they should have sold off their stake in jointventure with ericson and released a vita phone

It's actually, hardware wise, a nearly flawless portable console. It's just not a cool device for its audience. The cool kids would rather use other mobile devices, Every feature it has can be found better, elsewhere. Only excellent exclusives that appeal to millions could have made it a smash.

There's a few reasons I think it wasn't the commercial success it could have been.

1) Memory cards. Not only are they proprietary, meaning you can't get a third party one if you wanted, but they also ridiculously expensive. You could get maybe 2-3 retail games for the price of the 32GB card in stores. Also, Sony never released the 64GB in the west, which is a problem for someone like me who buys a lot of games (especially with the flash sales and buying more digitally). I think a better price point for memory cards would've been $50/$65 or so for the 32/64GB one.

2) When the Vita released, they had the 3G model, which probably didn't profit too much when compared to the cheaper Wi-fi model. Plus, it might've been a bit too expensive, although I'm sure Sony was taking losses with the Vita at first. When they saw that the 3DS wasn't selling at $250, I don't think they should've debuted at that price either.

3) Marketing/Games. They tried to sell the Vita as console gaming on the go, but after the first big batch of games, companies saw that those kinds of games weren't selling, so they stopped making them. Fast forward to now and the system is primarily for niche and indie games. I also feel that Sony abandoned the system itself in regards to game development, which is a shame, since Killzone, Gravity Rush and the Uncharted for it were all great games.

Also, where was the advertising for the system? There was barely any TV ads for the Vita and they also lacked presence for it at shows like E3. When people saw that Sony wasn't pushing the system, they thought to themselves that it was abandoned and didn't buy it.

I love my Vita and I can assure you that "it has no games" can't be the reason. The only reasons that come to my mind are the insanely pricey memory cards and the lack of advertisement.

Bye bye 16-35 year old demographic ...

Bye bye Japanese market

/end Vita

- Lack of advertisement
- Sony's abandonment
- Overpriced memory cards

Here's a video with one of the theories on were Vita failed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REaUzHef9h4

Cliffs from video: Vita too powerful > More $$$ to make games > No Gaemz > Smaller install base > Less chances from developers to make games > repeat from No Gaemz

Discuss?

I actually saw this before. I love Extra credits : ) though they were off on the Vita's numbers by 4 mil...

This is pretty much me, and one of the Vita's biggest problems. It simply doesn't win people over other systems, which take up consumers' gaming space and resulting in no room for the Vita. It has plenty to offer, but other consoles have more and mobile domination is very much real. 3DS survives due to its extremely market-friendly library and notability. (connection to the DS line)

Good point you make when pairing it with the rest of the consoles currently out. I just seperate handhelds from consoles, but put them together, it seems to put the Vita lower in the order of what most people would want to own first and move down from there. Most people will at least 1 or 2 home consoles, and then there's handhelds, which unless you have the income, people will go with the one with more to offer, or their favorite brand. Even when I seperate the consoles, I still feel like I only have room for one handheld, which is odd.