Sony now Calls the PS Vita a “Legacy Platform” Outside of Japan/Asia

[MikeRox]

Shadow1980 said:

MikeRox said:

Handheld market now so bad EA can't even be arsed to reskin and re-release the same game anymore. No more FIFA on handhelds.

http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/PS+Vita/FIFA+16/news.asp?c=65623

And before all the "well meh, FIFA sucks ya boo" stuff. It's yet another genre (and so appeal) of the handheld market killed.

4 million sales globally across 13 games on the DS & 3DS, for a staggering 307,700 per-game average. Clearly FIFA was tearing up the sales charts on handheld Nintendo systems. Or not. It probably hurts Sony more, with FIFA selling 10 million copies across 17 games released on the PSP and Vita, but even then you're still talking about the series averaging half a million per game (though most of the main series entries sold over a million). With DS & 3DS owners not caring much about FIFA (we're talking a negligible percentage of DS owners here buying even the best-selling FIFA game for the system) and the Vita bombing, EA probably isn't bothering. With the handheld market being so staggeringly large last generation, even EA took the time out to release a game series that generates most of its sales in one region, but EA was never a huge player in the handheld market to begin with (they had moderate success with Harry Potter and The Sims games for the GBA and DS, but that's about it), so, uh, big deal if they're not bothering with FIFA anymore.

 

EDIT: Oh, and Soundwave, I've been over this with you before on this subject in past threads. I'm not getting into another circular argument with you on this. I've explained all that I need to.

more and more companies and franchises ditching handheld is "big deal" actually. Yes, it's a downward spiral. The less varied stuff coming out, fewer and fewer people will be interested in handheld, so even less varied stuff coming out.

FIFA used to do a lot better on handheld. And EA support used to be a lot stronger too. All their main franchises were put on handhelds. Now they've abandoned dedicated handheld completely. The case is the same for pretty much all the other major Western publishers. Their games are now hitting mobile instead.

If you don't think the biggest publishers in the industry categorically stating they're done with it as a medium is a big deal, then we've nothing left to discuss.  The decline of Western handheld development is pretty spectacular, and it means the success of dedicated devices is on a sharply downward trajectory.

Handheld is officially becoming a minor niche in the industry. You can ignore it as much as you like and point to the whopping success of the few remaining handheld titles that do sell in significant amounts. But even those will start to feel the decline in the long run if no fresh blood is pumped into Handheld.