I very highly doubt Vita will do any better then psp did in the west.

your crazy if you think vita has any chance of out selling Nintendo 3ds . . theres plenty of doubt going on in the gamespot forums , and they all point to the truth . no one wants to play call of duty modern warfare 3 or uncharted on a handheld if they can get a better version on A cheaper alternative(ps3) they will so do it just like psp before if this is all vita can offer then it's a safe bet that it will be like psp in the west and pick up steam in japan at a later time

and psp had third party support? no more like it got ports and more ports .  the nintendo ds had more third party support then psp just look at how many games came out for it vs  psp .   the strongest titles psp has is=gta and those were quickly ported to ps2 .   and driver 76   .   also starwars games and sports games . but ds had got goldeneye/ other 007 games vita only haD 1 007 TITLE IN ITS ENTIRE RUN ---FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE DS HAD 4 -GOLDENEYE rogue agent quantum of solace blood stone and goldeneye not to mention the sims series call of duty -again no one wanted the later so .. 

you can only imagine what it will do on vita-no different

If they want money abandoning PSV is stupid move.

Sony ecosystem is much friendlier than Nintendo for bringing niche small titles overseas - not only it is region free but with huge push for digital sales you can release titles only digitally reducing costs and you mantain presence of your games on the market for years without reprints.

Instead they choose to crowd on Nintendo platform squished beetwen Nintendo own titles and 3rd party super sellers like MH or RE

I dont really see how beeing region free improves sales of foreign games overseas. If anything it would be the other way around seeing as people just imported the japanese copy.

The problem with the Vita is essentially the same problem the PSP had. Its a product development and marketing issue.

Portables are in expansion in Japan because the Japanese have a mobile life style and because they rejected the new generation of consoles by refusing to buy Xbox 360's. This bottlenecked the japanese market to portables.

On the west though, the opposite is the case. If you got a console, you dont really have much use for a mobile device unless it can offer something you cant get with your console experience. Usually, its not processing power since the consoles will always be more powerful and run of bigger and better screens.

That is where you need to diferentiate your product. Nintendo did this with the dual screens and touch pad on the DS and with the 3D on the 3DS. Nintendo does genius marketing and Sony does crap marketing. Anyone who understands a bit of the issue could tell you that the Vita was dead on arrival. The only reason why the PSP didnt fail on the Japanese market aswell was more demerit of the competitiors in the market (microsoft) and the lack of processing power on the DS (nintendo). The 3DS has a really incredible processor in comparison to the quality of the one the DS got in its time, wich permits the development of good software that was previously blocked to DS owners. Again, good marketing by nintendo.

Being region free means that only one version of the game really has to be made, and can then be exported anywhere so long as it has languages or subtitles.

And while you have a point on the western reasons for handheld, you're largely incorrect. A mobile device is for playing on the go, something you can't get with your console experience. There is also the games. Exclusive games sell handhelds. That's why pokemon continues to be handheld only, and that's why psp gets access to lots of spinoffs and niche titles, like metal gear peacewalker, and tactics ogre.

In the alst paragraph, I just have to correct you on the use of the word marketing. Having good quality hardware is strategy, not marketing. Marketing is the actual advertisements. There is a slight overlap given word of mouth being hand in hand with a particular function, but for the most part, Nintendo is demonstrating good strategy with having good hardware, not good marketing. Sony however, is crap marketing.

What I think is that Sony just doesn't market individual titles. Thinking back to all the ads I can remember, they all seem to focus (or rather not focus by being too broad) on the PS3 as a platform and all that it does rather than a specific individual game.

The Kevin Butler ads always get a laugh from me, but they really seem aimed at Playstation fans more than anyone else. None of them really do much, if anything in selling the big title of the moment.

They did that great "Michael" ad that again, seems more like fan service to Playstation owners, without targeting a specific title (instead throwing in as many character references as possible).

None of the Move ads were really title specific, although in all fairness, they were probably just geared towards selling controllers rather than games.

Take all those ads in contrast to MS ads which are specifically for a single title. Same with Nintendo once they're done with their initial general new platform/new peripheral ads.

I think it also goes back to what Sony was saying about narrowing down their catalog. I've noticed as well as you have that they seem to advertise the platforms rather than games, and yaknow, what is a consumer supposed to do if they see a game they like? Look up the "games from playstation commercial" in google?

Also, I'm really hoping he's not completely gone, but I don't know if KB is going to conitinue with Sony. I was watching the Suepr Bowl and saw a commercial with him and thought that maybe KB was all done. He's been mia ever since many weeks before the Super Bowl.

I don't feel that Sony's advertising is that poor. I enjoyed the early PSP ads (though not the middle ones or the later ones with Marcus), and after some brain-dead mistakes with the early PS3, they pulled their act together well with KB, not only because of KB's excellent character, but because those ads were usually game-focused in a way that was straightforward

We see Sony as having fundamentally the same problem (that they are trying to sell platforms on their own, and then are developing a catalogue to sell to the people who already have the platforms), but i see it more as an issue of publisher strategy rather than advertising and message.