The Vita "failed" for a variety of reasons. Most people simply pick the buffet of touted opinions and simply regurgitate that. I see no merit in that, all it does it beat the proverbial horse. So I present to you a new angle, but first an aside.

So today, after listening to the 500th suggestion of my friend and listening to various Objection Medley's on Youtube, I started playing the DS version of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. I'm enjoying the hell out of it but it got me thinking. This wasn't really possible on the Wii. Sure it could run it, but the experience would definetly not be the same.

And that reminded me of what Sony's "alleged" goal was with the Vita. "Console Experience on a Handheld". And to a degree this was the mentality behind the PSP as well. 

Furthermore, It's arguable, that this was achieved with GBC and GBA, acheiving portable console experiences, or handheld experiences essentially analgous to previous gens consoles (2D only). Although you couldn't run GC games on GBA, the converse was certainly true with the GBA adapter, and they fit right in.

But with the NDS, Nintendo diverged offerring gameplay experiences essentially unique to that handheld. Often when talking about Nintendo, the phrase "Stuck in the past/90's" comes up to describe their console strategy, but this divergence differentiated it from basically any other gaming device at the time. Neither mobile(not a real contender at the time to be honest) nor the psp had touch screen, consoles didn't have touch output, and neither did PC for consumer gaming applications (assumption).

Conversely, "Stuck in the past" characterizes Sony with the PSP, essentially a GBA with bigger screen and discs, and most definetly the Vita.

I mean you might say oh PSP/Vita had lots of tech too. I'd argue that most of it was trivial, and didn't change gameplay as drastically has a touchscreen did. 

"That's all fine and dandy Dr, but why does it matter?"

To be honest, It's probably not that significant, It's like 3 am, I don't know stop asking me questions.

It defiently affected both the marketsize and the demographics itself however.

Emulating a DS with games that rely on the touch screen is a pain. Emulating a PSP isn't. In theory, it's easier to emulate a DS thanks to its power, while in reality you'd be better served by just buying yourself a cheap DS and a flashcart. I should know, because my laptop can't even handle Elite Beat Agents without slowing to a crawl; while I've played Yggdra Union with framedrops down to 40fps without a frameskip.