Playstation Vita fans all over the world just got their heart broken just a little bit more this weekend. Sony Computer Entertainment president Shuhei Yoshida might have hinted that the Playstation Vita would be the end of Sony’s handheld gaming consoles.
During the Q&A section of Yoshida’s EGX developer session panel Yoshida was asked about Sony’s plans for another handheld console. His response was not too optimistic to say the least.
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.
Playstation Vita sales have been been underwhelming in all areas outside of Japan.
Currently the Playstation Vita and Nintendo 3DS have sold much less than their predecessors but the Nintendo 3DS system has been a much larger success than the Vita. According to VGChartz the 3DS has sold over 50 million units worldwide while the Vita has sold at just a little over 12 million.
Failure of the console has been attributed to Sony’s marketing strategies which did not play to the strengths of the Vita system and going as far as announcing Vita games were no longer being made by the company.
The PlayStation Vita launched December 2011 in Japan, then in the later in the west early 2012.