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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.
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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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FAST6191

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europat said:
I think smartphones / tablet and Nintendo take so much parts in handheld gaming that there not a lot of rooms left for Sony to start something new right now
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Ignoring for a tiny moment that Sony has at least a little interest in the mobile phone/tablet market I am not sure I would phrase it that way. Though I suppose if this is Nintendo doing well that is even sadder than the state of the library and upcoming releases.

I do hope this means we get a mobile phone/tablet with some features aimed at more traditional gaming.
 
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So did they admit they gave up on vita? Cause that what it seem to me. I mean They hardly ever talk about the thing but they still make updates for it. I just wonder why they quit so early. Before it was like vita this and vita that, it was like in 2012, by the time they announced the pstv within a year they just gave up on that. I mean I guess if they have a new strategy they better do something soon. I know some companies having bad flops but they are also persistent in their stuff which is good.
 
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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.
 
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I loved the Vita, but In a way I'm kind of glad they've decided against it. Assuming Sony had made a hybrid console similar to the switch, I just don't see two hybrid consoles making it in a pre-dominant smartphone gaming world. Glad to see that Sony is focusing its resources on the PS4 and Nintendo is starting to focus its resources on the switch.
 
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Foxi4 said:
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.
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That's exactly what it was. A lack of support in the US and EU markets. With so many games being ports and so few first party games being out (and so few games early on) I think Sony just decided to cut support because of the lack of sales. It's a shame since there are a lot of decent games on it, especially JRPGs. Now if only some of them would get localized sooner.
 
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Foxi4 said:
Top smartphone specs.
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I mean, not really on this point. 444mhz max CPU frequency, with the vast majority of games using 333mhz or lower, isn't exactly "top specs" compared to phones from 2012. It's more like "budget smartphone specs". Gotta remember in 2012 we had quad core 1+ghz phones with 1+GB of RAM at the time :P Of course the Vita can use more of that power vs what a smartphone could cuz of potato Android, but even then it's still far from the high end scale, technically speaking. It was basically the "perfect handheld" for the time it was released though, definitely agree on that front.

The main reason the Vita failed is people's incorrect assumption that there was little support outside Japan. The Vita had tons of first party games released for it the first 2-3 years of it's life, they simply failed on the entire marketing aspect of it. Thanks to that, Sony assumed there was no real pull in the western markets, so they focused on making the Vita a PS4 companion rather than it's own handheld. That, coupled with the outrageous memory card prices, is mainly what screwed the pooch for the Vita IMO. Though I wouldn't say it's a "failed" console necessarily, as it has a ton of great games even if you don't like weeb stuff, just an poorly received one.
 
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Foxi4 said:
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.
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Vita cards.
 
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Foxi4 said:
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.
Click to expand...

Games and Memory Cards. The lineup for Western markets was pretty poor and the library didn't get any better. Using proprietary memory cards that cost an arm and leg pretty much killed any potential it had.
 
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