SONY CONFIRM THEY HAVE CEASED ALL PS VITA GAME DEVELOPMENT!

[Jasper]

Breaking News....

During an appearance today at Europe's EGX gaming event, PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida made comments that suggest a successor to the PlayStation Vita may not be in the cards. Asked about a PlayStation Vita 2, Yoshida said the current video game climate is "not healthy" for such a platform to exist due in part to the rise in popularity of gaming on smartphones and tablets.

R.I.P SONY HANDHELD GAMING!

For those unaware, the PS Vita has been a colossal failure selling approximately 12 million units (compared to the 3DS which has sold approximately 55 million units), and with only four PSV games ever selling over a million copies, with Uncharted: Golden Abyss being the best selling PSV game at under 1.5 million copies (compared to the 3DS which has 40 games that have sold over a million copies, including multiple games that have sold over 10 million copies each).

To mark the death of Sony's handheld gaming interests, I would like to end this post with a few direct quotes from Sony...

“The idea of a handheld rivalry with Nintendo is an irrelevance. Those formats don't appear in our planning. It's not a fair comparison; not fair on them, I should stress. That sounds arrogant, maybe, but it's the truth. With the DS , it's fair to say that Nintendo stepped out of the technical race and went for a feature differentiation with the touch screen. But I fear that it won't have a lasting impact beyond that of a gimmick - so the long-lasting appeal of the platform is at peril as a direct result of that."

Phil Harrison, president of Sony Worldwide Studios, on comparing PSP to DS in an interview with MCV

"PSP will elevate portable entertainment out of the handheld gaming ghetto, and Sony is the only company that can do it."

Kaz Hirai, Chairman & Group Chief Executive Officer of Sony Computer Entertainment, on PSP vs DS

“Nintendo knows its target audience, because it has really narrowed that down; and it’s pretty much defined by a boy or girl’s ability to admire Pokemon.”

Phil Harrison, president of Sony Computer Entertainment’s Worldwide Studios

“You can look at the software that they sell. All their licensed kid stuff. So, what we’re doing with the PlayStation Portable is really establishing a new marketplace, and establishing, frankly, a new beachhead.”

Peter Dille, Sony US Senior Vice President of Marketing, on comparing PSP to DS

[Ambrose Burnside]

Bring on the Xperia Play 2!!!

[Rorschach]

I own both handhelds. Vita is vastly superior.

[t0mby]

I play my PS4 games on my Vita when the telly is occupied. Can you do that on the 3DS? No, the 3DS isn't capable so that handheld is irrelevant to me.

[flipswitch]

Title needs to be changed to SONY TAKES DUMP ON IRRELEVANT 3DS.

[Jasper]

Bahahahahahahaha......

[t0mby]

I wonder if Nintendo will make successor to the 3DS or if they'll just scrap a standalone handheld altogether.

[Rorschach]

Last generation for dedicated handheld devices. iPhone put paid to that. Looking forward to the inevitable 3rd party Nintendo will become and look forward to their games making an appearance on Play Store/iOS/Steam.

[Jasper]

[t0mby]

Last generation for dedicated handheld devices. iPhone put paid to that. Looking forward to the inevitable 3rd party Nintendo will become and look forward to their games making an appearance on Play Store/iOS/Steam.

It's inevitable, unless Nintendo try to combine their console and handheld into one, I mean it's not like the Wii U has had many massive sellers this gen compared to the Wii.

[lestat]

With the proliferation of smart phones and failure of vita it was obvious that Sony wouldn't return to handheld gaming. They're better off releasing a xperia gaming phone to service that market.

[Jasper]

You have got to be kidding me?

Mobile phones are a HUGE reason for Sony's losses, and it's literally their most unprofitable division.

In fact Sony themselves just recently stated they are strongly considering exiting the mobile phone market - because the division is that much of a disaster.

So no - I would not be expecting an Xperia Gaming Phone.

[Candy Arse]

Sony getting out of mobile phones, Nintendo getting into mobile phones as part of their 1st party exit strategy.

Advance Wars would be perfect on my Galaxy Note 4.

[Rorschach]

Looking forward to LTTP on my iPad personally.

[Candy Arse]

Could someone please start an official thread discussing Nintendo games we're most looking forward to as a 3rd party? I don't want to derail Jasper's thread.

[Jasper]

I love how the only post from another member so far that actually pertains to this major video game related matter at hand is from Lestat (and to some extent Ambrose Burnside, even though it was barely a sentence).

Everything else is from turd forum members (all of whom are over the hill) making the same dumb joke over and over again a million times and actually being delusional enough to think they are funny.

You would think something as significant as Sony exiting the handheld gaming industry would induce some rather interesting conversation here at Games Ranch like it has over at NeoGAF, but I guess not.

[Rorschach]

Could someone please start an official thread discussing Nintendo games we're most looking forward to as a 3rd party? I don't want to derail Jasper's thread.

Did you not read this? That is actually an awesome topic to consider - which Nintendo games would go best on different mobile devices?

[GameHED]

I love how the only post from another member so far that actually pertains to this major video game related matter at hand is from Lestat (and to some extent Ambrose Burnside, even though it was barely a sentence).

Everything else is from turd forum members (all of whom are over the hill) making the same dumb joke over and over again a million times and actually being delusional enough to think they are funny.

You would think something as significant as Sony exiting the handheld gaming industry would induce some rather interesting conversation here at Games Ranch like it has over at NeoGAF, but I guess not.

I bought my vita for fighting games on the go. Hopefully sony keeps making new handhelds for us hardcore gamers. I really think mobiles are not game machines but really non'core gamers. It's just that 3ds is doing well that has helped to kill vita but like the wii u the games on it are great. The portable stuff like dragon's crown, soul sacrifice, gravity rush, port of persona 4, rayman legends, that ea need fir speed game, minecraft etc they ALL do what they intended to do great. You can play final fantasy 10 on the bus and play older ps1 titles like FF7-9 crom ps1 days.

Sony and nintendo need to just ignore mobile phone gamers imo. They are not real gamers. You just can't play a fighting game or GTA without buttons ok??? The phone gamer is like a pc gamer without a mouse or keyboard. I think if monster hunter was on vita the stoey would be different. I am disapointed pso 2 never came out to handheld. I loved PSO Zero on the DS.

Btw the vita is great for playing older psp games on it like street fighter alpha 3, thanks to awesome dpad. As I said, phone gamers can't do that because its touch screen only. You can only going to play point and click adventure games. And you can do that on the vita TOO. There is lucasarts one on the psn store. Vita just needs to care about asia since most of the appeal is from japanese devs. Americans have huge hands and get cramps playing on portables imo. The asians like portables. I will support jrpg and action games because they are better with buttons. Mobile games are like what pc gamers are to home console owners. They have large userbase but they miss out on exclusives worth playing on the native devices.

Mobile phone gamers and pc gamers are like zombies that outnumber us, but we are the survivalists which can control our bodies better. Who in thier right mind would play a game like Shovel knight on pc with keyboard when its meant to be a console or handheld title? And on the bus you get 3d so it looks better. No need to go home to play it. The zombies will eventually die off and convert to true gaming devices once they turn from being casual or softcore into hardcore gamers. I don't give a fuck that your 5 year old daughter wants to see sonic or mario on touchscreen. You can control then way better on handhelds.
Sure graphics may not match the phones, but hardcore gamers know the controls are everything.

if you want to play touchscreen stuff like grim fandango you can still do it on vita. But you can switch to buttons and dpad for fighting games. None of the apple tards care about that since they are not proper gamers. They would think playing piano is ok to do with thier toes, so nobody who buys games gives a fuck how much money those companies make.

[GameHED]

Here is a new game that came out for vita:

this is proof the vita is not dead.

[GameHED]

operation abyss is another one, this is an etrian odyssey style dungeon crawl game:

Loads of japanese rpg stuff but you got to remember that gaming on the go is different due to battery life. Certain games are more suited for that.

[Jasper]

Spot on article from Kotaku as to the true reason PS Vita failed....

Mobile Gaming Didn't Kill The Vita -- Sony Did

I have long been a fan of the PlayStation Vita. So this quote from one of Sony’s head honchos about portable gaming seriously bums me out.

Here’s Shuhei Yoshida at a recent Q&A, as transcribed by Eurogamer, when asked if Sony will ever develop a Vita successor:

“That’s a tough question. People have mobile phones and it’s so easy to play games on smartphones. And many games on smartphones are free, or free to start. I myself am a huge fan of PlayStation Vita and we worked really hard on designing every aspect. Touch-based games are fun - there are many games with really good design. But having sticks and buttons make things totally different. So I hope, like many of you, that this culture of playing portable games continues but the climate is not healthy for now because of the huge dominance of mobile gaming.”

This is nonsense. The climate is fine. Nintendo has sold over 50 million 3DSes and they don’t even have Minecraft. There’s no doubt that mobile gaming has had a huge impact on the traditional video game industry, but when it comes to the Vita flopping, Sony has nobody but themselves to blame.

Here is a partial list of reasons the Vita has failed:

* Sony decided to gouge customers by forcing them to use proprietary memory cards, then jacking up the prices to obscene levels. (A 32GB Vita memory card retails for $100; standard 32GB SDHC memory cards cost $18.)

* Sony marketed the Vita as a portable system with “console-quality gaming,” then went on to pack it with shoddy spinoffs like Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Call of Duty: Declassified, and Resistance: Burning Skies.

* Despite all this, a subset of hardcore gamers quickly realized that the Vita was a fantastic machine for indies and niche Japanese games. So what did Sony do? They decided to pivot it as a portable accessory to the PS4—as if anyone would dish out an extra $250 to play Destiny on the toilet.

* Vita owners also realized that the machine is fantastic for playing old PS1 and PSP games. Sony saw how much money they could make there, and they immediately filled out the PlayStation Store, pleasing fans with truckloads of classic new games every week. Just kidding. They ignored it. Even today you need to use a silly shortcut just to get some old games working on your Vita.

* Remember the PS2? One of the most successful video game consoles in history? Chock full of great games that could be ported to the Vita in various ways? Someone should remind Sony.

* Remember BioShock Vita? lmao

* Sony has pretty much spent the past two years pretending the Vita doesn’t exist, ignoring it at every major trade show and convention. It’s embarrassing.

* Sony has publicly admitted that they are no longer making Vita games.

Remember when the 3DS launched back in 2011? Remember how hard it flopped? Instead of pulling back and blaming the “climate” for all of their woes, Nintendo doubled down, releasing new models and filling it up with stellar games to the point where it’s now one of the best machines you can buy. Granted, Sony doesn’t have Mario or Zelda or the storied development acumen of their competitors in Kyoto. But if they hadn’t spent the past three and a half years firing a giant rifle at their own feet, maybe things would look a little different for the wonderful PlayStation Vita.

http://kotaku.com/mobile-gaming-didnt-k ... 1733350950" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Peppermint Lounge]

I love how the only post from another member so far that actually pertains to this major video game related matter at hand is from Lestat (and to some extent Ambrose Burnside, even though it was barely a sentence).

Everything else is from turd forum members (all of whom are over the hill) making the same dumb joke over and over again a million times and actually being delusional enough to think they are funny.

You would think something as significant as Sony exiting the handheld gaming industry would induce some rather interesting conversation here at Games Ranch like it has over at NeoGAF, but I guess not.

Maybe most here see the sense of it given Xperia devices link to PlayStation, PlayStation store and games. Given how mobile has evolved it doesn't make a lot of sense for a company like Sony to persist with a dedicated handheld console.

[Peppermint Lounge]

Who's buying 3DS now anyway? All the school kids I notice playing games on the train to work are playing crappy iOS games on iPads.

[Hercy]

Mostly bus users rather than train users.

[Candy Arse]

Now that Nintendo are moving to 3rd party you'll see more and more kids playing their crappy iOS games, waiting for Mario and Pokemon to arrive.

Dedicated handheld gaming devices as we've grown up with them...their day is over.