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Forums - Sony - Was the Vita doomed from the start?

 

Was it doomed from the start?

Yes, it had no chance 15 55.56%
 
No, it could have succeeded 12 44.44%
 
Total:27
Wman1996 on 26 October 2025

PlayStation shot themselves in the foot in so many ways
-Billions of dollars wiped out from PS3 losses, even after it got on the right track. What motivation financially did PlayStation have to really save Vita when PS3 lost them so much money and they needed to save money to use for PS4?
-High memory card price
-Lack of triggers or second set of shoulder buttons
-Lackluster marketing
Sony could've saved the thing with cheaper memory cards allowed and more first and third party games people wanted to play. But that was a long shot. 3DS was already turning around by time Vita launched.



Lifetime Sales Predictions 

Switch: 161 million (was 73 million, then 96 million, then 113 million, then 125 million, then 144 million, then 151 million, then 156 million)

PS5: 122 million (was 105 million, then 115 million) Xbox Series X/S: 38 million (was 60 million, then 67 million, then 57 million. then 48 million. then 40 million)

Switch 2: 120 million (was 116 million)

PS4: 120 mil (was 100 then 130 million, then 122 million) Xbox One: 51 mil (was 50 then 55 mil)

3DS: 75.5 mil (was 73, then 77 million)

"Let go your earthly tether, enter the void, empty and become wind." - Guru Laghima

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KLXVER on 26 October 2025
numberwang said:

No Mario = no success

Tell that to the PSP.

I think Sony gave up too soon on the Vita. It had some issues, but they could have fixed most of those. I mean the 3DS didnt do well at first either.



Wman1996 on 26 October 2025
KLXVER said:
numberwang said:

No Mario = no success

Tell that to the PSP.

I think Sony gave up too soon on the Vita. It had some issues, but they could have fixed most of those. I mean the 3DS didnt do well at first either.

Another issue is third-party support (as I mentioned) but I'll mention in greater detail now. PSP and DS both had a lot of third-party support people wanted to play. 3DS had less, but still quite a bit. Vita? Not so much.

Vita didn't have GTA, Monster Hunter (went to 3DS), and almost no Final Fantasy. And that's just to name a few. A BioShock game got cancelled too.

And going into more detail about first-party, no new God of War and no Gran Turismo.



Lifetime Sales Predictions 

Switch: 161 million (was 73 million, then 96 million, then 113 million, then 125 million, then 144 million, then 151 million, then 156 million)

PS5: 122 million (was 105 million, then 115 million) Xbox Series X/S: 38 million (was 60 million, then 67 million, then 57 million. then 48 million. then 40 million)

Switch 2: 120 million (was 116 million)

PS4: 120 mil (was 100 then 130 million, then 122 million) Xbox One: 51 mil (was 50 then 55 mil)

3DS: 75.5 mil (was 73, then 77 million)

"Let go your earthly tether, enter the void, empty and become wind." - Guru Laghima

KLXVER on 26 October 2025
Wman1996 said:
KLXVER said:

Tell that to the PSP.

I think Sony gave up too soon on the Vita. It had some issues, but they could have fixed most of those. I mean the 3DS didnt do well at first either.

Another issue is third-party support (as I mentioned) but I'll mention in greater detail now. PSP and DS both had a lot of third-party support people wanted to play. 3DS had less, but still quite a bit. Vita? Not so much.

Vita didn't have GTA, Monster Hunter (went to 3DS), and almost no Final Fantasy. And that's just to name a few. A BioShock game got cancelled too.

And going into more detail about first-party, no new God of War and no Gran Turismo.

Well it had Uncharted at launch, so Im not sure if God Of War or Gran Turismo instead would have done much more.



axumblade on 26 October 2025

While PlayStation did have a few studios working on games, they weren’t usually the ones related to those IPs. To me, it often led to games that didn’t really have the same care as if the original studios worked on the games.





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Sogreblute on 26 October 2025
Sogreblute said:

Some of the PS Vita's problems were the same problems Wii U had.
-Bad marketing
-Terrible name
-Lack of compelling software
-High price tag
-A gimmick people didn't care for (touchpad)

On top of it's own unique problems
-High priced memory cards (even the Xbox 360 had this, but the PS3 being the PS3 still made the 360 look better, while the 3DS just needed the cheap SD cards)
-Needing to use AT&T for the 3G Wifi
-No native backwards compatibility except for a few PS1 classics and PSP games (assuming you bought these digitally, if not you had to rebuy)
-Somehow having the worst versions of PS2 games even though the hardware is a lot better than the PS2 (R&C Collection, Sly Collection, Jak Collection, etc)
-God awful storefront

With all of that going against it I'm shocked it even outsold the Wii U, but then again Europe and Japan helped it push a little above the Wii U in WW sales.

To add to this I think we all need to remember in 2013 with the PS4 Sony NEEDED it to do amazing, not good, AMAZING. So, all eggs were in the PS4 basket. The PS4 could have been the end of Playstation hardware if it didn't take off due to Nintendo and Xbox fumbling so hard. If Nintendo and Xbox didn't fumble at all I think things would have looked a lot different.



Kyuu on 26 October 2025

Sony could have done more by moneyhatting Monster Hunter and other exclusives, as well as redirecting some of their PS4 efforts/resources to Vita. But then PS4 would have sold worse, which could've damaged the brand more. Abandoning Vita and focusing on PS4 was probably the right move from a business perspective.