That's strange. I always that that he lived in the UK.

If Im not mistaken, he is english, but currently lives in Japan for reasons that I either forgot or he never gave.

I don't see how. Sales are low and the only games being made for it anymore are niche Japanese titles. I haven't seen a physical Vita in years. It would be easier at this point to pull a Nintendo and launch a whole new system than to somehow revitalize this one, especially since most of the industry and gamers have moved on. Sony appears content to let their portable program die (probably because the rise of mobile and fear of never taking the dedicated market away from Nintendo) and while unfortunate that's better than throwing good money after bad.

Vita is dead. Sony should have bet the house on Vita instead of Xperia back in 2011, but 5 billion in losses later, and here we sit with one dead handheld, and one dead brand.

Best to bide there time now, and launch a PS4 Tablet/Handheld and a PS4 Phone in 2019 or 2020, and kill off Xperia.

It is really sad, because Vita was great, but every chance Sony had, they completely screwed the Vita. It could have done great as a Phone/Handheld Hybrid when 4G came around, but they killed the mobile side of it before the 4G model ever released. Then it could have been great as a mobile PS4 and a set top box competitor, but they failed to support it with PS Music, PS Video, PS Vue, and in the case of Vita TV even Netflix.

With the right managment, Sony could have made Vita the biggest handheld gaming platform ever, and had a very competetive mobile brand that was right up with iOS and Android. Instead they completely miss managed it, and in turn did major damage to their mobile reputation. However, if it means they come back strong with a PS4 Mobile line in the next few years, they could turn a bad thing into a great thing.

That's even worse. Who would do that to a poor console?

Now? No. Could they have saved it before? Maybe, if they pulled resources away from the PS4 and started churning out major new IP until they hit some winners or they fronted some serious cash for some proven third-party series.

Would it have been a good use of those resources? No. It's a shrinking market and their competitor has some established, major franchises to contend with. It would be an uphill and expensive climb with no guarantee of success.

Sony actually did fund quite a few games on the handheld side but, despite some modest success, none of them struck gold. After that, it just wasn't a smart use of resources.

Not gonna lie when I first saw this thread I thought someone was bumping an old thread from 2014.

I saw this and assumed somebody bumped a thread from 2014. No. It was officially, yet surreptitiously, unceremoniously discontinued in North America months ago. New games can still be ordered, but shipments of hardware have ceased here. Personally, I love it, in spite of it's flaws.

No, and yet in 2017 I will likely buy more Vita games than any other platform. It is the ultimate Japanese niche gaming machine and personally appeals to me greatly, but mainstream success stopped being possible years ago.

I think it could be saved and that they could create new sku's based on it but I don't think Sony are interested in it anymore. If they did do anything they need to make sure it takes standard memory cards. I've read comments from people who wouldn't buy a Vita for that issue alone. Sony really ought to do a budget version of the console to retail sub £100/$110. The one thing in its favour is its standard arm processors and powervr gpu. You could probably find a standard chipset nowadays that could run Vita games with the right firmware. Maybe there will be a Vita clone at some point.

I'm after a second Vita so hopefully there will be a collapse in price soon if Sony makes an official end of support announcement about Vita.