So the vita was designed to sell will in an alternate universe, I fucking called itط.

OP, it sounds like they might also benefit from the decline of smartphone and tablets. There will be a point where these devices are more standard then sensational. Lower end smartphones are starting to become rather practical and in a couple years time things can change. Once the majority of users get used to having smartphones, and the affordability levels change further, they will be more apt to purchase dedicated gaming systems. The PS4's future is looking rather bright and the Vita will serve as a strong compliment to it. I think in 4 years it will be a different market for Vita and it will finish out respectably.

Being designed for a different world doesn't mean it can't adapt to one it's in now.

All it needs is the right games, (God Eater 2 is a good start, Monster Hunter will come eventually) PS4 connectivity, and cheaper memory. Japan is its ticket to a turnaround. It's already doing decently there, with a strong software push it could soar.

Yeah, the Vita's problems have nothing much to do with mobile. It's hard to imagine a situation in which the Vita, being what it is, could have done significantly better than it has.

I think "just fine" might be pushing it for the 3DS, though. The 3DS is on fire in Japan but is selling on par with 7/8 year old home consoles everywhere else. It has hardly been the DS, and that is largely thanks to pressure from smart phones.

I can't see another dedicated gaming handheld ever selling that much again. Maybe if it's a phone with gaming-style controls like a more powerful Xperia Play, but the Game Boy business model has been permanently stunted, if not crippled. I'm sure Nintendo can still do well enough with the 3DS though.

The game gear was huge(not really portable),expensive and only able to run a very short time on batteries-that's the difference.

If there was no market for the vita nintendo would have never paid 100 mio + plus to capcom to prevent psp's most important game to be released on its successor.Nintendo underestimated the psp and monopolised the gamechanging game to prevent another success.

but i'm pretty sure you see a market for the (similar to the vita)struggeling wii u .

The more I hear Sony talk, the more that I think that this is their last handheld.

It's not that the Vita itself was always "doomed". There is a market for the Vita, or at least for what the Vita could have been: a PSP2. But just as Nintendo's audience is more price sensitive and thus more susceptible to mobile, Sony's audience is more game sensitive and Monster Hunter jumping ship struck Sony's handheld weak spot for massive damage.

I doubt Nintendo had to pay anything of the sort to get Monster Hunter. They're not really known for moneyhats, and although it wouldn't surprise me if they were willing to splash out some money to get Mario + Pokemon + Dragon Quest + Monster Hunter all under one roof to keep Japan on lockdown permanently, I can just as easily see Capcom wanting to keep PSP level graphics for another generation and possibly reach a larger and more mainstream audience than they had on the PSP. So it may not have taken them much convincing. And let's not forget that Monster Hunter had already jumped from PS3 to Wii.

Funny, plenty of people here including myself understood that vita needed to also be a phone to be successful.

hmmm.. disagree.. I think the smartphone/tablet market will continue to grow but more importantly it will change the precieved value of games.. Sure in the next few years the Vita will a cheap device but the games won't.. I don't see consumers switch from their smartphone/tablet gaming because of that.. the precieved value of a game in the eyes of the consumer has dropped.. there is no reason to switch from a device that gives you .99 cents games to one with 40+ dollars.. especially when heavy hitters like Madden, Fifa, licensed game like Spongebob, the Simpsons, Iron Man 3 and other popular franchises are releasing on Smartphones/tablets.. I won't be suprised of the digital games for the 3DS and Vita will go down in price a lot to battle that after more and more popular franchises releases on Smartphones/tablets..