Death of a Game: PlayStation Vita

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#DOAG . Death of a Game is a series dedicated to uncovering the mysteries surrounding the death of a game or company. nerdSlayer defines the term "death" in the context of the show as either... 1. Literally dead. 2. Had a mass exodus of players and never recovered (expectations etc). 3. The company ceased to exist. We follow a timeline of events, to uncover clues concerning why a game or company doesn't do well, and attempt to put it all together at the end for a deduction explaining how or why the game failed based on the evidence gathered.
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• Greatness is Portable ...

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

Thank you for watching the video, and supporting the channel fellow detectives. This video we were fortunate enough to have a lot of personal backstory with, and lucky enough to get a sponsor for it too (so I didn't have to worry about views or being trendy). Speaking of sponsor...Go to tryfum.com/NERDSLAYER or scan the QR code and use code NERDSLAYER to get your free FÜM Topper when you order your Journey Pack today.

[@Hobo613]

i believe that the best selling vita title would be P4, no? and not Uncharted

[@MrGonz801]

Bro doesn't know. The Vita's launch price was the same as the 3DS' launch price. Nintendo announced the ambassador program and the 3DS price drop as a response to that. Check the timeline if you don't believe me. Edit: that is to say, if you didn't include the memory card which then ramps the price up...

[@alexanderscout]

Nerdslayer i think you need to take a break and clam down and then come back with a pretty clear mind

[@alexanderscout]

@@Kaileeee17 lol he might not like but its the truth if he doesn’t get his head cleared soon everyone will know him as the guy that went mental all over a few normal comments

[@cptmiche]

I think their two biggest mistakes was the proprietary memory cards and the lack of first party titles

[@joaoah]

I think only the memory card was the issue, it lead to less units sold and then less games viable for it.

[@skyMcWeeds]

​@@joaoah those are two factors, the biggest one is Sony gave up on it too easily. Probably saw the rise of mobile smartphone gaming as a threat they stopped supporting it in the middle of its life. Shame though, sure the handhelds during that time didn't sell huge numbers even the 3DS didn't reach the heights of the DS. But it was a quick death pulled the plug on the support and Sony focused on the PS4.

[@joshsamuelson1793]

I was going to get one, then I saw the stupidity overpriced memory cards.

[@73delgado]

I think the biggest mistake was pushing for companies to make AAA games with console quality graphics. Made those games run at sub 30 fps making the experience horrible.

[@plastikloser]

The memory card was part of their piracy crusade. You know, kneecaping your customers to try and spite pirates. It's the Sony way

[@Zlartec]

This opens the door for a Stadia video

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

Big brain

[@dango2917]

what about the Ouya?

[@ArtflPhenix]

streaming platform: mixer by Microsoft too

[@animegamingnerd]

And Wii U.

[@banishedepsilon1802]

One of the big reasons was really bad marketing that gave it a terrible reputation and instilled a media bias against it.

[@neo84401]

The memory card was a complete mistake.

[@mrcrazyattire723]

Thanks for the Support!

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

thanks for the support!

[@bauken5315]

When I was just entering the games industry, my first job was an internship as an artist working at Nihilistic Software Inc. on Resistance: Burning Skies for the Vita. It was a really great experience and I've loved my vita ever since, but the system was very underpowered, just barely more powerful than some mobile phones at the time. We were only able to render a maximum of 8 enemies onscreen at a time, and our 3d models needed to be heavily optimized for performance. We were also required by Sony to showcase the gimmick functions like the touchscreen and backtouch. I was also there for the development of CoD Black Ops: Declassified which was intense. Our team was handed a bunch of Black Ops 1 assets and we were told to make a CoD game in 6 months. Considering the limitations of the system and the extremely short development time, I'm still very proud of what we were able to create, even if the final product was not critically well received. Later on at a different company, I helped to ship Grim Fandango: Remastered and Day of the Tentacle: Remastered, both of which did ship on the PS Vita. I still work in the games industry and am currently a 3D artist working on the Sims 4.

[@stewrat0420]

Wow I loved resistance burning skies

[@umarthdc]

Grim Fandango remastered is a great remaster

[@nekroz8716]

Sims might not be my type of game but resistance, cod declassified and grim fandango were big games in my youth and i thank you for helping create them!!!

[@luciatheorphan]

i had no idea those lucas arts games existed on vita!

[@hgmd3284]

damn, now i should play BO Declassified then.

[@johnbono2384]

A woman had two sons: one went to sea, one developed for PS Vita. Neither was ever heard from again.

[@HoosierBoy]

I remember going to buy a used headset from a guy on craigslist in 2016, and he added a Vita to the deal for an extra $40. Being able to grind Destiny 1 from bed with remote play was just so cool at the time, it blew my mind that the Vita wasn’t more popular.

[@juanvillacis4690]

Correction: PS Remote Play does not require you to be on the same network as the PS5, though you probably do get the best performance when you do so

[@TheVoiceintheWater]

I loved my Vita. Got it when I was heading away from home for a summer, and it became my constant companion. I understand why it failed, but I'm still sad about it, because it was such a delightful little device. I lost hours to TearAway, Killzone: Mercenaries, Rayman Legends, Unit 13 and Sound Shapes. Now days, I've moved away from Playstation to PC, but I still have fond memories of my little traveling buddy.

[@Larry]

I always found it strange Sony created a 3G version of the PS Vita, where they trying to go after that lucrative N-Gage and Gizmondo market? :D Also, I swear they chose the word Vita because it began with a "V", as it was Sony's fifth system to use the PlayStation name.

[@legendofswords]

I thank them for the 3G version since once it became useless the modders found a way to utilize it as an extra port to place an SD card reader meaning 3g vitas can still use the card slot for physical games

[@Larry]

@@legendofswords Interesting, You mean the port where the SIM card goes? or something else?

[@Beeegdix]

It’s weird but Vodafone in Germany pushed for it to be a phone replacement for some reason

[@legendofswords]

The 3g modem slots into the board like an SSD. The PSVSD is a custom board that slots into the old modem slot and once configured with homebrew software becomes an internal SD adapter You can then get an sd extender that routes through the console to have the SD card be removable from the sim card tray With this mod you also get slightly fast and more stable SD card speeds and lower temperatures (build quality on the Gamecard adapter is very hit an miss and generates alot of heat) You also the ability to use the game card slot for physical game collection again

[@nategreatgames78]

They weren’t trying to go after Ngage or gizmondo per se. The whole thing about 3G was being able to be connected to the internet, the 360/ps3 era of games is where online connected consoles went next level with multiplayer and dlc and marketplaces and they wanted the vita to be that too, plus they wanted it to be a social and have the ability to still be able to communicate with psn so you could do all that back and forth stuff like transferring your saves between it and the ps3/ps4 and have access to trophies and stuff. lol plus it was another thing they could use to get you tethered to the network so they could force you to get updates and help keep the security up to keep it from being hacked

[@robertomedina6731]

I'm offended you did not mention Gravity rush as one of the top games for vita 😢, I mean how many vita exclusives were good enough to be granted a sequel and a port to ps4!

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

To be fair it's on the top list that I linked on screen

[@supermariosunshine64]

It's still a sexy little machine, and it's been having extra longevity with the ports the community keeps making.

[@EnaTenkiyoGamer]

While we enjoy our ps5 and ps4 ports on the playstation portal. ;)

[@LoremIpsum1919]

@@EnaTenkiyoGamer The PS Portal is a streaming machine you liberal.

[@ItsTheRealJefe]

So something not explained well/at all in this video was the "Dev Cost Death spiral": The Vita was more expensive to develop for (in comparison to the PSP), so few devs had the ability to develop for it (or were willing to risk their studio to do so), so there were a lack of games, so no one bought it, so no devs made games (because of cost/risk), so no one bought it. Basically all those bells and whistles Sony put in drove up development costs, which set the console spiraling downwards from the get go.

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

I don't know feels like this was explained in the video but thanks for your opinion

[@metimeph]

Exactly! The development cost for PSVita games are not that far off from development cost for PS4 games. At the same time, PSVita games can only be sold for 50usd, making ROI slower. Developers opted to make games to the PS4 instead.

[@nategreatgames78]

The vita was very attractive for Indie devs because it was easy to work with, powerful enough to run their games perfectly and cost effective enough to get on the platform and make a profit relatively easily. The problem was on the triple A side, more specifically for games they wanted to launch side by side with PS3 games that they wanted to have a hook in making you purchase twice with cross play, cross save and to some degree cross buy. So making a vita port adds to the primary development cost of these big budget games and it needed to move big units to make up that added expenses or it’s like they would be cutting their own necks, and in most cases the vita didn’t have the install base to make up that difference. The crazy thing at the time was Vita had the highest attachment rate for any games console on the market, but they just couldn’t sell the number of systems to make AAA work.

[@EnaTenkiyoGamer]

And the playstation portal sold well. Explain that? 😂

[@SylverstoneKhandr]

I kinda had to stop at the price point bit because I feel that it mostly ignored the context at the time that the Vita was able to match the then-$250 price of the 3DS. That was actually a huge deal because everyone was thinking it would be a base $300 price. The $300 3G model was booed out of the building for sure, but the Vita only really kneecapped itself in the early goings based on the proprietary memory cards. Pricing only became an issue when Nintendo slashed the price of the 3DS to $170 during summer 2011 and had a big holiday season, which Vita critically missed out on.

[@antoniotorres1674]

Even taking that into consideration with 330 you had your 3ds with two games vs 460, which became 260 the following summer, either way the price difference was massive.

[@VOAN]

Nintendo not only announced to slash the price of the 3DS to $170, they even gave 20 free games to customers who bought the $250 version. This persuade most customers to run out and buy the last remaining versions of the $250 model before the $170 price took place. I was one of the many who actually went and bought two of the $250 version one for sister and one for my brother and they couldn't be happier, they not only got some games to look forward to but got 20 free ones as well.

[@ferretbop99]

Hey dude I've been watching u for a while and love ur content. I just hope whatever issues in personal life gets resolved soon, i can tell something went wrong in ur life, idk when or what it is but i hope u heal from it. U don't come off as a bad person but i just wish u took some time to heal, reflect and to relieve ur nerves. Love u dude keep makin quality, we care about u dude

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

Thanks for the support

[@ferretbop99]

@@nerdSlayerstudioss ily dude wish u the best and i cant wait to see what new vids u make

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

Thanks I really appreciate the support

[@hellrayzerr]

Name a more dynamic duo than your favorite KZbinr and crashing out

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

Thanks for the support ☺️

[@Jerimyhawks]

Still got mine modded too. Love the thing but it is the epitome of “PlayStation Got No Games” Every RPG on it was made by Vanillaware (loved them)

[@TheNameIsSR]

There are tons and tons of jrpgs on the Vita, you just really need to do some digging to find the gems.

[@AkyJave]

Atlus: "Uhh... You mean us?"

[@unlimitedslash]

You have a good collection of Ys games in the Vita, and many other RPG's, of course some are japan exclusive, but you can play them with an english patch made by the community, like the Tales of Hearts R, a complete remake and extended version of the original DS game, the same with Tales of Innocence R, and many other's. Phantasy Star Nova also comes to mind, although this one only has a partial english patch... good gameplay tho. Blue Reflection is also on the vita, although it was released only in japan and you need an english patch, still great game, Valkyria Revolution, Exist Archive, the HD versions of FFX/X-2, all those Vanillaware games (as you said, amazing games, i'm currently going through Dragon's Crow, amazing game), and since the vita can play PSP and PS1 games you can put in all those RPG's in there too. And if you install CFW, well, count all the RPG's on the NES, SNES, GB, GBC, GBA, Dreamcast, and many other system, currently i'm tinkering around to see if i can setup the turbografx16 emulator so that i can play Tower of Druaga.

[@zid9611]

There are ton of RPG on vita. I have over 100 of them on there. A lot of them have been ported over to ps4 or remastered then put on ps4

[@RebeccaGunn]

While it was kind of mentioned here - one of the biggest issues for the Vita besides cost was the memory situation. As you mentioned - the proprietary memory cost a stupid amount of $ - and the cheapest option was a 4 gb card that could maybe hold a couple of downloaded Playstation games at best. Sony Europe did try to fix this somewhat by releasing limited packs of the 8GB cards with a bunch of download codes with a theme (like Lego Harry Potter games) - the funny part was most of the time you couldn't download all the games you got in the set to the 8GB card...

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

This is exactly what my problem was I used to have to delete data when I wasn't playing persona 4 Golden

[@VOAN]

Even worst the internal storage for the PS Vita was only 1gb and 30% of those storage were already used by the os and apps so customers only had 70% (about 750mb) storage to deal with which is not a lot.

[@briannewman532]

Sony not continuing to support the Vita, and further iterating on handhelds in general, is absolutely baffling to me. They were MILES ahead with the Vita, and they completely abandoned their lead and gave up. Simply mind-blowing.

[@nategreatgames78]

The success of the PS4 made it very easy for them to abandon Vita, which wasn’t really selling as well as they would have liked. The PS4 reveal literally happened the day before the Vita’s 1 year anniversary in North America and rather than celebrating that it stole Vita’s thunder

[@FlibbleBeck]

I worked for Sony during this period. I think a key bit of info is that opinion and use of the PSP line was very different between Japan (+ it's neighbouring countries) compared to the West. In Japan it was a huge hit, and Sony decisions were often made from the perspective of Japan, which is why they looked odd to the US audience.

[@legendofswords]

Would explain why they had different color variants for the Oled model just before the Slim model revisioon

[@KinzuNight]

I think the Steam deck is more proof that Sony gave up on the portable market to soon than the Switch. The Deck is the type of premium device Sony could have leveraged with an entire catalog of of PSone, PS2, PS3, PSP and Vita games supported from day 1.

[@DavidBerger-g2h]

Sometimes i get this feeling to about it ... I hope that one day they create a Handheld that plays entire Playstation Library the Steam Deck does it partly already with Emulation but having true plug and play experience would be great!

[@rnevex]

Sony ports the games to steam. They approve said games on steam deck. Result: they have a new psp without making a new psp. They compete with Nintendo without making hardware. Steam deck is Sonys new psp.

[@VOAN]

I believe Valve made the Steam Deck cause the Smach Z failed. The Smach Z was a portable Steam Machine handheld that was going to bring PC Steam games on the go but many decisions the creator took with that eventually turn it into a scam. Just when that one failed Valve announced the Steam Pal and then one year later rename it to the Steam Deck.

[@TheLuceon]

Proprietary tech like headphones is not technological advancement, it's just greed.

[@KanameYuuki]

I'm so glad Freedom Wars managed to escape Vita purgatory, here is hoping Soul Sacrifice bros get their miracle too, now if only that amazing Vita D-Pad could also be brought to other controllers.

[@zavi3rz]

This. It’s my favourite game on the vita and I played it so much back in those days and I’m gonna sink many more hours on the remaster again.

[@FlameSoulis]

I still have my Vita... it's dead, but Soul Sacrifice was very well made, and whenever I find the dead brick, I still wonder if I'll ever get to return to that title. (For the record, the screen just remains black and no sound, but it does have the bootlight working. It's an original OLED model)

[@nosidezero]

Here's hoping 🤞🤞

[@ak-ub1ym]

Yea hyped for its return 🧑‍🎤 Had a blast playing that , it was similar to soulslike games with its invasion mech , I didn't use it much though but felt it was pretty ahead of the curve in terms of mechanics.

[@alicecousland]

@@FlameSoulis you should try fixing it, there's a ton of tutorials here on KZbin on how to change screens and speakers for the vita. My vita is still alive and well aside from some tolerable stick drift.

[@5hane9ro]

The Vita DEFINES underrated platform. I still play games like Helldivers, Unit 13, Killzone Mercenary, and older games. If Sony made it cost less & better marketed, it would have sold well!

[@zaneheaston8254]

This opens the door for so many future episodes about failed consoles

[@GunFuiChi]

"It's where I played P4 Golden, and why I got my Vita, initially." This is exactly why I got mine as well. I loved P4G so much.

[@PlebNC]

This was a genuine improvement in terms of hardware over the PSP and it's sad Sony didn't put more support behind it. The right stick by itself solved alot of the control problems the PSP had and had a number of genuinely innovative features and games.

[@Hpalhazred]

No Monster Hunter=Death.

[@nux5784]

There was a monster hunter

[@Hpalhazred]

@@nux5784 You know what a mean

[@VOAN]

It was also missing a lot of franchise that we made popular on the PSP too such as GTA, God of War, Jak and Daxter, Invizimals, and Tekken. I was expecting maybe Rockstar would make a GTA: San Andreas Story for PS Vita like they did Liberty City Story and Vice City Story for PSP but they never did. Instead what we got was a port of the DS game GTA: Chinatown Wars which wasn't even released for the PS Vita but the PSP.

[@Arionid]

here for the banned from a lolcows youtube comments speedrun howd I do 💀

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

thanks for the support!

[@Arionid]

@@nerdSlayerstudioss youre welcome pookie ♥

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

You are still not banned, just low IQ fyi.

[@Arionid]

@@nerdSlayerstudioss woah vro thanks for reminding me of your existence, I forgor to subscribe last time 😘

[@golgarisoul]

Wooo!! I'm excited to see this series cover hardware, too!

[@fixman88]

My involvement with the Vita? Back when it and the 3DS were both recent I went to Best Buy and took a look at both. The 3DS impressed me with its 3D and cameras (and I have a past history with Nintendo handhelds going back to the original Game Boy) but the Vita looked really impressive with its OLED screen, smaller size then the PSP and nice build quality. But one look at the Vita's price (ouch!) and then seeing the price of the proprietary Memory Cards (OUCH!) made me decide to get the 3DS. Once the 3DS XL came out I switched to that and never looked back; I even have a clear blue original 'cheese wedge' 2DS, and I still have my Switch I got on Release Day (and it still works perfectly).

[@LeonmitchelliGalette]

11:45 Wow! Stop there! Their mobile division is pretty good. Their phones not packed with bloatware and malware, they competently designed and very ergonomic. It's actually sad to look how they lost in that market despite being not bad at all.

[@5persondude]

I still remember the day my parents got me a Vita; they got me the Telltale Walking Dead bundle and I had the biggest grin on my face when they showed me! Also it was (IIRC) the last original 1000 model OLED bundle they did before the Borderlands 2 bundle that had the 2000 model with the LCD screen, so I guess I lucked out with that too. Only had a couple problems; first was that the battery pack quickly became faulty (would randomly drop/rebound about 50% of its capacity frequently), but luckily that was easy to get fixed. Second was that the screen had “splotches” of darker pixels but was only noticeable on a black/dark background. Modded my Vita about 4 years ago and had a blast; beat all 3 of the PS2 GTA games on there, got all 120 Stars in Mario 64, and even got to try a bunch of region-locked and delisted stuff like the Companion Apps for Yakuza 0 and Ishin. Haven’t touched my Vita in a while though, mostly because I’ve pretty much exhausted everything on there, plus my 15+ year old PSN account seems to be in “limbo” (can’t log into it on any PlayStation device, even a PS4 or PS5, despite never getting an email notice of a ban or password change), and I have a sneaking suspicion that me modding my Vita was the cause. Oh well 😅

[@landon11]

I bought an original PSP the first week. Showed it to my friends and two of them bought one. Brought it to work and when my boss saw it he went out and bought one that day. Six months later I sold it because I was playing my DS way more

[@dr_zephyr]

The Vita and PS4 remote play feature was awesome. My family only had 1 TV in the house so when other people were using it I was able to pull out the vita and get a pretty stable connection right there to my PS4. Played through most of Watch Dogs and Black Flag that way and I gotta say for the time it was a pretty solid compromise to experience those games.

[@IncubiAkster]

Vita is still my favourite handheld console ever. It was light, comfortable to hold and good controls, and had such high visual quality. It would have been so easy to have made this a success but Sony just put in no effort.

[@dimitryryutta]

I was literally playing my PSVita while watching this video,it may not have gotten a new Monster Hunter game,but you can get MF Freedom Unite on it,and it works like a charm! And as a fan of niche games,the Vita was a heaven of those types of games for a long time

[@JulioOther]

I used to own the Sony Ericsson Xperia smartphone. The design and user interface were excellent, especially considering that Samsung was blatantly copying the iPhone's design and using the TouchWiz UI at the time. Even though Xperia has passed its prime, I still have fond memories of using the device.

[@kyletm57]

I recently picked up a used Vita cheap while visiting Japan and it's been so great having a real handheld system again, love the switch but it doesn't really fill the role of a pocket device. Funny how the Vita felt huge back in 2012

[@MikhailHudon_ZerithFarron]

I still play on the VITA and PSP every week

[@frowner_and_co]

Insane fall off

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

thanks for the support!

[@CheatFreak47]

Yo, just wanna say I'm glad you brought back the old Nerdslayer look a while back, your Death of a Game series is always so stylish and well edited, and it's one of those things that's kept me watching all these years. Keep up the great work!

[@dwatts64]

I bought a Vita about 2 or 3 years ago, jailbroke it, and fell in love. If you like PSP/PS2 games or you are into JRPGs or emulators, it's probably the best system out there for all of those things, even all these years later. It replaced my 3DS, and often my switch, in my backpack as my go-to time killer when im out and about.

[@naciremasti]

As a Vita owner, the reason it failed was because it's a 3D portable that primarily played side scrollers and JPRGs. Those games are a niche genre. They're great for retro gaming once you jailbreak them. Other than the obvious proprietary memory cards being expensive, the lack of actual 3D games, imo is why no one really picked it up and kept playing. Y'all made a great video.

[@GoldElderDragon]

looking forward to the inevitable Dreamcast episode.

[@sergiocarrasco-sq6it]

I bought a Vita in 2022 after using a Switch as my primary console since 2018, i honestly love the Vita, ive been abled to play games i never could play before cause of lack of money to get classic consoles like ps1 and psp, the ammount of effor the community has put on the homebrew scene is rly amazing.

[@felman87]

I got a Vita, was going in for knee surgery and wanted something to play on the couch. Oh man, it was fantastic. I never realized how many indie titles existed for it. And Persona 4 Golden is one of my favorite games. The Vita is the Dreamcast of handhelds. Though the Switch took the basic concept and ran with it.

[@nosidezero]

My all time favorite handheld. It was great being with the community for the short amount of time the console was on the market.

[@yeppumm1192]

So I bought one in 2021, and became absolutely obsessed with it. I decided I wanted to play as much of its library as I can. Since then I’ve played probably 70% of my gaming time on it, there are so many good games on it ! (And they have trophies which is sweet)

[@jediknight2089]

Vita was and still is a good handheld gaming platform. It’s a shame that Sony didn’t give this platform the support it needed to thrive. Definitely would like to see the Dreamcast get a death of a game episode in the near future.

[@dragoonadept]

I wrote it off as soon as I saw the memory card prices. I eventually bought one and love it but only after you could use a micro sd adapter.

[@NekotTheBrave]

"Lack of support from the parent" jeez, hit me pretty hard.

[@kalark]

i never had a vita when it was still being supported by sony but picking one up recently it's been a real treat! What a nice piece of hardware and the community is amazing

[@krinagargamer8646]

I was an early adopter of the PSVITA. Was the first and last console I preordered. Had fun with the 4 or 5 games i bought, plus the digital store PS1 games i already owned from the PS3 that were able to be downloaded to the VITA without buying again. Then when i had my PS4 that first year, tried the remote play, but just as with the PS3 it sucked for it. So in a drawer it went, until 6 months ago, when i discovered jailbreaking and now its had a new lease on life.

[@superstardaone]

Hopefully, this opens the gate for Wii U video on Death of a Game.

[@masterxeon1001]

if you upgrade your router, the portal isn't so bad. But it is tied to a dead box.

[@BloodyCaesar]

Hello nerdSlayer, I don't know if this reaction/suggestion will drown down the comment section, but here it is. This was an excellent video, that gave me a lot more information than my own reticence I had about buying the Vita. This sounds like a good start for a side series, and in such: 1. I would suggest the console videos could be called "Death of a Console", or even more inclusive to modern gaming (and its upcoming downfalls), "Death of a Platform", although the former has a nicer ring to it. This to differentiate both concurrent series from one another. This should allow you to separate both series as well in different playlists for an easier rewatching experience. 2. As this was already suggested by earlier commentators, this is a great lead in to "Death of a Console: Google Stadia" that I will be looking forward to watch, but I could also foresee more obscure entries to this age, like the Nintendo Virtual Boy and the Phillips CD-i ! Keep on the good work, from someone who owned both a Sony Ericsson and the first Sony Xperia model phones in his life.

[@jayielleina1336]

Guild Wars for the next video? 👀 I'm excited

[@AlexanTheMan]

This one's going to be a heartbreaking watch, especially now since handheld consoles are suddenly relevant again.

[@ThunderousFolf]

Got the Vita as a Christmas gift back in 2012, and I loved it! I spent so much time with my Vita back then playing Ace Combat Joint Assault, Black Ops Declassified, and especially Killzone Mercenary. I still have my Vita today! I may need to charge and fire it up again after seeing this video. Really sucks to see the decline of this thing. Had there been different choices made (like with the memory cards for example), I feel like the Vita could've made a much larger and longer lasting impact. And it doubly sucks to see where PlayStation handhelds are going nowadays with things like the PlayStation Portal.

[@JCSaxonVT]

I think if they threw in a PS4 controller with the Vita TV instead of a leftover stock PS3 controller, most of those motion control/touchscreen games would have been playable. Plus if they had marketed it more like a streaming device with the ability to play games for cheap, it probably would have sold much better without having to change much.

[@MrSpOoKs13805]

What ? The portal is puzzling ? It’s still selling incredibly well. Sure it’s a glorified remote play accessory, but it’s selling good enough for Sony to acknowledge its success

[@cnhnx]

This is anecdotal evidence but when I'm still using original firmware with games installed on the proprietary memory card, I often had multiple crashes and lock up when playing games. But all of that gone when I mod my Vita and use SD card adapter and installed exactly same games on that. Could be case of bad batch on my card, but that stings because how expensive they were.

[@manamaster6]

This console had so many rights, but the few wrongs were nails on its coffin, unfortunately.

[@yvngdende]

Still love my Vita to death to this very day. Man, what a complex and wonderful machine.

[@TucanaTheToucan]

To be honest, I love to see you tackle The Simpsons: Tapped Out on a future episode of Death Of A Game.

[@Don_DeMarco]

I really miss the PSP and PS Vita. Those devices had so many features. I was almost like having a phone, but without the ability to actually make calls or text. I remember the music player had a feature where you could take a song, put two pinpoints somewhere in that song, and then have it repeat that specific spot in the song as many times as you like. As if you just wanted to hear a specific set of seconds in an audio file repeatedly without starting to song back over. I have yet to see that feature on any other music player than the PSP. I don't remember if the PS Vita had it as well or not.

[@KingKrouch]

My big issue with the Vita is the memory cards and that outside of the first party games, all of the third-party games (Although mostly JRPGs and Visual Novels) had better ports elsewhere. Freedom Wars, one of the system sellers is finally getting a remaster on PC and consoles, and Persona 4 Golden being on modern platforms too, outside of the Vita being used as an emulator machine (for older games) and for homebrew, it's basically just been reduced to a neat little kit to tinker with. It was ahead of it's time in terms of hardware. Sadly, handhelds that fit in your pocket (outside of Ambernic systems) is a dead market, so I feel like nowadays, the Steam Deck is the true Vita successor.

[@solanumtuberosa]

Rip in peace vita. You are the console of the time

[@FraserSouris]

I will always be grateful to the Homebrew and modding scene for giving more life to the Vita. It truly is quite a joy to use. But Despite buying a Vita day 1 and still using mine, it kills me to say this but the Official Vita, even if Sony did the best they could with it, was likely to fail. From a business perspective, A VITA in the 2011- 2016 gaming landscape was in a hostile environment for a multitude of reasons. Consider the Switch. The Switch worked for a few reasons: -1- Nintendo's always had a healthy handheld line even before the Switch with the 3DS and -2- Nintendo never focussed on raw graphical power as a selling point. Meaning even though the Switch is 2 generations behind the PS5, Nintendo's main games are stylized enough that they function fine at a PS3/360/WiiU level of power (and this also allows 3rd party devs to port over a lot of PS3/360 games. Some of which like the Assassin's Creed games actually run and load faster on the Switch). And -3- Nintendo was already making games at a WiiU level of power with the WiiU. And the 3DS was weaker than the WiiU. So they don't need to rework how they make WiiU games and 3DS style games get a power boost. Essentially, letting them continue as normal and only support 1 system. The Steam Deck has the advantage that it can access Steam. And if the user is already a Steam user, then their library carries over automatically. Valve doesn't need to make games for the Steam Deck. They just have to make things easier for other devs and improve Proton. The Steam Deck continues to get new games just by existing. None of these advantages apply to Sony. Sony's MO with the PS3/PS4 and now PS5 is graphically intense games. That's why the PS5 is designed to have Ray Tracing and stuff. And this is one of the major reasons why the Vita failed. The Vita came out in an awkward position. It was sold as "console quality games on the go". But it wasn't powerful enough to run most PS3 games well (see Borderlands 2 and The Amazing Spider-Man 1). But making games for the VITA was still more expensive than making games for iOS or the 3DS. And those games, even if ported to the PS3/PS4, weren't on the level of Native PS3/PS4 games (see Assassin's Creed Liberation. Or how Gravity Rush and Tearaway were essentially remade for the PS4 version). The 3DS' weaker specs at the time ended up being a blessing in disguise since it meant 3DS games were less expensive to develop for and therefore more profitable. Yeah, the VITA later pivoted to pushing Indie games and that was a niche it was good at, but by then it was too little too late for the "portable console with proper console quality games". Another issue the VITA had was one the PSP didn't have. Recall that the PSP was also sold with a somewhat similar "portable console with console quality games" angle. The PSP was often marketed as a "Portable PS2" with many PS2 games and series either getting ports or a dedicated PSP entry that were comparable to their PS2 counterparts. For example, games like God of War Chains of Olympus/Ghost of Sparta, GTA Liberty City and Vice City Stories, Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker, Midnight Club LA Remix etc were comparable if not better than their PS2 counterparts. Some like the GTA games were even ported to the PS2. But the bigger thing is that the PSP indirectly benefited from the PS2 and Wii being active platforms in the 7th gen when it was active. Those platforms were roughly "on par" with the PSP and popular enough that companies still made games for them years into the 7th gen. Which meant it wasn't a huge cost to port PS2/Wii games to the PSP which meant the PSP kept getting lots of games people were interested in. And also, it wasn't expensive to develop PSP games from scratch for the PSP. This meant the PSP got a new supply of 3rd party ports of PS2/Wii games like Prince of Persia Two Thrones, Star Wars the Force Unleased, Spider-Man, Tenchu and more. The VITA however, didn't have this. When it released, the active platforms were just the PS3/360 and WiiU. All of whom were kinda outside the Vita's range. A PS3 game could not be easily ported to the VITA (see Borderlands 2 and TASM 1) and VITA games would feel limited if ported to the PS3/360 (something like Assassin's Creed 3 Liberation. See my earlier paragraph). For a AAA company, this meant that if you wanted to make a VITA game, you had to commit to the VITA. You couldn't make it for another platform first and port it easily to the VITA or get your feet wet making it on the VITA and then release on other platforms as a safety net (sometimes referred to as the "Epic Games Store strat" by some modern Indie devs). Indie devs aren't bothered by this but most Indie games don't generate blockbuster sales from even casual fans. It's the AAA that act as system sellers and AAA games weren't cheap to put on the VITA. The problem was confounded in just a year when the PS4/XB1 released. If games like BL2 and TASM1 were possible to get working on the VITA with heavy downgrades, that was now out of reach with even launch PS4 games. Indie games wouldn't start popping off in a major way until 2015-2016 with stuff like Shovel Knight and Undertale. This meant that the only way the VITA would be getting new games is if Sony made them or encouraged ports of PS2 and earlier games to pad out the VITA's library. But that meant Sony had to split resources between the PS4 (their new console that was selling like hotcakes and was crazy profitable), the PS3 (the still popular legacy console that was being phased out) in order to to support the VITA (the failing option). I'd argue even if in an alternate timeline, Sony 'did everything right with the VITA', they used regular microSD cards for storage, removed features like the rear touch and cameras in order to bring down the price, increased the internal storage of the base VITA, released/ported way more PS2 games to pad out the library, it likely wouldn't have saved the VITA. It wouldn't change the fact there were no other popular consoles at the time of a comparable performance that the VITA could piggyback games off like the PSP had with the PS2 and Wii. Or that the VITA couldn't play 90% of AAA PS3 games or 100% of AAA PS4 games in an acceptable state. This is why Sony's newest handheld is more of a PS5 Remote play attatchment than a standalone portable console. Sony knows no handheld (barring the Steam Deck) they make appeals to what PS5 players or PS5 developers want.

[@KSamurai12]

Certainly thing at the end of this vid, was the PS Portal. This should really be consider a Remote Play device/accessory to compliment your existing setup than an actual main iteration, which is a point I always see missed. The device can't hold any games on it's own, and to use the 'Remote Play' functionatially from a PS which have always been around for the longest times with other devices such as Vita/Mobile/PC. The focus market/marketing was sold as a solution to busy family household where the big TV was being used by someone else, yet someone still wanting to get in some extra gaming time. It was for a niche market (which Sony has been targeting for a while now, even with PS5 Pro) and even Sony didn't expect to sell many, at least globally. One year on, and demand still outstrippted sales for it, where Sony opting to try make more. I see this as a small success so far, even if small these days.

[@mrsone2000]

I have a Playstation Portal and I agree with you. It is not for everyone, but for the right person it is very good experience.

[@legendofswords]

There is a hidden revision for the vita in the timeline that i dont see mentioned as much. As we all know we have the OLED PCH-100X model with board revision IRS 002 and the Slim model PCH-200X with the board revision USS 100x (2 board revisions for this model). Hidden between the OLED and Slim models is the OLED models with IRS 1001 which features the same SOC as the Slim model meaning they feature the better battery life of the slim with the benefits of the OLED screen

[@machao3]

I was at my parent's house and saw a metallic blue psp and a psp vita that my mom was about to throw away because my older brother had told her that they weren't worth fixing. She kept them for me because she knew I loved gaming. Both work perfectly after getting new chargers for both and are in perfect condition, I take the vita with me now when I know I have to wait anywhere.

[@aiodensghost8645]

Ive had several Vitas... the 1st one, a 1000, was stolen. My 2nd 1000 I traded for a New 3DS XL from a friend, and that guy always wanted a PS Vita. That one had a 32GB OEM memory card, and he still plays it to this day, so no regrets. My current one is a 2000 with an SDtoVita. Edit: I actually have a PSP Go as well. That thing is AMAZING once homebrewed and given a M2 to Memory Stick to MicroSD adapter (a mouthful). The pause feature is basically a temporary save state you can use for pausing your game in the event you say... rage quit because the boss is too much, and would like to play some Lumines to cool off.

[@mad-percolator]

Amazing video. You should do more videos on hardware, there's a lot to tell about, like the gizmondo or why the NGC sells were not really good.

[@canariawing]

i bought a vita solely to play persona 4 golden and i don't regret it one bit. i ended up discovering some really incredible hidden gems because of it (it was even showed briefly in the intro! freedom wars my beloved, i hope they port it in my lifetime)

[@CerbearusBane]

Man I loved playing obscure JRPGs on the VITA. Some of my core memories right there.

[@Romanian901]

Wipeout 2048 music hits hard

[@marioskatsigiannis3047]

I believe that it is too late for a new PS portable, given the existence of the Nintendo Switch and Valve's Steam Deck. The market was there, but now it is dominated by other companies. Furthermore, the Switch is successful while still requires proprietary game "cartridges", but gives usb connectivity for docking & HDMI, and standard sd cards for storage. On the other hand the Steam Deck has sd card for storage, usb3 for hdmi, and access to any online game store

[@paranoidandroid___1248]

All I have to say is it’s wild how well the PS Portal is selling at $200 a pop. It’s currently the best selling video game accessory in the US followed by the Elite DualSense controller. How I wish the Vita could’ve thrived more 😢

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

1 year to sell less than half a million isn't too impressive to me NGL

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

but to be fair, sony says they are happy mezha.media/en/2024/10/14/playstation-portal-sales-exceeded-sony-s-expectations/

[@paranoidandroid___1248]

@@nerdSlayerstudioss to each their own, but considering the fact that it’s a relatively overpriced remote player, AND you need to own a PS5 to be able to use it, those numbers are still impressive. It would be way different if we were dealing with an actual PSP/Vita successor.

[@ziggos9810]

This isnt a video game this is a gaming console Edit: Very rude comments cope harder haters

[@abaddon1503]

Can’t wait for Death of a Console: Atari Jaguar

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

true

[@kanaria-cu3uv]

what?! I had no idea!!!

[@Arctis326]

Thanks captain obvious

[@leonarddillon256]

It's the death of multiple games for being on one console 😅

[@kennydarmawan13]

I think the saddest thing here is that the Vita could've been revolutionary and changed the video game industry. But it's clear that those good ideas need good execution. A lesson they fail to learn with the PS Portal, which ends up becoming a Wii U. I know Sony has the guts to make majesties. Just look at Astro Bot. But we need them to stop focusing on money only and also start focusing on the games too. If Nintendo can still keep on going despite rarely doing live-service nonsense (only Splatoon comes to mind), then Sony and Microsoft have no excuses.

[@Jack-cp2ni]

I feel like it's a huge shame the Vita couldn't run ps2 games the same way the psp could play ps1 games. Having ps2 games on the go in the early 2010s would have been killer.

[@VOAN]

It does had a few PS2 ports though. Persona 4 Golden, Final Fantasy X and X-2, the two games in the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection (MGS2 and MGS3), God of War Collection (GOW1 & 2), Ratchet & Clank Collection (Ratchet and Clank 1-3), Jak and Daxter Collection (Jak and Daxter and Jak II), and Silent Hill HD Collection (SH2 and SH3) are all PS2 ports.

[@Michel-r6m]

Still nice with Remote Play on PS3 & PS4. When PS4 became a success it was ditched by Sony as third party developers.

[@squabbbb]

Id like to see Death of a Console be it's own series, add a new sign on the building

[@isolationcowboy1201]

I think the biggest problem is that games take way longer to develop even back in the 2010s. Nintendo avoided this by just combining their home and portable consoles. But the days of console manufacturers having 2 separate systems are long gone I am afraid.

[@Badguy292]

11:30 I myself, had a Sony Xperia Play, it was a great phone but sadly died from the chord/band between the screen and base separating somewhere. I could probably fix it now, but I have moved on since. I didn't like the touchpad replacements for thumbsticks, but they were functional at least.

[@oliverfawcett1023]

I bought a 3G/WiFi PS Vita that I bought for about NZD$150 shortly after it released due to being on clearance at the store I worked at. Managed to get a collection of about 30 games and ended up selling it after a while, regretted that very quickly. Finally bought a second hand one last year and got Custom Firmware, I love it. Inspired a work mate to get one for old PSP games.

[@Gloryboyquan]

I'm moving to NZ end of this year I love vita great device

[@2004DodgeViper]

could you insult me please?

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

No. Thanks for the support!

[@dead3y3_YT]

@@nerdSlayerstudioss Hard agree with this approach, good luck

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

@@dead3y3_YT Thanks for the support!

[@tarunrobin8576]

Wish you gave some benchmarks or context when you were explaining the specs edit: great video either way. Love watching your stuff!

[@Dayfire010]

So excited for the GW1 breakdown. I really miss those days. Playing GW2 right now lol.

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

Can't wait!

[@dgray5100able]

Something Scott the Woz pointed out that rings as very true: when Nintendo made a portable game in their franchises, it was the next game in that franchise; when Sony made a portable game in their franchises, it was some throwaway spin-off. I also can't help but feel that Sony might have been just slightly disappointed in the PSP. I mean, 80 million+ units is something to be proud of, but when your direct competitor that you are trying to beat sells nearly double that amount, it kind of seems like they might have had a few hangups going into the PS Vita.

[@ftrwrwbg]

You don’t have to be gone to use the PS Portal your PS5 just needs to be on at your house

[@otopico]

I love my Vita. I love repairing other people's Vitas. It reminds me of my favorite trackball that Logitech quit making decades ago. Just like the Cordless Optical Trackman, the Vita was something special, just not at the right time. But for those of us that came across them and loved them, we are the lucky few. Just because a product didn't sell well doesn't mean it was a mistake. And I'm SO glad SONY made the Vita.

[@gamemonster7]

I remember getting addicted to toukiden, soul sacrifice delta, freedom wars, persona 4 golden and hotline miami. I effing love it! Sad it's dead

[@shushkata]

I remember the VITA. Never had one, but I have wanted one for a while :)

[@felipepereira214]

I'd like to watch a video like this one about the Nintendo Wii U; it'd be very informative and interesting at the same time. Nice vid nerdSlayer!

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

Thanks! I'll add it to my list.

[@RedneckOgre9000]

Until the Switch Lite the Vita was the best handheld console ever as far as hardware goes EXCEPT for that freaking expensive proprietary memory card. Just a shame Sony and major 3rd parties stopped supporting it so quickly

[@legendofswords]

SD2Vita or Vita2SD modem adapter for the 3g model helps to greatly increase storage on Jailbroken Vitas

[@Philnemba]

I bought my Vita for half the price at a local Gamestop on the same month the PS4 launch and bought 3 games(Uncharted Golden Abyss, PS All Stars and Street Fighter x Tekken) and it was definitely a handheld with lots of potential that Sony botched up real bad and just gave up on it barely two years after its launched 🙃💀