Mobile Gaming Didn't Kill The Vita -- Sony Did

[bouzane]

I have a couple interesting statistics to point out. After 24 months on the market:

DS = 27,130,143
3DS = 27,125,561

As we can clearly see the 3DS was not initially impacted by mobile gaming in any significant fashion. Let's compare this with the first 24 months of the PSP and Vita:

PSP = 17,424,390
Vita = 6,791,867

That's a 61% decline and it underscores the fact that the Vita was a really unattractive product that failed to appeal to PSP owners. It flopped right out of the gate and was more than 10 million units behind the PSP after only two years. Even if you take the 10 month difference in the 3DS and Vita's launch dates into account and narrow it down to 14 months (to eliminate the additional impact of the expanding mobile market on the Vita):

PSP = 10,884,696
Vita = 4,398,075

That's still a 60% decline and it largely exists because the Vita was unappealing for a myriad of reasons (most of which have already been discussed in this thread).

Mentioning launch dates here's some more food for thought.

The 3DS launched about 26-27 months after the end of the DS's peak year.
The Vita launched about 35-38 months after the end of the PSP's peak year.
The WiiU launched about 46-47 months after the end of the Wii's peak year.
The PS4 launched about 22-25 months after the end of the PS3's peak year.
The ONE launched about 22-23 months after the end of the 360's peak year.

If you wait too long to launch a system you allow your customers to grow bored and you allow the competition to fill the void. This was a major factor in both the Vita's and the WiiU's failures and I never see anybody discuss it. Why did Sony not launch the Vita when they still had some sort of presence in the handheld market? When you are not the market leader it is even more imperative to launch in a timely manner because you are dealing with a smaller userbase to begin with.