Its awesome Sony thought playing Vita games on a TV would be a great idea. Because even at launch I thought it was ridiculous Vita doesn't connect to a TV.

That was actually a great feature of the older PSP.

The memory cards were just the straw that broke the camels back, Price needed to be more in line with 3DS. Sony needed to support it and market it better.

The same. Vita's problem was a lack of direction and compelling titles. Vita went from:

For fans that like HD games -> PS360 gamers -> PS3 owners -> Weebs -> then finally a home for Indies. Sony never really knew what to with Vita. It's Software was composed of lesser versions of consoles games when it should have had its own original IP's.

Vita's death was a gross lack of direction. Most likely because SONY did not know why PSP was popular.

Probably not much. I worked retail at the time, and not a whole lot of people were turned off by the need to buy a memory card. I think the cheapest one was like 20 bucks, which was all you needed if you didn't plan on going digital.

Also, the PSP kind of had a proprietary memory card too. It ran on a memory stick or whatever they called it, and unless you owned a Sony camera, you likely didn't have one lying around. You didn't need one to save I don't think, but it's still the same issue.

Vita just didn't have a lot of system selling games. Dropping the price by 20-40 bucks wasn't going to save it.

The market wasn't, and still isn't, ready for a super high quality and expensive handheld. Vita was $250 at launch ($290 with inflation adjustment). And that was just for the device. It had no ability to plug into a TV and didn't come with a dock. So for about the price of a Switch now it simply came with a portable device, no TV mode, no detachable controllers with motion tech or pulse detector for fitness games or HD rumble. That's a lot of money for so very little other than shiny graphics.

If the Switch 2 came out as some friggin monster beast of a hybrid and cost $500 it would bomb harder than GME. Nintendo knows not to make the mistake of Vita thankfully. They will not shove an RTX380 Super into a handheld.

It would've been the best-selling console of all time, only confronted by the Wii U with a standard controller.

I want to add to this.
Why it failed (in no order)
Lack of marketing, no compelling games/bad ports, had to compete against mobile, memory card prices, early abandonment from Sony, lack of big Japanese games (for the Japan market including Monster Hunter + Main Dragon Quest), amongst other things.

For everyone that says "Home consoles are dying in Japan that's why handhelds/mobile thrive there. Can you tell me why the Vita only sold 6 million compared to the PS4's 9.5 million when last generation it was the PSP 20 million > PS3 10 million? That is a huge failure.

Tbh it wouldn't have made that much of a difference. It was a failing platform (for Sony) with losing interest with the PSP. Quite unfortunate as the hardware was pretty great.. nearly top level SOC at the time, great build quality, OLED screen etc just a shame about the games. Its just it couldn't go against the juggernaut that was the 3DS. and its excellent library of titles.

Vita died due to price and a lack of games. Making the memory card non-proprietary wouldn't change either of those. I'm glad Vita died, because it forced Sony to dedicate themselves to one platform.

agreed.