Back when the PS Vita released in 2012 it looked as if it was destined to follow in its predecessor footsteps combining first party games with amazing graphics for a handheld as well as amazing third party support  ( Most third party games found on consoles were released alongside a handheld version which was most of the time identicle to it's console counterparts) . This was true at least during the first year of it's life. Developers ported games onto the system identicle to their console counterparts ( Injustice, The amazing spider-man ), games based on popular franchises were released ( Cod, Accesins creed) and sony released a bunch of first games ( Uncharted, little big planet ). But this did not last long as games such as  Madden, Nba live 14 and a bunch of movie tie-ins (The amazing Spider man 2 ) which were staple in the psp's library were not released or stopped being released on the system. Apart from this first party titles were massively reduced with the last true sony portable exclusive being killzone: Mercenary. So people tell me; How could Sony ruin a console which was meant for a portable Gta, Cod and a ton more?

I dunno but the Vita is better than the PSP because of it. No idea why anyone would ever want to play "portable gta, cod etc". Boggles my mind. But unfortunately it also means it sells less.

Problem is PS Vita lacks identity. 3DS has mario and nintendo's popular games. PS Vita is nor a proper handheld nor a portable home console. It has a lot of games. But their release was inconsistent. Plus Sony put too many gimmicks in it. A relatively cheap one with R2 / L2 and "consistent" game release should have saved it.

Completly agreed.

Their biggest problem is that they have stopped promoting it to people who don't follow PlayStation.blog and other gaming websites. It's those mainstream gamers that help getting 3rd party AAA content to the console.

Many gamers probably don't even know that they can play AAA PS4 games anywhere on their Vita using Remote Play. And soon also PS1, PS2, PS3 games using PlayStation Now.

They also use the same plan with PS4. Not good new games, games from PS3 and INDIE.

Well I have no idea why anyone wouldn't. Imagine getting on the bus and using a 3g connection you could play cod online with friends. When you say better than the psp in what way do you mean this, the PSP did not just have excellent first and third party support but it also had a ton of Indies ( smaller games).

This. It's all I've been trying to say. 

--Plus--

Vita should have been a more focused handheld, but they wanted to implement everything at once: a social portable to compete with Smartphones (yet not doing it very well); shouldn't have focused so much on the "console experience" but releasing more stuff and more simple stuff like Nintendo does; touch screen/oled screen is okay, but too many gimmicks like the rear touch screen, using AR/acelerometer, and the glorified cross-play that looks almost discarded by now, I doubt they can still make it work with PS Now. 

Basically Vita could have worked, in a world without so many techonology right now. Instead, it lacked the focus of what people want a gaming handheld device for: consistent release of games without gimicks and including more 2 shoulder buttons would have worked better.

I don't know about portable COD, but the portable GTA's on the PSP were a ton of fun. So was GTA Chinatown Wars on the DS. 

Ummmm let it get hacked so people will pirate games for it but move a lot of hardware, cause thats basically what happened.