Explain: Sony abandoning the Vita

[Dr.Henry_Killinger]

RolStoppable said:

Dr.Henry_Killinger said:

1) On the contrary, since I don't have a handheld, personal feelings don't cloud my judgement.

2) Saying the Vita has no support is an exaggeration, not having a Vita I can cleary see its still getting support.

Whether or not you like the support, and are representative of every Vita fan is irrelevant to me, because that is your subjective opinion.

Furthermore, I'm not looking at this year alone, like you seem to be.  Wii U basically stagnated for a year, getting ports of last gen games that we're basically no different. To me that is clear abandonment. 

Thats why I'm limiting it to the Vita. Show me that Vita software support has declined overall. Because Vita is still getting hardware support, its been remodeled twice, with the Vita TV releasing this month, and the version 3.35 patch its recieving. Sony has mention Vita at every conference they mention PS4, with new games coming out for it.

3) This narrative of Vita abandonment describes it as Sony pretending it doesn't exist. The main concern I here from people saying the Vita doesn't get support is that they want support that Nintendo gives its platforms. Completely ignoring the facts that Sony's main focus has always been on the home consoles, PS3 was definetly struggling, Sony is Not a Game Developer like Nintendo, and Sony depends on 3rd parties a lot more than Nintendo.

4) PS Vita's poor sales, especially in America was definetly a result of price, but it also made it a pariah in the eyes of 3rd party like the Wii U. Meanwhile, its a joke to compare the Wii U's support from Nintendo to Sony's of the Vita when they aren't even the same type of company, and Sony is supporting 2 active home consoles as opposed to 1 active handheld that has always dominated the industry and gets 3rd party support by default. 

1) This is a big fallacy. Lack of ownership doesn't mean that there are no personal feelings getting in the way of an analysis. Let's say someone is a big fan of the company that makes the product in question, that alone can be enough reason for emotional investment. In your specific case, you are a Sony fan who doesn't want to believe that Sony did not only do something wrong, but something utterly despicable by first pitching the Vita as a next gen handheld that will have AAA experiences and then turning around when sales aren't stellar and making it an indie-first machine that offers people games that didn't necessitate the original hardware specs and thus the price. What people bought the system for and what people are actually getting aren't even remotely the same thing.

2) Here are lists of games developed by Sony:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/company/13124-scei?platform=117&year=0®ion=0&devpub=1

http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/company/10631-scea?platform=117&year=0®ion=0&devpub=1

http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/company/13123-scee?platform=117&year=0®ion=0&devpub=1

Now the filters I used have probably omitted one or the other game, but the key point here is the decrease in first party software support. I have no idea why you bring up third parties abandoning the Wii U when the topic of this discussion is clearly about what the console manufacturers themselves have been doing.

3) This is just a string of poor excuses. By the time the Vita was about to launch (December 2011), the PS3 was already in safe waters. Given how much third party support the PS3 got worldwide (and the PSP in Japan), Sony's first party had more than enough leeway to focus on the Vita and get the new system off to a good start. This was a much better situation to be in than what Nintendo usually faces; their old systems don't enjoy such long periods of good third party support while the new ones won't get good third party support until they've proven themselves in the market place; this forces Nintendo to leave the old systems behind, because otherwise both the old and new systems will die.

4) Vita already lacked first party support before the PS4 launched, so the excuse that Sony has more active systems than Nintendo doesn't hold up. It's also laughable to say that Nintendo handhelds get third party support by default, given that Nintendo had to issue a drastic price cut for the 3DS only half a year after it launched; and that lack of third party confidence existed despite the DS being the predecessor of the 3DS.

Alright fine, I let you have that. I could argue against those points but it doesn't address my intial concern.

Show me how drastically the Vita's overall support has dropped from its release to now. That's the only possible way of convincing me of abandonment. 

Comparisons to the Wii, Wii U, PSP, PS2, PS3, anything other than the Vita are invalid for various reasons.