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Forums - Sony - Was the PS Vita a good system?

 

Was it a good system at the end of the day?

Yes, it was ultimately a good system 11 73.33%
 
No, it was bad 4 26.67%
 
Total:15
curl-6 2 days ago
Veknoid_Outcast said:
I love my Vita and would never part with it, but I struggle to call it a good system. It looks great, it feels great, and the tech inside is impressive, but none of that matters if it doesn't achieve a critical mass of great games.
 
Sony didn't really bother supporting the little guy, and when it did, the games didn't exactly set the world on fire. Uncharted: Golden Abyss is just okay. Tearaway, in my opinion, is seriously overrated. Killzone: Mercenary is quite good (in many instances superior to the PS3 titles), but still not amazing. The finest first-party game on Vita, to me, is Wipeout 2048. I think it's legitimately great. Gravity Rush is worth playing as well.
 
Japanese third parties like Atlus, Chunsoft, Nihon Falcom, and Vanillaware did a more admirable job. Vita received worthwhile games like Tokyo Xanadu, Memories of Celceta, Virtue's Last Reward, Muramasa Rebirth, Dragon's Crown, and, of course, Persona 4 Golden. I just don't know if these games are enough to elevate the Vita library.
 
Ultimately, I think Vita is most useful as an indie and backward compatibility machine. The system hosted a handful of great indie games, even if many were available elsewhere. Guacamelee! is great. Velocity 2X is great. Retro City Rampage is great. Severed is really great. And the system supports tons of digital PSP and PlayStation games. My Vita home screen is populated mostly with old-school icons: Oath in Felghana, Valkyria Chronicles II, Persona, Final Fantasy VII, Wipeout, etc.
Vodacixi said:

It's a good system NOW. If it wasn't for the homebrew community and the unnoficial ports, it would suffer from a severe lack of not just games in general, but specially "system sellers". The PS Vita doesn't have a single masterpiece in its catalogue. All of its games, exclusives or not, range from bad to "pretty good". But nothing really stands out except for maybe 1 or 2 old ports/remasters.

Comparing it to the Wii U makes this very clear. It doesn't have a Bayonetta 2. It doesn't have a Breath of the Wild. It doesn't have a Tropical Freeze. The Vita only has a bunch of ZombiUs and Tokyo Mirage Sessions. That's the ceiling of its games.

Yeah I never owned one myself (portable gaming just isn't my cup of tea) but the general vibe I always got from those that did was that the hardware was great but the system as a whole was let down by a lacklustre library due to Sony pulling the plug on it so soon.

I actually thought about getting a Vita TV at one point as I was kinda interested in trying out stuff like Uncharted Golden Abyss and Killzone Mercenary, but I heard it was something of a hassle to actually use due to not all games being supported. At least stuff like Gravity Rush and Tearaway got ported to PS4, I am keen to try those out someday as they look like something I'd enjoy.



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Wman1996 2 days ago
Vodacixi said:

It's a good system NOW. If it wasn't for the homebrew community and the unnoficial ports, it would suffer from a severe lack of not just games in general, but specially "system sellers". The PS Vita doesn't have a single masterpiece in its catalogue. All of its games, exclusives or not, range from bad to "pretty good". But nothing really stands out except for maybe 1 or 2 old ports/remasters.

Comparing it to the Wii U makes this very clear. It doesn't have a Bayonetta 2. It doesn't have a Breath of the Wild. It doesn't have a Tropical Freeze. The Vita only has a bunch of ZombiUs and Tokyo Mirage Sessions. That's the ceiling of its games.

That's the kicker in a lot of ways. 

Unmodded Wii U and PS Vita hardware was way better to play when it was newer with true and console exclusives, more online features, and such. But when you include modding they better than ever with all you can play and use them for. 

I firmly believe that in the year 2026 if you're not modding a Wii U or Vita, they are only worth it if they are purely for collecting and display. The games just aren't there anymore that you can't play on Switch, PC, and other devices. 



Lifetime Sales Predictions 

Switch: 159 million (was 73 million, then 96 million, then 113 million, then 125 million, then 144 million, then 151 million, then 156 million, then 161 million)

PS5: 116 million (was 105 million, then 115 million, then 122 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

Leynos 2 days ago
Wman1996 said:
Vodacixi said:

It's a good system NOW. If it wasn't for the homebrew community and the unnoficial ports, it would suffer from a severe lack of not just games in general, but specially "system sellers". The PS Vita doesn't have a single masterpiece in its catalogue. All of its games, exclusives or not, range from bad to "pretty good". But nothing really stands out except for maybe 1 or 2 old ports/remasters.

Comparing it to the Wii U makes this very clear. It doesn't have a Bayonetta 2. It doesn't have a Breath of the Wild. It doesn't have a Tropical Freeze. The Vita only has a bunch of ZombiUs and Tokyo Mirage Sessions. That's the ceiling of its games.

That's the kicker in a lot of ways. 

Unmodded Wii U and PS Vita hardware was way better to play when it was newer with true and console exclusives, more online features, and such. But when you include modding they better than ever with all you can play and use them for. 

I firmly believe that in the year 2026 if you're not modding a Wii U or Vita, they are only worth it if they are purely for collecting and display. The games just aren't there anymore that you can't play on Switch, PC, and other devices. 

I wish Macross Delta Scramble was ported to Switch. My fave Vita game.



Bite my shiny metal cockpit!

Kyuu 2 days ago

First party support isn't really a big reason why the Vita failed.

In 2012, Vita's first full year, Sony released Uncharted, LittleBigPlanet, Gravity Rush, Resistance, Everybody's Golf 6, Wipeout 2048, MotorStorm RC and maybe more. Very solid lineup for a company that prioritizes home consoles. Later they had Killzone, Soul Sacrifice/Delta, Freedom Wars and Tearaway among other titles.

The thing is Sony's game just weren't massive sellers at the time, not even on their home consoles. Their only big series were Gran Turismo (10 million+), Uncharted (6-7 million), and LBP (3-6 million). Two of these made it to Vita in year 1 but hardly moved the needle. God of War temporarily died even on home consoles.

What Sony needed to do is pay 3rd party publishers to at least keep some high-profile games like Monster Hunter multiplatform. Monster Hunter was virtually synonymous with PSP in Japan, but Sony allowed it to go Nintendo exclusive. Yokai Watch was intended as a Playstation (PS3) game and also went Nintendo exclusive. Vita never got a GTA, PSP had two timed exclusive ones (ported to PS2 later). In a long list of problems, Vita's 1st party support isn't high on the list. Sony's software wasn't nearly as big as it got from 2018 onwards.

The Vita couldn't have been saved. It was the right call from Sony to focus more on PS4 after the initial wave of failures on Vita. But they could have tried harder to persuade 3rd party into supporting it. The only truly big exclusive it had is a godawful Call of Duty game scoring 33 on Metacritic. P4G sold incredibly well for what it was.

Last edited by Kyuu - 2 days ago

curl-6 1 day ago
Kyuu said:

First party support isn't really a big reason why the Vita failed.

In 2012, Vita's first full year, Sony released Uncharted, LittleBigPlanet, Gravity Rush, Resistance, Everybody's Golf 6, Wipeout 2048, MotorStorm RC and maybe more. Very solid lineup for a company that prioritizes home consoles. Later they had Killzone, Soul Sacrifice/Delta, Freedom Wars and Tearaway among other titles.

The thing is Sony's game just weren't massive sellers at the time, not even on their home consoles. Their only big series were Gran Turismo (10 million+), Uncharted (6-7 million), and LBP (3-6 million). Two of these made it to Vita in year 1 but hardly moved the needle. God of War temporarily died even on home consoles.

What Sony needed to do is pay 3rd party publishers to at least keep some high-profile games like Monster Hunter multiplatform. Monster Hunter was virtually synonymous with PSP in Japan, but Sony allowed it to go Nintendo exclusive. Yokai Watch was intended as a Playstation (PS3) game and also went Nintendo exclusive. Vita never got a GTA, PSP had two timed exclusive ones (ported to PS2 later). In a long list of problems, Vita's 1st party support isn't high on the list. Sony's software wasn't nearly as big as it got from 2018 onwards.

The Vita couldn't have been saved. It was the right call from Sony to focus more on PS4 after the initial wave of failures on Vita. But they could have tried harder to persuade 3rd party into supporting it. The only truly big exclusive it had is a godawful Call of Duty game scoring 33 on Metacritic. P4G sold incredibly well for what it was.

Yeah Monster Hunter going 3DS exclusive was a crushing blow to the Vita, given that the series was a killer app on PSP.

Not sure if I'd say Vita ever got a real killer app at all, come to think of it.



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HoloDust 1 day ago

Hardware wise - hell yeah, it was pretty much the best you can get at the time for handheld, with only Apple's iPad few months later having comparable SoC.
Software wise...oh dear.