of great first party software but it wasn't enough not helped by the almost no existent 3rd party support.

BTW I love both systems but if you look at my collection you can tell I overall prefer the Vita but I could talk about it's shortcomings all night. like how almost every game is a port or has been ported to another system meaning there is no real reason anyone NEEDS a vita lol.

 

[toffepeer]

Why did the Wii U got involved and why does this turn out in a fanboy war. Like come on guys even OP is doing some hardass fanboyism (even though he stated that he isn't).

My opinion: the vita is a commercial failure, even though I don't like admitting it. It is a great system with great support from the fanbase and japanese developers, it's just a shame that Sony and western third party devs let the vita rot so soon. vita is highly underrated imo, but I understand why it does shitty in the western country's.

On another note I think the 3DS marketing from nintendo was great. Having a lack of titles in the beginning and then non stop releasing first party titles and great third party titles to let it be alive. Now it has taken over the portable market. And you can see the same trend in the switch nowadays too.

And now if I can go back in time and may choose a 3DS or a vita (or potentially a switch). I will still choose for the vita. The games that are coming out for it (read for me) are more interesting then 3DS and Switch. It's a different system with a different market. The vita get pumped with good JRPG something that is in a less way on the 3DS and definitely the switch.

[kamikazekeeg]

Why did the Wii U got involved and why does this turn out in a fanboy war. Like come on guys even OP is doing some hardass fanboyism (even though he stated that he isn't).

My opinion: the vita is a commercial failure, even though I don't like admitting it. It is a great system with great support from the fanbase and japanese developers, it's just a shame that Sony and western third party devs let the vita rot so soon. vita is highly underrated imo, but I understand why it does shitty in the western country's.

On another note I think the 3DS marketing from nintendo was great. Having a lack of titles in the beginning and then non stop releasing first party titles and great third party titles to let it be alive. Now it has taken over the portable market. And you can see the same trend in the switch nowadays too.

And now if I can go back in time and may choose a 3DS or a vita (or potentially a switch). I will still choose for the vita. The games that are coming out for it (read for me) are more interesting then 3DS and Switch. It's a different system with a different market. The vita get pumped with good JRPG something that is in a less way on the 3DS and definitely the switch.

Makes sense to generally compare the Wii U and Vita.  Slightly different market being that one is a handheld and the other a console, but they released in similar windows and both have had poor commercial success.  In the end, the Wii U died to make way for something that will sell, while somehow the Vita clings to life through sheer willpower, almost entirely hinging on the fact that it has a ton of games.  It's crazy to think, but these two released within a year of each other, but the Vita had twice as many games.  I think that's the only reason the Vita continues to exist, is that developers, I think primarily Japanese developers, are pumping out the games for it.

[ignition365]

One thing that nobody has mentioned so far... and I feel the Vita would have been more commercially acceptable had they done otherwise... the proprietary storage format.  I own 2 Vitas, I've never played through a game on the Vita because of the proprietary storage format.  I think about playing a game and I have to figure out which of my 4 memory cards has space or the save data I want and then I give up.  Wii U has at least some internal storage (read as that the Vita has none) and is expandable via external USB storage.

PSP technically used a proprietary storage format, but the Media Stick had been around already for a while and wasn't exclusive to the PSP, I've had a computer that had a reader specifically for Media Stick and I'm sure older Sony cameras, phones, etc probably used it too.  Not to mention there were plenty of adapters out there that would let you stick micro sd cards into a media stick to put in your PSP.  It was more acceptable on the PSP than the Vita.

[ferraroso]

I live in Japan and, at least here, I don't see the Vita beeing officially discontinued anytime soon...
Although it is far from being a comercial success, it has no competition in its own niche and, even though Sony has long stopped releasing first party games for the system, at this point (almost 6 years after its initial release) I believe that they should have drastically reduced the manufacturing costs enough to keep their sales lucrative.
It will never be the hit that the PSP or the DS were, but Japanese game retailers are crammed with games for the system and a dozen of new releases come out every month around here.
I own the Vita since day one, but I own only a handfull of games to the it and neither love nor hate system, but if Sony chooses to stop producing it I cannot imagine where all these niche games would migrate to...