Sony reaffirms that they do NOT plan to create a Vita successor

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With the Nintendo Switch taking the gaming market by storm, it seems like there's a perfect climate for Sony to step in and create a handheld to compete with Nintendo's hybrid, much like they've done in the past, with the PSP and PS Vita. However, Sony Interactive Entertainment's CEO, Andrew House, disagrees, and is quoted as saying the following during an interview with Bloomberg JP.

The Nintendo Switch is a hybrid device, thus it has a completely different strategy from the PlayStation. We are focusing our attention on products that can specifically be played from the living room. We do not see potential in the handheld market.

It seems PlayStation has been adamant about there not being a new PlayStation handheld, as House has been quoted as saying such multiple times. What do you think? Is the handheld market too saturated thanks to the rise of smartphones, or that after the DS and 3DS dominating the PSP and Vita, it's high time that Sony relent and focus on their flagship PS4? Or that Sony is missing out on a huge opportunity?

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p1ngpong

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literally the whole selling point if the PS4 was that it was the most powerful console ever, but with the XbOX that is no longer true. I think finding a way to portableize the PS4 (with backwards compatibility) should be heavily considered at least, unless they think they can win the graphics race that has already passed the point of diminishing returns. They seem to be doubling down on vr, not sure how that will go.

if anyone comes out with a true Sword Art Online esque thing it will probably be Sony. They might be researching direct neural interfacing now.

They have no need to go down the portable route with PS4 and BC obviously makes no difference in sales as the PS4 has sold a boatload from day one. Most powerful or not the Xbox is dead in the water with almost no games worth caring about as a selling point for it. Has the new xbox even made a dent in the PS4's sales figures? Will all the millions of people already invested in a PS4 jump over to a platform with almost nothing going for it for the sake of power? I don't think so. I still don't understand why MS invested so much in making a hugely powerful console but have seemingly invested nothing and are not even attempting to secure some exclusivity for it.
 

Nekomaru

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Well, House is about to step down as the chair of SIE by the end of the year, which might suggest he is alone with at least some of his opinions... Virtually we can get an announcement of a "New PlayStation Sweeta XL" handheld even on Jan 1st 2018.
 
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Well, House is about to step down as the chair of SIE by the end of the year, which might suggest he is alone with at least some of his opinions... Virtually we can get an announcement of a "New PlayStation Sweeta XL" handheld even on Jan 1st 2018.
I seriously doubt that anybody's screaming "MORE SONY HANDHELDS!!!", so I think we're good.
 

ZeroX504

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The Vita is not dead only thanks to the homebrew community. I think $ony failed the Vita due to the stupid memory stick's prices, they are ridiculously expensive.
 
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th3joker

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the original psp was never a run away success and being hacked did scare off 3rd party AAA support to the vita. the vita never got a metal gear solid, or a gran turisom or a grand theft auto, ya know system sellers. sony was more commited to the psp and it being the sony branded gamboy for teens and young adults vs the nds catering to children. the vita was a here this is what we wish psp was but we are not commited into hyping up something we dont even want to develope games for. . ... that being said id still like to see a pspgo esque psvita 3.0 with a cradle dock pstv and ds4/ds3 support. make the vita like the switch. i still love my pspgo and its cradle and component cable and a sixaxis controller since psp games dont have rumble anyways
 

gnmmarechal

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I can see how Sony would be discouraged by the market's response to the Vita - it was as close to a perfect handheld as you could get. Top smartphone specs, great screen, 3G, WiFi and BT connectivity, dual analog sticks, the Vita was awesome. I still can't quite wrap my head around why it failed - its only shortcomings were superficial. It needed support, but it never really got much outside of Japan. Shame, a big shame.
Top smartphone specs? It had a 444MHz Cortex A9. The Galaxy S2 (April 2011) has a 1.2GHz Cortex A9. Granted, the Vita's a quad-core whereas the S2 is a dual-core, but still, my point stands.
 

Kioku

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Between expensive proprietary hardware and awful ergonomics. It shouldn't be a surprise that the Vita flopped. The first gen had that shitty cable that broke due to how flimsy it was. The slim gave us Micro USB cables, but didn't change the memory options. Even the 8GB card that came with the first slim models was filled so quickly.

The PSP was a fun system. However it was so damn uncomfortable to hold. Couldn't ever get a proper grip on the system, so extended playtime would kill my wrists. The Vita actually made it worse. Between smaller buttons and awkward stick placement, you practically HAD to buy a decent grip. The DS line and 3DS line aren't much better, but I never had a problem with long sessions

It was obviously the more powerful of the two handhelds, and it has a nice library to look at. However, half of the titles that are worth a damn came after the general consensus that the system sucked.
 
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geodeath

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Well the market has definitely changed. Many people who relied on the DS/3DS/PSP/VITA for portable gaming were casual gamers (just check the ads selling ds, 3ds, psp and vita consoles and see the titles coming with them) that could not care less today, as many 'game' on mobile phones and tablets.

And i am pretty sure that if the switch was released as a device with a portable and home consoles alternative (so the home would be just a box, no screen no nothing, much like other consoles), a big percentage would buy that instead of the portable one. I would for sure.
 

TehCupcakes

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I wouldn't say there's "no potential in the handheld market", but I don't think Sony has anything new to offer at this point that would make a new handheld successful. Between the 3DS, Switch, smartphones, and Vita, there is just no room left in the market. As far as sheer power and mechanics go, the Vita is still close to perfect for a handheld in present time. No major technological advances have been made that would dramatically change the experience with a new system, so it would be a hard sell to get people who own a Vita to upgrade to a new handheld. Smartphones and the 3DS basically beat out the Vita, and nothing has changed since then that would give them any more success. It would take a dramatic innovative breakthrough for Sony to have a successful new handheld, so I think it is wise of them to hold off right now.
 
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They just needed to support it more. They put all that money into to just. . . .pretend like it don't exist. The vita is still a great machine and there are developers/publishers that are still willing to support it at least. Releases may have slowed down, but there are still games being released for it.
 

TankedThomas

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Not surprising. They made two solid systems (especially the Vita) and completely mishandled both of those. If Sony released a third handheld, they'd likely only screw it up again because they're almost as incompetent as Nintendo.
I mean, hell, the Vita just copied the PSP:
  • Expensive, proprietary memory cards - check
  • Lack of first-part support - check
  • Next to no new features added to the OS - check (and also, a lot of homebrew and plugins have been adding simple features which Sony refused to add, but they just patch up the system instead of adding those much-desired features because "muh piracy" - oh the irony)
  • Too much stability - no check because there can never be enough stability
  • Poor PS3/PS4 compatibility - fucking check check check because even when it worked, it didn't often work well
  • High price - check
  • Lack of support immediately following release - check
  • Abandoning/half-assing supposedly big features (I'm looking at you, Near) - check
You get the idea.

And this is coming from someone who loves handhelds in general and owns two Vitas.
 
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weatMod

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i think that sony should sell the rights to the vita to valve and have them manufacture the next one for obvious reasons
 

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