Some really sad news emerged today. Sony is stopping production of the PlayStation Vita in Japan as of next year. To some this isn’t a surprise. The Vita never really sold well, approximately 20 million units sold worldwide since its initial launch in late 2011 in Japan, and its early 2012 in Europe and America. 20 million is a solid number, I mean Wii U only sold around 13 million, but it’s a massive disappointment compared to the 80 million that PSP sold.

The PSP was helped by how easy it was to hack, millions bought the console just to emulate games, something the Vita didn’t allow. This wasn’t the main reason for Vita demise though its the price of memory cards. The Vita itself wasn’t an expensive piece of hardware, at launch it only cost around £150. For how much technology was packed into the Vita it’s a mild sum of money to pay. The memory cards on the other hand were extortionate. A 64GB card would run you £90, an astronomical sum for a memory card. In comparison for the same price you can get a 256GB and a 64GB micro SD. Sony made the Vita memory cards themselves so you had to buy official cards, meaning Sony could charge what they wanted. Which always bugged me. Sony could see from the public outrage that the memory cards were the main reason for the poor sales, and after 6 years on the market, Sony never changed the price.

The second pitfall for the Vita was the lack of first party and 3rd party support. The PSP was supported by Sony and a ton of third party developers during its life cycle. Big first party titles like Gran Turismo, God of War & Killzone appeared on the console. Meanwhile third party support included Metal Gear Solid, Grand Theft Auto, Final Fantasy & Monster Hunter. Vita started well with Call of Duty & Uncharted, and thanks to its power HD ports of God of War & Metal Gear Solid 2 & 3 soon followed. After soft sales though the support died off. The final push by Sony was Freedom Wars in 2014. Freedom Wars is a good game and sold respectively well, but Sony didn’t see it that way and slowly thereafter, support for the Vita fell off a cliff.

This being said, I absolutely love Vita and always have since its launch. I bought it day one and never felt disappointed. While in Japan in 2015 I also purchased the Persona 4 Dancing All Night PS Vita. I’ve always had an infatuation with the little handheld, it’s not an AAA machine, it’s an indie and Japanese gaming machine for me, and that’s enough. Some memorable hits like Persona 4 Golden, Shovel Knight, Disgaea 4,Hotline Miami, Freedom Wars, Gal Guns and many many more have entertained me over the years. I spent over 100 hours on Persona 4 Golden and loved every minute of it. I even played it while on a cruise through the Norwegian Fjords.

One of the promises at launch was remote play. Even though this flopped on the PS3 and was awful, it was saved with the launch of the PS4. Sony made remote play work almost perfectly. Basically if you had a PS4 and Vita connected to a good Internet source, you could play your PS4 on the Vita. It’s such a good selling point for anyone with a PS4, and with the PS4 selling over 80 million units, it’s should have been pushed more. I honestly believe a really solid push on the remote play function and reduced memory card costs would easily have saved Vita’s blushes.

Sony also released PS Vita TV, known as PS TV on its release. It was basically a Vita in a little box you plugged into your TV. For £50 it was a great entry point into the Vita Library. There was a big elephant in the room though. Not all games worked on the PS TV, again a poor selling point. Massive Vita games like Uncharted & Metal Gear Solid HD collection wouldn’t work on the Vita TV, this sucked. What’s the point in making an entry level box when you can’t play half the Vita games on it? It did work great though for Persona & Remote Play in another room. Again it required a PS Vita memory card through, which killed it. Spending more on a memory card then the PS TV itself is just plain stupid. All this didn’t stop me from buying one, which I still use sometimes even today.

What really upsets me though is the news Sony said they are not working on a successor. With the incredible success Nintendo has seen so far with the Switch, it seems a no brainer to make a hybrid console. A Vita style console that plugs into a PS TV style box, with fresh first party support and the same great features, like trophies and Remote Play would be an easy buy for so many PlayStation gamers. Add in cheaper memory cards, or better yet just make them Micro SD cards. I honestly believe it would be a hit. Lose the gimmick rear touch pad, add in a better processor and more ram and Sony have a hit on their hands.

For all we know this hybrid could already be in the pipeline, or we may see a Vita 2 with the launch of the PS5 in a couple of years. With Sony you never really know and taking their word as gospel would be a rookie mistake at this point. I hope that Sony does follow this path and we see a Vita successor or a hybrid Vita. Until that time though I am more then happy with my Vita. In fact I love it.