It’s failing to secure big third-party brands,as a result hardware numbers are catastrophically low.

The low sales of the Vita are a combination of a bad first party support, bad third party support, a high price for a handheld and the fact that you have to buy memory cards, which makes it even more expensive to buy

Sony should help localize the games with an English market for the Vita and they will see the fanbase grow like the PSP did. They kind of went the western route and forgot the niche market that was the strength of the PSP.

I personally am enjoying my vita mostly with the cheap psp games (I didnt have a psp) but certainly I agree with most of the comments. Not a lot of software to look forward to. They need either a price cut or some really good games. I dont think the remote play ability will cut it.

I sold my VIta, and I don't regret that, but I think I will pick one up in the future. I don't think the Vita is being abandoned though. I think Sony's plan is pretty smart. A couple of observations:

The Vita is going to have a long lifespan. Sony always invests heavily in a systems spec, so that it will remain relevant at the end of it's lifespan. People saying the Vita is dead, are underestimating the long lifespan of sony consoles. Sony has plenty of time to fix this thing, but they are not going to go all out like Nintendo did with the 3DS. Sony is going to make it lose minimal money until the time is right. Right now, they are trying to get a foothold in Japan, which will bring games that can also be brought to the west. Then to fill the software gap, they are getting as many indies as possible to keep the system barely afloat. They will have a couple big releases this year with tearaway and killzone, but those games will serve only to bolster the userbase slightly. The PS4 will further boost it.

Then I believe after the Vita has a fairly decent base (8-10million) they will relaunch the system. Price cut, GOW or GT or another uncharted, and possibly a remodel.

I know fans are frustrated, but I don't think they are just giving up. I think that they are just being very conservative, and trying to minimize loss until they can make a solid attempt to turn things around.

I have 35 games for the Vita. I've bought 18 and 17 were PS+ gift. It does have gaemzz. The problem is, it has plenty of passable and good games, but no excellent ones. The best games on it aren't even exclusive (P4G, Rayman Origins, Guacamelee) and they certainly are not system sellers.
The only great exclusive is Gravity Rush imo (but it still wont make anyone buy a console for it)

Sony is focusing right now on PS4 which is big for them to get back to Old PS2 days so they are not focusing much in PS Vita(but they are keeping it afloat with indie and few big titles). Soon in Gamescom we'll get few more announcements for PS vita and remote play with PS4 then more focus on Vita from Next year after PS4 is launched since their first party resources are busy with PS4 games(30+, 20 Games in first year[2014]), who knows many of the 30+ titles have atleast 5 new PS Vita Games.

I'm sure Sony will bounce back with Vita from next year.

Sony know what to do to turn it around. I'm sure if it was permanently at £149, it would do significantly better. But the games are certainty there if you look, just needs a huge system seller that's all

Initially, I thought the Vita would never kick off because there is not justification for having hand held consoles when you can buy a tablet, which are more appealing devices and their games cost no more than a latte.

However this doesn't explain why the 3DS is doing so well.

Vita is a fantastic device with a great screen and UI, you can argue that it doesn't have games but from what I've seen, it has much better games than the 3DS.

The real question isn't why is the PSV selling poorly, but why is the 3DS selling so well.

Games.

Pure and simple.

And not just small games, big games. Big first party exclusive games. More than 3 a year.