In a recent Game Informer retrospective on 25 years of PlayStation, SIE CEO Jim Ryan has declared that the Vita is officially dead, along with PlayStation’s handheld business. This is not particularly surprising, as Sony mostly abandoned the Vita long ago, but it still hurts to see it said so explicitly. It’s time to finally put the PS Vita to rest with a fitting eulogy.
The Most Perfect Handheld Design Ever
I remember when the PS Vita was first announced, I had never wanted any piece of video game hardware so badly. However, I could not afford one, so my initial experience with the Vita was at a friend’s house. There, I saw that it was even more beautiful in person than it was in pictures and videos. It felt like a perfect evolution of the PSP, in that it was sleeker and elegant than most game consoles that came before it (and especially compared to the DS and 3DS line). It felt just perfect in your hands too, with rounded corners and a light build that never felt cheap.
Ultimate Couch Gaming Machine
When I finally was able to get my own Vita, it was everything I wanted. I bought it with Persona 4 Golden, and spent who knows how many hours melted into my couch switching between P4G, Hot Shots Golf, and Killzone: Mercenary. I have a nice gaming PC now, but thinking back to my Vita gaming sessions is the comfiest I’ve ever been. Sure, the Switch is a nice fill-in now, but it’s just a bit heavier than the Vita, and slightly less comfortable in your hands.
No Surprise Why It Died
Unfortunately, Sony basically ensured that the Vita, their perfect portable gaming machine, would be dead on arrival when they required those proprietary memory cards that were expensive and prone to breaking. Sure, they were trying to avoid piracy, but all they did was hurt paying customers who wanted to download all the games they wanted from the PlayStation store. They also ensured that the Vita would not be fully supported for long, as it became clear very quickly that this perfect device was a market dud.
Handheld Gaming Now Relies On The Switch
All we have left now is the Nintendo Switch, so let’s hope that Nintendo has found its permanent home with hybrid consoles. Mobile gaming has its place, but it can never truly replace premium handheld gaming consoles like the Vita. It sounds like Sony doesn’t want to go back to handheld gaming, so let’s hope the Switch lives long and that its successor is a similar form factor. Also, let’s not lose sight of the fact that xCloud can turn any smartphone into a portable Xbox… but that’s a discussion for another day.
