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[Klart]

I remember those 50 second Wipeout loads all too well. So glad the collection exists because man the Vita just was not good enough to properly run that game.

It looked & still looks amazing though.

 

[DJ Lushious]

I'd expect them to have used L2/R2 buttons instead.

I wish they had. The back touch areas as legitimate "buttons" is atrociously bad. I can never hit the areas without swiping my finger around, which is absolutely uncomfortable.

I bought this a few months ago and it's such a game-changer. I can legit use my Vita for those RemotePlay titles that don't work around the Vita's configuration and it works wonders for other Vita games.

It's a shame, as I think this was Sony's biggest oversight with the design of the Vita.

 

[Alex Anderson]

I had outpatient surgery the day before that overpriced week early bundle came out. I had my mom pick up my preorder and I played ludicrous amounts of Hot Shots Golf until my painkillers ran out and it was like oops my arms are dead for a couple days.

Most hyped I've ever been for a game since I loved HSG5 so much.

 

[ArtHands]

Sony never stood a chance, because they painted themselves into a corner with PSP being more powerful than DS during its time. After DS and PSP gen ended, there was room for DS successor (3DS) to be better in tech while remaining affordable, but not possible for Vita to remain affordable and technologically better than PSP at the same time.

So when they revealed the NGP, it was obvious that it's not going to be cheap after showing near PS3 quality visual. They offloaded some of the cost to the memory card just to make the base system looks affordable with the $299 price tag.

And when they reveal the library, it was almost like a plead for support. Bioshock, Call of Duty etc were announced with just a logo at best, while Yakuza, MGS4 etc were just tech demos, and they even showcased tech demo as fillers. It was obvious as day that the 3rd party developers has bailed. There were some token supports like Uncharted Golden Abyss, but months after launch there were no new major titles announced to keep the momentum going. So unsurprisingly the Vita died so quickly. But back then, I remember this forum was super hyped about the Vita, even assuming prematurely that games like Yakuza and MGS are confirmed for Vita based on those tech demos.

I still remember this legendary article from Colin Moriaty about how the Vita is set to succeed. Looking at the comment section it seems many people also returned from time to time to laugh at that article.

 

[Toadthemushroom]

Sony never stood a chance, because they painted themselves into a corner with PSP being more powerful than DS during its time. After DS and PSP gen ended, there was room for DS successor (3DS) to be better in tech while remaining affordable, but not possible for Vita to remain affordable and technologically better than PSP at the same time.

So when they revealed the NGP, it was obvious that it's not going to be cheap after showing near PS3 quality visual. They offloaded some of the cost to the memory card just to make the base system looks affordable with the $299 price tag.

And when they reveal the library, it was almost like a plead for support. Bioshock, Call of Duty etc were announced without logo, while Yakuza, MGS4 etc were just tech demos, and they even showcased tech demo as fillers. It was obvious as day that the 3rd party developers has bailed. There were some token supports like Uncharted Golden Abyss, but months after launch there were no new major titles announced to keep the momentum going. So unsurprisingly the Vita died so quickly. But back then, I remember this forum was super hyped about the Vita, even assuming prematurely that games like Yakuza and MGS are confirmed for Vita based on those tech demos.

I still remember this legendary article from Colin Moriaty about how the Vita is set to succeed. Looking at the comment section it seems many people also returned from time to time to laugh at that article.

That takes me back. Here's the software sizzle trailer that accompanied the NGP's reveal. It's telling, that, as you say, third parties didn't commit support for the system at that stage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BjRHZ9C_tg

It's also worth noting that the device that *was* announced had 16GB of internal storage - memory cards weren't revealed until later.

I do think Sony hyped up the Vita (back then, NGP) in a way that was almost dishonest - for instance they specified that the system had a 2.0Ghz quad core CPU, when the truth discovered years later is that they actually downclocked it to 333Mhz, which not only makes sense considering the laws of physics and Apple devices with the same CPU cores, but also based on the performance of many Vita games.

GameCentral were ultimately on the money with their post-reveal Vita piece:

Midweek feature – Sony's PSP2 gamble

But as impressive as it is to see Uncharted running on a portable console the truth is none of Sony's first party games have ever had the sales or cultural impact that would imply they were such a necessity for the PSP2. Uncharted certainly deserves to be more popular than it is but after two tries already it seems unlikely it ever will be. Likewise Resistance, LittleBigPlanet, Everybody's Golf and wipEout are well known amongst the hardcore – but not necessarily by anyone else.

As well as showing off just how powerful the PSP2 is this line-up, which also included a tech demo for Konami's Metal Gear Solid 4, also suggests that Sony's portable is still primarily interested in replicating the home video game experience on a portable. And we've no idea why.

The success of the Nintendo DS and iPhone is all due to them offering gaming experiences that are not only appreciably different from those you'd see on a home console but also specifically designed with portable play in mind (i.e. not too complicated and playable in short bursts). The PSP has never offered this and that is at the root of its failure in the West.

In Japan the overwhelming popularity of Monster Hunter means that the PSP is viewed very differently there. But Monster Hunter Freedom's success is based on its portability and the way it encourages social interaction – unfortunately for Sony and Capcom it does so in a uniquely Japanese way which has never translated overseas.

The Japanese success is also due to the console's low development costs, which allows local developers to continue to make games purely for a home audience – just as they did in the PlayStation 2 era. It's hard to imagine how the PSP2 is going to continue this legacy though, since making games that look almost as good as the PlayStation 3 mean spending almost the same amount of money.

And this in a market where, thanks to Apple, the average cost of a portable video game is plummeting. There's a good chance that when Sony (and Nintendo) try to continue to sell their games for £30 a throw they'll have a very rude awakening. Increasingly many customers are used to paying 10 times less for games that, while rarely comparable in quality or longevity, still fill a quick five minutes with an equal amount of fun.

I preferred the Vita when it eventually became about having its own games made with its hardware in mind than emulating games from consoles. The Vita's hardware just wasn't there yet for console ports or approximations of big AAA console experiences (Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Unit 13, CoD): the screen was too small and low resolution, the CPU too weak to keep up, the analogue sticks too tiny and fiddly, the lack of buttons frustrating.

When Vita started receiving games which would have felt more at home on the PSP in its post-Monster Hunter days, I was happy. Same goes for the indie support when it was at its peak. It felt like it became its own thing despite many of the games also appearing on PS3 or PS4. The games were just a much better fit for the hardware. But this wasn't the original pitch for the Vita, and by the time the system did transform into something much more palpable Sony lost interest in pushing that vision. PS4 was, after all, announced less than a year after Vita launched.

 

[Meffer]

Just out of curiosity, what are the functionality the Switch have and that VITA wanted to but didn't get?
Could be an interesting thread.
Region free, youtube (no more... ), browser, fast OS, good and various start lineup,trophy support, retro game supporto (PSP,PSONE) remote play,...? I think the Switch looks good for the future (can be the next "vita" thx to third party support finally on N), but as a launch console has a lot of "lacks".

Oh I just noticed the NEAR is not even cited in all the thread... nice idea but completely unused after... like ever used... maybe just some launch titles... I never get why sony do this with some features....

The Vita wanted to be the handheld that could play console games. But it ultimately came up short in terms of controls and one feature that I think hurt it. One is that it only had one set of triggers and the sticks couldn't click which really limited the variety of control devs could use. The workaround was the back touchpad which is the worst gimmick the Vita has. The small space and no tactile feel (different surface) but it feel finicky and unreliable. Then there's the streaming to play PS4 games. Again wasn't used well and dropped. Only certain games work and the due to the limited controls you were handicapped. What about playing games from the Vita to the TV? The PSTV was the answer to that which is basically a Vita, problem was however that Vita games had to be patched to play on the PSTV. If a game wasn't supported for that, tough luck.
Now look at the Switch and compare the two.
Only problem with the Switch right now is the lack of VC games.

 

[hipsterbodega]

I was really excited at Vita launch. I own a ton of games for it and still enjoy it, but it didn't take long for the memory card costs to dull the love affair.

 

[Toadthemushroom]

Just out of curiosity, what are the functionality the Switch have and that VITA wanted to but didn't get?

A few things:

-Larger, higher resolution display. Switch is designed more like a portable console than a handheld, so once you snap on the two controllers it's got tablet-like dimensions than handheld dimensions. The larger screen makes TV interfaces so much more readable than they were on the Vita, while also making dense worlds sing and not feel diminutive as they did on Vita.

-Better inputs. The sticks are something like 4x larger and can be clicked. There are two sets of triggers. Makes a huge difference to how a lot of complex games feel to play.

-Local multiplayer on the go and out of the box. The Joy-Con are brilliant. I played local multiplayer on Vita for the first time ever this year, but local play has been a regular fixture with my Switch. The Joy-Con have enough inputs for 95% of multiplayer titles, and you don't need to mess around with download play or owning two Switches or copies of the game to get going. Meanwhile tabletop mode means you can get multiplayer going nearly anywhere.

-universal publishing/region free - This extends to digital. You can change the country of your Nintendo Account and access other eShops, buy content, and have content from several regions associated with the same account. At the same time, Nintendo allows publishers to publish one version of a game for the entire world, adding that version to various eShops when required, or when language support is available. This means that save files, and DLC, are region free, On Vita that wasn't the case - and different regions received different SKUs of each game, meaning DLC and saves were not cross-compatible. If you imported, say, Trails of Cold Steel 1, you couldn't use your save in a local version of Cold Steel 2.

-Much better data management - The ability to archive games is great. Leaves the icon for the game much like in Steam. launch the icon and the game downloads instead. You can delete games, too, removing their icon but keeping your save file. Interestingly Apple has mimicked game archiving on iOS 11, including an option to "offload App", which keeps the App's documents and data while deleting its install.

-Hardware power - A natural thing that's a product of release time. Vita wasn't really powerful enough for console games at the time - its CPU already meant many Vita games fail to maintain stable framerates. Likewise storage was an issue, there's only so much developers could fit on 4GB (max) game cards. Switch brings this all to the equivalent in the current gen.

-First party development. Circumstantial, and only related to first party games, but Nintendo as a company is better set up to serve a portable console than Sony was to serve a handheld like the Vita. Because Switch is Nintendo's console, their best software lands on Switch. Vita didn't quite fit in with what Sony wanted to do in the console space, so games like Uncharted: Golden Abyss and Wipeout 2048 felt like approximations of the real thing rather than the real thing.

 

[James Scott]

Didn’t buy one at launch. Got one for $120 with a game in August following its release.
The game was that medicore first person shooter...resistance I think?
Well, anyways, the hardware was pretty nice and Sony put a lot of effort into its launch having maybe the best of the last generation.

Golden Abyss was very impressive. A bit gimmicky outside of gyro aiming with the sniper, but a nice launch title.

I don’t think the memory card was that big of an issue. Sony saw an opportunity to price the system lower and recoop costs with mandatory accessories. Don’t think a $300 Vita with a micro SD card would’ve done better. Should’ve had enough for it to save, tho.

It was likely doomed by the $80 price difference between it and the 3DS before launch and Nintendo getting their shit together before the Vita launched. 3D Land, MK7, and MH back to back was hard to compete against especially since you could probably buy a 3DS with all 3 for the price of a Vita and a memory card.

 

[Firestorm ZERO]

I don’t think the memory card was that big of an issue. Sony saw an opportunity to price the system lower and recoop costs with mandatory accessories. Don’t think a $300 Vita with a micro SD card would’ve done better. Should’ve had enough for it to save, tho.

It was likely doomed by the $80 price difference between it and the 3DS before launch and Nintendo getting their shit together before the Vita launched. 3D Land, MK7, and MH back to back was hard to compete against especially since you could probably buy a 3DS with all 3 for the price of a Vita and a memory card.

I agree.

While memory card pricing was an issue, I felt it wasn't a big issue till much later when they started PS+ games and the focus towards indies - which despite the hate Shahid gets, I felt help keep the Vita the alive and have some focus. A 4GB at launch was enough unless you went all digital. Some games even had the updates, DLCs and saves stored on the physical cart (while not many).

Sony announced the price way too early and Nintendo did a huge price cut which I think Sony never expected them to do. Wasn't the price breakdown of the Vita at the time pretty much at cost? And this was around the time Sony was having financial troubles (selling buildings, etc) so they couldn't match the price or do any price cut.

I felt one of the biggest mistakes of the Vita was the timing. If they launched earlier than the 3DS even if it was weaker than the one we have now, it would of had a better chance to court more 3rd party. It was too late in the generation (near PS3 last years and PSP was dead for a long time) and rumors of a PS4 was circling around.

 

[James Scott]

I agree.

While memory card pricing was an issue, I felt it wasn't a big issue till much later when they started PS+ games and the focus towards indies - which despite the hate Shahid gets, I felt help keep the Vita the alive and have some focus. A 4GB at launch was enough unless you went all digital. Some games even had the updates, DLCs and saves stored on the physical cart (while not many).

Sony announced the price way too early and Nintendo did a huge price cut which I think Sony never expected them to do. Wasn't the price breakdown of the Vita at the time pretty much at cost? And this was around the time Sony was having financial troubles (selling buildings, etc) so they couldn't match the price or do any price cut.

I felt one of the biggest mistakes of the Vita was the timing. If they launched earlier than the 3DS even if it was weaker than the one we have now, it would of had a better chance to court more 3rd party. It was too late in the generation (near PS3 last years and PSP was dead for a long time) and rumors of a PS4 was circling around.

Yeah, we knew of the price way in advance. Rumors were that it’ll be $300+ easy but it wasn’t so it surprised many.
The timing was probably in order to get people comparing the specs and price of the two devices so people would hold off buying a 3DS.

If Nintendo didn’t go into panic mode it probably would’ve worked well.

 

[Meffer]

I agree.

While memory card pricing was an issue, I felt it wasn't a big issue till much later when they started PS+ games and the focus towards indies - which despite the hate Shahid gets, I felt help keep the Vita the alive and have some focus. A 4GB at launch was enough unless you went all digital. Some games even had the updates, DLCs and saves stored on the physical cart (while not many).

Sony announced the price way too early and Nintendo did a huge price cut which I think Sony never expected them to do. Wasn't the price breakdown of the Vita at the time pretty much at cost? And this was around the time Sony was having financial troubles (selling buildings, etc) so they couldn't match the price or do any price cut.

I felt one of the biggest mistakes of the Vita was the timing. If they launched earlier than the 3DS even if it was weaker than the one we have now, it would of had a better chance to court more 3rd party. It was too late in the generation (near PS3 last years and PSP was dead for a long time) and rumors of a PS4 was circling around.

Once the Vita becomes a legacy system, the prices for memory cards will jack WAY up.

 

[DCharlie]

love the vita but the prop. memory card prices and the loss of the PSP banner title Monster Hunter just drove a nail into it's launch.

That said the Vita still remains pretty popular in Japan - for a dead system it's doing surprisingly okay in terms of people out there using it.

for me , just being able to play Wipeout on the go and it looking like -that- :O

plus - sorry - whilst i like the weight and portability of the 2000, the 1000 is just beautiful. That screen ... <3

 

[I Wanna Be The Guy]

YAAAAAY THIS IS MY KINDA THREAD

GOAT handheld. I love you so much Vita. I always have and I always will. Nobody will ever truly replace you. You will always be in my heart. Vita means life. And if Vita means life, then life is pretty good. It's this thought that gives me strength through the dark times in this world.

Praise be to Vita. I tip my hat to you, sir.