I think the PSV as a concept is flawed. Compared with the WiiU which imo is not conceptually flawed but Nintendo failed in the execution. The WiiU was designed to appeal to both core gamers and casual gamers...although they failed to appeal to those markets with the lack of true 3rd party support, underpowered hardware and the gamepad not really wowing people the same way the Wiimote did.

In comparison the PSV was designed to appeal solely to core gamers, which already limits the sales potential of the PSV by quite a bit. Sony's plan to appeal to core gamers is also flawed in that they are trying to recreate the home console experience on the go..and quite frankly people aren't interested. At one stage i thought this was a good idea but after Uncharted on PSV failed to excite me (as a core gamer and uncharted fan) i knew that it was the wrong approach. A lot of people also looked to the PSP to predict this, although i though the PSP didnt really deliver that home console experience.

So not only did they limit their target market from the get go they also failed to entice that market to buy into the PSV. A double whammy really.

Keeping all that in mind, the target audience of the PSV being male aged 15 - 25, probably already have a home console as well as a tablet/smartphone which means that if the PSV isn't a REALLY convincing buy people will just stick to their smartphones/tablets. Its almost as if the PSV was designed in a box stuck in 2006. Theres really no excuse for Sony not seeing this coming..

People saying that price and software is the major issue i think are wrong. Lets say the PSV had all the console games day one on the system, as well as a better pricepoint...sure that would help move the PSV from really bad sales to mediocre but it wont make it a great success which is really what is needed. And in reality thats the kind of software that the PSV was designed for...so even if everything was perfect for the PSV (great software support and great price) sales still wouldnt be that much better than what they are now imo.

And well the fact that it doesnt have compelling software or a good price point and that just makes everything worse.

Ultimate it comes down to a flawed and ignorant platform concept, really bad timing and poor execution.

They didn't put the effort into creating new IP that would appeal to kids or people interested in social gaming. As simple as that. Had the big titles been there then the sales would have followed.

Personally, I love the Vita and think that it has a lot of good games. It just doesn't have the big, system-selling franchises that any console needs.

This is just excuse making from a PR stand-point.

When you look at the Vita and Wii U, both struggling about the same, it's for different reasons. Nintendo doesn't get the market anymore for home consoles, and the tablet controller that isn't wanted is evidence of that. I that Sony is better at reading the market, it's just that their heart isn't in it for handhelds and they haven't supported the system well as a result. And if you half ass something, you shouldn't do it at all. So they shouldn't and they probably won't make another handheld.

I think the main reason why the 3DS does so well is because theres actually a market for the 3DS and Nintendo does a good job catering to that market. Core nintendo gamers, core gamers, casual gamers, kid gamers, japanese gamers and more.

Nintendo manages to put out compelling and popular software that appeals to all these markets.

I also dont think the 3D "gimmick" hurt sales. There might have been a few people wowed by the effect. A solid platform all round. Not to mention thats its the follow up to the most popular handheld console of all time.

Smartphones and tablets has still negatively impacted 3DS sales though, but the strengths of the 3DS has managed to mitigate the impact some what.

 Mobile phones didn't affect 3DS sales that much.. The Vita  simply has no appeal to the general consumer, Sony..  I still believe it will end up with OK numbers..

There really isnt much proof to that.  The numbers between DS and 3DS has actually been very similar to one another throughout their first 35 months.  I am not saying it will sell as much as NDS lifetime but there is no proof of any of this at this moment.

There really is no proof of mobile gaming effecting handheld gaming at all.  PSP had similar issues PSV had later in its lifecycle because Sony stopped supporting it as well.  Most of its numbers actually came early on when people had faith in sony for their handheld division.  That changed overtime and part of that can be blamed on hacking and another part of it can be blamed on the lack of support.  They relied a lot on third party with PSP.

I think a better PR response would be to downplay their failure and talk up the potential of the PSV.

If you look at the PSP it didnt only sell well because of its gaming capabilities but also because it was a media centric device at a time when there wernt a lot of alternatives. It was cool tech. A couple years on and smartphones can do all of those things better. Yet the PSV is just an upgraded PSP...6 years later as if nothing had changed :/

That market no longer existed and the concept was stale.

Smartphones and tablets have definitely had a major impact on the PSV. Not the only issue here but it is one of the major issues. I think the Sony exec nails it with this comment:

"The market Vita entered was more complicated than it was when the console was originally thought about and designed."

Basically "we fucked up". Sony should have seen it coming. So yeah i dont think this is just a PR response i think theres a lot of truth in what hes saying...I see it as aknowledgement of them getting it wrong.

Exclusive games were quite enough really throughout 2012 to 2013,However 2014 seems very dry.
We did see some great exclusive new ip's like gravity rush,tearaway,soul sacrifice along with games like LBP Vita,uncharted,killzone,persona 4 golden etc.
But in 2014,there is almost nothing exclusive to PS Vita,How can Sony expect to sell it by releasing ports like minecraft,borderlands 2 etc?They are already released on almost each and every other platform.
Games like gravity rush 2,freedom wars and Soul sacrifice delta are pretty much the only 'big' exclusives to look out for,but they haven't been announced for an NA release and gravity rush 2 is so far a rumour as well.

Love my Vita anyways, casuls don't know what they're missing

I really want the Vita TV, it seems like the perfect device for me to enjoy the Vita.