What would happen if Sony Stopped making the Vita?

[Squilliam]

Vinniegambini said:

Squilliam said:
It would burn their best and most loyal customers. One of the most important things a business needs is 'goodwill/trust' which is why such a subjective thing can be counted in even on a balance sheet as a significant part of the value of a business. It would also hurt the trust of the developers and publishers and we can already see the damage the PS3 has caused them, with the PSP publishers and developers had blind faith but because of the PS3 they took a 'wait and see' approach and hence we have the situation where the Vita doens't have a great level of support so people aren't buying it which leads to poor support. If they dropped the Vita they may as well not release the PS4 it would put them at such a disadvantage against Nintendo/Microsoft.

This.

Sony would lose credibility. Furthermore, developers would start looking at other alternatives (Nintendo or Microsoft) as they would not risk the investment of bringing their software to a R.I.P. console.

Sony should of not entered the handheld market as their first party software don't justify the purchase of the hardware. Much of the success of the PSP is built upon Square Enix's Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy exclusives and Capcom's Monster Hunter series and those third party exclusives seem to be locked for the 3DS. Hence, Sony is in a bad position as if it discontinues the Vita, the Playstation brand is damaged and third party developers will think twice before ever thinking of bringing their software to their console, and on the other hand if they continue supporting it, they are taking a loss.

I wouldn't want to be in their shoes that is for sure and I hope they are cooking something really good with their recent acquisition of Gakai - there is so much potential and yet there is still a dark cloud hovering over it.

Thanks.

@Bold:

Gaikai is an extremely significant purchase. I had some rough thoughts here: