At least until they receive a worldwide price cut. In Wii U's case not until a successor is ready. Vita is a minor part of Sony's business; Wii U is a fundamental product for Nintendo. They need to ride that out until all games are out even if it's not doing well until it's at least 5 years old.

Sony? Until my dead. I will love and support all that time.

For Vita id say at least another year, it will probably get a western price cut sometime in sept when Killzone/Tearaway release then from Oct-Dec I think it will get Ass Creed, COD, Batman plus one more big title. If that doesnt help then maybe they shpuld call it quits when the fiscal year is over but I think it will do fine.

As for Wii U there os no doubt in my mind that it will turn things around, Price cut in Aug/Sept around the time Pikmin/Wind Waker/Wii Party come out, then have Mario Kart and Wii Fit U bundles ready for black friday, 3D Mario in Feb then Smash next June, that will give it a significant boost.

I don't think Sony will have to consider shutting down Vita at the rate it is going. The system is going to be profitable. From the cost to produce it, the price they are selling for, the price of the accessories, and the 15-30% digital software sales, I bet they won't want this thing to end.

Nintendo and Sony both shouldn't drop em.
It'll kill consumer confidence.

Nintendo has to make 1st party games. Sony needs to get some games out that aren't indies for once.

As long as the systems generate profit, there is no reason to pull the plug.

Sega got really hurt with the Saturn, it couldn't keep a profit for the entire generation, so Sega prematurely released the Dreamcast, and went on a downward spiral (They had limited options).

If Sony were to pull the plug on the Vita before the handheld generation ended, they would basically be saying "we're leaving the handheld market." As bad as Vita is selling, I think it could still sell over 30 million units lifetime, which isn't much but hey N64 sold about 30 million compared to PS1's 100 million, and 2 gens later, Nintendo recovered. Sony might never overtake Nintendo in handheld gaming, but if their portable division can add 30 million sales, and make a profit, why ever pull the plug?

Same with Wii U, as bad as it's selling, even Sony thinks Nintendo can sell 65 million units (was a slide in a Sony press conference this year). Even if Wii U only sells 30 million units, 30 million units is still a profit, a good one, and Nintendo only makes video games so they have no reason to ignore a profit.

Sony can drop the vita and focus on home consoles and phones but nintendo need the wii U so they will weather the storm

At least with every Vita Sony makes some bank on those memory cards...though that's probably hurting the actual console's sales. They should cut it to $200 for Wifi at E3 and with some big games coming this Fall they could get it up to a decent holiday. Also Rockstar needs to work on GTA for it since the ones for PSP probably made them some nice bank and they can do wonders with Sony handhelds as their previous GTAs showed. GTA will sell this console as it will look very nice and Rockstar can make their game synonymous with Vita (that particular GTA not GTA in general) to make a large percentage of Vita owners into GTA owners and selling more copies of both as a result. Being the first big game for a system helps both parties. Look at Halo and Xbox. It only sold 24m but Halo did quite well for itself.

The Vita isn't going anywhere. I don't know if it's making a straight profit off the hardware yet but given that digitally distributed titles are selling very well on the platform, memory card sales have to be somewhat robust. They're still working very hard trying to secure games for it and it's linked to PS4 functionality.

It's also definitely going to be back-loaded in terms of hardware sales, which I also think will be true for the PS4 (just as it was for the PSP and PS3). Right now, the PSP is the Vita's biggest enemy, as it still holds the niche it carved out previously. At some point the Vita will take over that niche. The fact that Vita gamers are buying software at a high rate is already pulling developers in that direction. It's an alternative market that is hungry for content and several publishers have already capitalized on that.

The Vita will be around for at least 4 more years, and probably more. The price will fall over time and it will take the PSP's position.

Wii U is in a way more healty position that Vita.

Nintendo isn't going to abandon the console, because it would mean losing the confidence of customers like Sega did after the Saturn. Nintendo is going to make the Wii last at least the minimum cycle of 4-5 years.

The Vita on the other hand, is pretty much dead. There is no killer app coming to save it and Sony doesn't seem to view its handeld console as vital unlike Nintendo.

The Vita will probably be Sony last dedicated handhelds console and could be discontinued early.