Drinkbox was one of the earliest supporters of the Vita. The studio's Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack!!! launched alongside the system in 2012, the first indie game on the handheld that wasn't published by Sony. They followed that up last year with the critically acclaimed Guacamelee on Vita, PS3, and (several months later) the PC. Speaking with GamesIndustry International earlier this month, Drinbox's Chris McQuinn explained his affinity for Sony's portable platform.

"Honestly, Vita owners are the ****ing best," McQuinn said. "People rag on the Vita so much, and I think people who rag on the Vita don't understand, at least from a business perspective, the purchasing power of Vita owners. Vita owners are serious purchasers of games. It's an amazing system."

As for why the system is perceived as an unattractive platform, McQuinn suggested it was more an issue of hardware numbers than software sales.

"If people don't see the Vita doing the same number of sales as the 3DS, then it's automatically a failure," McQuinn said. "But I think what people fail to understand is the purchasers of Vitas are very, very engaged game consumers. For them, the attach rate with games is very high. There might not be a lot of Vitas out there, but the people who do own Vitas are very serious consumers; they buy a lot of games."

While the touch-based combat of Drinkbox's next title might lend itself well to tablets and smartphones, those platforms aren't a priority for the studio.

"For us, I think we're still going to be a bit hesitant about that market until we can see the market to be a bit safer with regards to you making a good game, putting it out, and people buying it," McQuinn said. "That's not necessarily true in that market. We've seen great games come out in that market that just don't get picked up, and that's scary. Whereas I feel if you put out a really good game on the Vita, people will buy it. So until we see that stabilize a bit, we'll probably be a bit hesitant.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2014-04-14-ps-vita-doesnt-deserve-bad-reputation-drinxbox

To be honest, I clocked more hours in the Vita than my PS3, and I love the latter. It's a great system - just not for everyone (that's fine though).

Vita reputation is bad not cuz of its sales (which are doing well in japan now) but because to most its more of an indie machine and a ps4 accessory and has too many ports despite how many jrpgs the system has.

Sony not supporting it doesn't help out (yes i know there are a few games from sony 1st party studios but not really), but it def can build up the momentum from japan spike in sales with a couple good releases ( especially AAA ones). Europe its ok in but in US it needs alot of improvement.

I dont think sales are the bad reputation, cuz if it had those AAA titles and less ports it wouldn't have such a bad rep!

That said, vita tv is needed outside of japan, not the vita slim that will only come with one color and a port of a year old game

Mmm, if we take the software/hardware ratios published here as at least some form of indication, Vita is doing fantastic business. I guess it sells mainly digital though - either that, or sales are spread out over a larger amount of titles than the console market.

Maybe Sony should market it as an actual handheld instead of an accessory? Seemed to help the PSP, you know having real games on it.

Looking at its 2014 line up the Vita could very well be my most played system. I could not be happier with it.

Neither does WiiU

As an owner of both they both have a bunch of great games and great systems themselves but the public likes to be sheep and bash on them. Yet my fave systems this gen.

NobleTeam360 said: Maybe Sony should market it as an actual handheld instead of an accessory? Seemed to help the PSP, you know having real games on it.

lol, that would indicate that sony actually markets the vita. 

I agree to a certain extent.
I don´t think that Vita software numbers prove that Vita owners are avid consumers, or more than anyone else. Right now Vita has just one million-seller with 8 million devices sold. By comparison, the struggling WiiU, with 6 million devices sold, already has six million-sellers.
Of course there´s the bundles question - plenty of them on WiiU, not so much on Vita, but it´s a fact anyway. Vita´s owners tendency to buy games seems to vary among regions due to software availability. Japanese Vita owners buy a lot more than western owners, but they also have more games to choose.

As for the device itself, it´s a great piece of hardware with discrepant game libraries: excellent in Japan, not so great in the West. But still there´s plenty of good things to enjoy with a Vita. It seems to suffer form poor pricing and somewhat misleading marketing campaign, though, in the west.

The solution? Maybe a better price (or a cheaper model) and a marketing campaign that focus on its strenghts as a portable console, rather than a PS4 acessory or a smaller PS3, showing its exclusive offerings and showing the true personality of the product.

The Vita is a hardcore gamer system. It doesnt surprise me that it sells alot of software.

The only problem is that it failed to his mass market.