Tech - News
The Reason Sony's PlayStation Vita Was A Failure
By KAYLA DUBE
The PlayStation Vita was released in the U.S. in 2012 and had a relatively good launch, selling 200,000 units within the first month. Yet it didn’t take long for these sales to stall, as the PS Vita faced competition from Nintendo and its 3DS system and from the rise in mobile gaming thanks to smartphones.
Each company had a different reaction to smartphone gaming. Sony felt it wasn’t a healthy climate to expand its PS Vita offerings, while Nintendo decided to make its 3DS handheld as irresistible as possible to potential buyers, launching plenty of great titles and eventually releasing new versions of the system, such as the 3DS XL.
This was a good move for Nintendo, and it enjoyed immense success with the handheld console, selling around 74 million units. Sony, on the other hand, seemed to ignore the Vita once it realized the console wasn't garnering the number of sales it had originally hoped for.
As sales for the PS Vita grew weak, big game studios eventually decided to pull support for the device, which became a huge obstacle for Sony to overcome. The company attempted to keep the console alive by turning to indie game developers, but the strategy wasn’t enough for the portable console to truly thrive and make its mark in video game history.