Sony announced its new portable console, "Project Q" - and it's streaming oriented

[KingVamp]

Not sure how they seen the Switch and Steam Deck, and thought that this is what people want.

 

[ChronosNotashi]

Smartphones killed PS Vita, sadly.

Nintendo is fortunate that 3DS sold well during smartphone hype era but don't sold much as predecessor, DS.

To be fair, significanty decreasing the price of the 3DS when it wasn't selling (was originally $249.99 USD, but they dropped it to $169.99 about six months later, and this was before the New 3DS), as well as some select games being popular for it, really helped Nintendo out. Plus the WiiU didn't do as well as expected, so it's no surprise that they were banking on the 3DS remaining consistent until the Switch was completed (and potentially beyond before the Switch blew even the Wii out of the water), since handheld consoles have consistently been their strongest area.

The Vita could've potentially seen close to similar success as well, despite the rise of smartphones, and its initial launch sales were fairly positive. The problem is that Sony didn't market it well enough during that early phase (and also didn't provide a good perceived variety for it to justify the price), and the falloff from that initial launch period was almost immediate as a result. Moreso when Sony shifted focus towards Western mobile games (which were already getting enough attention on smartphones) and Japan-developed games for Vita.

Didn't help that pretty much at least 80% of the Vita games that were actually worth playing were already on PS4 (or Japan-exclusive, such as with Phantasy Star Nova), or were very niche (such as with the Senran Kagura titles), so there wasn't much point in buying a Vita in the first place. Unless you really wanted to play Dynasty Warriors 8, Samurai Warriors 4-II, Final Fantasy X/X-II, or the Greek God of War games on a portable system instead of the PS3/PS4 you likely already had.

 

[JeepX87]

To be fair, significanty decreasing the price of the 3DS when it wasn't selling (was originally $249.99 USD, but they dropped it to $169.99 about six months later, and this was before the New 3DS), as well as some select games being popular for it, really helped Nintendo out. Plus the WiiU didn't do as well as expected, so it's no surprise that they were banking on the 3DS remaining consistent until the Switch was completed (and potentially beyond before the Switch blew even the Wii out of the water), since handheld consoles have consistently been their strongest area.

The Vita could've potentially seen close to similar success as well, despite the rise of smartphones, and its initial launch sales were fairly positive. The problem is that Sony didn't market it well enough during that early phase (and also didn't provide a good perceived variety for it to justify the price), and the falloff from that initial launch period was almost immediate as a result. Moreso when Sony shifted focus towards Western mobile games (which were already getting enough attention on smartphones) and Japan-developed games for Vita.

Didn't help that pretty much at least 80% of the Vita games that were actually worth playing were already on PS4 (or Japan-exclusive, such as with Phantasy Star Nova), or were very niche (such as with the Senran Kagura titles), so there wasn't much point in buying a Vita in the first place. Unless you really wanted to play Dynasty Warriors 8, Samurai Warriors 4-II, Final Fantasy X/X-II, or the Greek God of War games on a portable system instead of the PS3/PS4 you likely already had.

Yeah, 100% agree with you on that.

I had PS Vita and liked it but I was very disappointed at Sony for abandoned PS Vita and ended up sold PS Vita after PS4 came out.

PS Vita got some great fighting games, along with massive digital PSP libraries, but sadly, games on PSP's UMD only are left out, but fortunately, it is possible to play physical PSP games on PS Vita today is run the CFW and load the ISO of ripped physical copy.

 

[KingVamp]

Well, the Vita specific SD cards didn't help either.

 

[Ondrashek06]

> we won't be getting a PS2

We already got a PS2 decades ago...

 

[AkiraKurusu]

I still don't get why the PS Vita used proprietary SD cards; couldn't Sony see that was a major rip-off? A major bottleneck on the console's success?

Sure, proprietary memory cards were the norm in the PS/PS2/GameCube eras, probably because the standard SD card format wasn't a thing yet (I don't know when it was standardised), but by the Vita's time? C'mon, Sony. Real dick move, only made because you thought people would buy your proprietary crap cards for storage, when it only helped drive people away from the console and towards its competitor (which did use standard cards).

 

[Ondrashek06]

I still don't get why the PS Vita used proprietary SD cards; couldn't Sony see that was a major rip-off? A major bottleneck on the console's success?

Sure, proprietary memory cards were the norm in the PS/PS2/GameCube eras, probably because the standard SD card format wasn't a thing yet (I don't know when it was standardised), but by the Vita's time? C'mon, Sony. Real dick move, only made because you thought people would buy your proprietary crap cards for storage, when it only helped drive people away from the console and towards its competitor (which did use standard cards).

Because they thought that if the PSP was successful AND used proprietary memory card formats, they could do it again for the Vita.

That, and because Sony was the only one who could manufacture these proprietary cards, they could overcharge for them as there wasn't competition.

Now imagine the Steam Deck's popularity if they only released the 64GB model and instead of a microSD slot, it would use a ValveCARD slot, with ValveCARDs costing 3 times the SD card price.

 

[Ryccardo]

I still don't get why the PS Vita used proprietary SD cards; couldn't Sony see that was a major rip-off? A major bottleneck on the console's success?

Sure, proprietary memory cards were the norm in the PS/PS2/GameCube eras, probably because the standard SD card format wasn't a thing yet (I don't know when it was standardised)[...]

As one youtuber said, more or less...

Sony should definitely make a [quality] cassette Walkman again, yes it would lose them money, that's why only them could do it

The first standard for memory cards (SRAM and linear (unmanaged) flash) must have been the JEIDA, direct predecessor of PCMCIA, despite a real plurality of makers they weren't cheap then or now (it was "widely" used in contemporary luxury and impractical handheld PCs a la gpd and steamdeck, and survives in chiefly industrial applications), interestingly enough at least one console used it (Neo Geo) which wasn't known for low cost either!

But Memory Stick was a genuine invention and not more proprietary than the later invented SD (which is called Secure Digital exactly because it has optional CPRM drm just like MS has MagicGate, and the only patent-free way to use an SD is in SPI mode which is copied from the open-specification MMC), now M2 (Micro MS) and M3 (Vita memory card) are good examples of what happens when you combine a proprietary standard with respectively an oligopoly or monopoly

 

[SylverReZ]

A bunch of bollocks. Why can't they release another PS Vita handheld?

 

[Ondrashek06]

A bunch of bollocks. Why can't they release another PS Vita handheld?

Because they can't realize that the proprietary memory cards were the reason as to why it failed.