i think they can only succeed if they make a PlayStation Phone as their next handheld, with physical media and physical buttons along the other components of a smartphone like the Xperia Play.
Even Nintendo has a hard time with mobile hence why the NX probably will be a cross platform between console and handhelds.
I think you cant blame them, its remarkable that the Vita actually still gets games without any first party support

Yes, i think it's the type of games released for it. Most of the American games are side games, no importance. It's only good for JRPGS which aren't really popular. But i think uncharted and persona are so far what shines it the most..there's not much unique games.

-Lack of first party
-Proprietary memory sticks/price
-Lack of 3rd party (Western)
-Too much phone games, weak remasters, etc.

*WARNING* Thread broken on mobile!! Can't post from iOS 8.

The Vita is doing the Sega Saturn lifecycle. It got that Japanese audience's interest and failed to get the west's. How does a system get the support of an audience, and thus the support of the developers of that audience, is the real question here?

To the question.. Yes. It's was because of the types of games. 

I think that's one of it's biggest issues. It never had that one game that everyone considered a must have. Persona 4 Golden was the closest thing for Vita. Unfortunately it was from a series that never came close to selling copies in the millions. P4G bucked the tread according to VGC selling 1.2m which is amazing if true but not enough to be a huge system seller.

I believe if Vita got it's own GTA (NA), Gran Turismo (EU), and Monster Hunter (JP) within it's first year it would have at least started with more momentum. Also if it's Call of Duty wasn't absolute shit that would have helped lol. Can't say it would have made the Vita sell on 3DS levels but it surely would have done better than it is now.

It boggles my mind that Sony didn't lock these games down when thinking of making a new handheld.

Yeah it was the type of games. The 3DS is also have been affected by smartphone gaming, but it still was able to sell quite a lot in all regions. And managed to get many million seller games.

no.

it was always just the price of the vita + memory card prices.

I do feel that it didn't get the type of games that would help push it to be a success. It seems like a device that would only find some success in Japan. Maybe of its best games appeal largely to them, and some small groups in other regions interested in Japanese games. The system does mostly consist of anime style Japanese games. That may be why it didn't do so well. Where was the Vita's answer to Pokemon, or Monster Hunter? (It did have Mons Han style games like it, but I suppose not the same brand recognition) Looking at the games it got, I think the Vita is mostly video as a device with niche games.

I remember being at a shop, talking about Vita games, and the clerk talked about how the Vita barely had any games people want, except for... well, the games I was buying, which were very Japanese, haha.

That's my 2 cents on it.

It was the price and memory cards.

And Sony's lack of commitment to it. It still is Sony's lack of commitment to it. The Vita has been braving years of lack of support from Sony. If it weren't for third parties, the thing would be completely useless. Thankfully, it achieved sucess in Japan eventually and we can still have nice things.

I guess that because Sony failed to support and price it correctly, the bigger publishers went /care. Besides they were having a better time scamming people on their phones. Noticed that the 3DS hardly had any western support besides the larger userbase aswell.

Its just that japanese third parties were late to start kicking in because the PSP was still going and Sony didn't commit to it.

This. Seriously, every god damn month. Do people on VGChartz suffer from some rare form of amnesia that makes them forget topics that have been done to an oblivion. Why did the Wii U fail? Why did the Vita fail? Well if you went back into the thread search you could write a comprehensive book on every concievable reason system A or system B failed. 

Bad marketing, bad pricing, wrong climate for releasing it, not enough compelling titles to win over the casual market, memory cards, etc etc etc...