Vita autopsy: What Went Wrong?

[bouzane]

Soundwave said:

bouzane said:
The Vita's hardware was the source of all of its problems. Sony should have used significantly less powerful hardware in order to cut costs and provide an affordable system. Additionally, they should NEVER have used those proprietary memory cards.

If they had launched a pared down Vita a full year before the 3DS (it's not like they had to worry about cannibalizing the PSP's rapidly declining sales) at a lower price without those insanely overpriced memory cards it would have been far more successful than it was.

Why would an adult buy such a device though? After smartphones came out it doesn't matter if the price was $100, it's $100 more than anyone wants to spend. No adult/teenager wants to carry around a bulky second device when they already have a smartphone. 

With regards to the kids market -- would they have Mario Kart, Mario, Pokemon, etc.? No? Then they were always losing to Nintendo no matter what. 

The whole "lets aim for older teens and adults" tactic that Sony uses for consoles doesn't work for handhelds. 

Sorry but humanity is not homogenious, some people have different opinions and preferences. Smartphone gaming blows as far as I am concerned and I want a proper handheld (guess what, I'm an adult). Sure, the dedicated handheld market is clearly shrinking but that does not change the fact that the Vita was grossly overpriced and too late to the market. If Sony had not bungled up the Vita's specs and launch so badly it would certainly have been more successful (there is no excuse for such an abject failure, regardless of the competition from smartphones).