Is the Vita Dead?

“if the Vita is dead then it must be a zombie as it sure as hell ain’t taking it lying down”

The PS Vita was released in February 2012 and I have to admit that I was a little bit dubious. When the original PSP was released I was an early adopter and overall I was…underwhelmed to say the least. The console looked shiny and exciting but it just felt chunky and heavy to hold. I completely understand that handheld consoles are supposed to be used for short periods of time but some days even after just using the system for half an hour my hands would be aching. The lack of a second analog stick really didn’t help and I felt that some games just really struggled without it. 

I also felt that the gaming catalogue lacked anything that really set my heart a flutter. Sure there were some games that I really enjoyed like the colourful happy world of Locoroco and playing as the cheeky rascal Daxter in his own self-titled game. There were even some pretty good exclusives from popular series such as Crisis Core: FF7 and Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. But I felt that overall the console never really lived up to its full potential. The weight and feel of the console made me reluctant to get into any games that were long as I didn’t want my hands to permanently turn into deformed monster claw hands leaving me unable to release my grip on the PSP. This was definitely an issue for me as I love super long Japanese RPGs so being unwilling and unable to play it for long periods of time was very off putting. So I vowed to dismiss the PSP as an expensive mistake and to never return to Sony’s portable offerings, instead sticking to Nintendo’s family (and hand) friendly offerings on the DS.

So when the PS Vita was released I looked on with mild interest but had already made up my mind that I really didn’t want to jump in this time. I wasn’t even that tempted when I saw that they’d made many improvements to the hardware. It was lighter, and more powerful, it had front and rear touch-screens, a Sixaxis motion sensing system, a camera on the front and rear and, in my opinion, one of the most important new features… a second analog stick. It all sounded very nice but possibly a little bit gimmicky, two cameras and two touch screens…anybody else think it sounds a little like overkill? I really couldn’t imagine many games using all the new features and if they did then some of them might feel a little forced. That is an issue that I think the Nintendo Wii suffered from at times.

So that’s it I’d made up my mind and wasn’t going to fall for the temptation of this new shiny, powerful machine. Nope definitely not going to do it…not interested at all…

In 2013 I finally joined PS Plus – the service which, for a small subscription fee, you receive access to a selection of different games from the PSN catalogue on a monthly basis. By the summer of 2014 I had quite a substantial list of games sitting in my download library just for the Vita. The more I looked at the list the more I thought wow. I’d been given access to games such as Virtue’s Last Reward, Gravity Rush, and Uncharted: Golden Abyss to name just a few. They all looked pretty fun and ticked all the boxes of having great graphics, rich storylines and fun gameplay. When I looked down at the ever increasing list of games I was being given access to I realised that I’d be stupid not to give the Vita a chance, so I did, and boy was I impressed!

Reading a list of specifications really doesn’t give the Vita justice, you need to hold it in your hands, see the screen burst into life and the colour on the screen wash over you. Even the user interface (UI) is a breath of fresh air, instead of the XcrossMediaBar interface that the PS3 and PS4 has, the Vita has a unique touch-screen based UI which is really fun to play around with. Seriously, I’ve never had more fun with a UI. It actually feels quite relaxing to wiggle the menu screen and see all the applications jiggling about, or swiping down and across to peel an application off the screen in order to close it.

Through the PS Plus service, and my own purchases of games such as Danganronpa and Persona 4 Golden, I have access to a vast library of really varied and incredibly entertaining games. I enjoy my new Vita so much that I even prefer it over my other home consoles, even with my Sony Bravia 50inch TV and comfy sofa setup it struggles to compete with the portability and beauty of the Vita.

Let’s move forward now to 2015 and the ever eloquent Sony Execs gave their usual end-of-fiscal-year presentation to investors. One statement in particular stood out, CEO Andrew House referred to the Vita as a ‘legacy console’. Legacy generally means that a company has plans to fade out support so that means reducing first party games development, reducing application support and the decrease in manufacturing of any new stock. After the conference, when various online gaming sites started pumping out stories announcing the death of the Vita, Sony was quick to release a statement that what Andrew House actually meant was that the first generation PS Vita models were considered ‘legacy’ not the current PS Vita model or PS TV. So did anyone really believe the hasty correction? Not if the online forums were to be believed. The Vita had already lost support for Maps which also meant that it’s Near app had effectively been rendered useless. Ok, admittedly the Near app had always been pretty pointless but it’s still never a good sign when companies start removing things. Perhaps more worrying was the YouTube app being removed from the Playstation Store and no longer supported. You can still access YouTube through the web browser but again it’s a worrying sign to remove an app especially such a well known one. To top it all off Shuhei Yoshida, President of Sony’s Worldwide Studios announced that Sony Computer Entertainment won’t be making any more AAA games for the system.

So we have no first party games development, check, declining application support, check, and declining manufacturing. Admittedly I don’t have their manufacturing figures but I’d be really surprised if Sony wasn’t decreasing the number of PS Vita consoles being manufactured especially with the success of the PS4. Overall it definitely sounds like they’re treating the Vita as a legacy system.

So is the Vita dead? Well if the Vita is dead then it must be a zombie as it sure as hell ain’t taking it lying down. The Vita has had some really awesome games this year such as Steins;Gate, GrimFandango Remastered, Oreshika: Tainted Bloodlines and OlliOlli 2. The releases for next year are also looking really exciting with the likes of Rainbow Skies, World of Final Fantasy and Zero Escape 3 all coming to the system.

The Vita is also an excellent system for indie games it’s the perfect home for all the slightly quirky and thoroughly enjoyable adventures made by indie developers. Lots of indie games released on the Playstation Store are cross buy and cross save between the PS4, PS3 and PS Vita which means you can play at home infront of your big TV but then when you leave the house you can continue to play on the move with the Vita. The Vita is such a versatile console and it’s a shame that Sony aren’t properly supporting it or advertising it as like they’re advertising the PS4. Thankfully the Vita still has great support from third party developers and indie developers. The Vita still has some great years ahead of it and you only need to look at lists of upcoming games to prove it.