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NEWS: Sony Halts PS Vita Production in Japan in 2019


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HK16



Joined: 31 May 2018
Posts: 496
PostPosted: Thu Sep 20, 2018 12:49 am Reply with quote
The time was coming anyway. It launched in 2011. What I really wanted is the PSP2.
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theNightster



Joined: 14 Mar 2014
Posts: 1328
PostPosted: Thu Sep 20, 2018 1:11 am Reply with quote
Quote:
Company has no plans for successor for handheld gaming platform

not surprised, not just because Sony's handhelds were sub par systems that were only good for RPGs but this was also their least successful platform not to mention the switch and smart phones have kind of taken over, the same reason why we're not getting another DS system from Nintendo.
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MozillaYaseen



Joined: 03 Dec 2017
Posts: 11
PostPosted: Thu Sep 20, 2018 1:33 am Reply with quote
"The system had sold more than 1.2 million units worldwide as of February 26, 2012.

After all these years that's how many it managed to sell.I was expecting 5-10 million units by now.
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Emerje



Joined: 10 Aug 2002
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Location: Maine
PostPosted: Thu Sep 20, 2018 2:34 am Reply with quote
MozillaYaseen wrote:
"The system had sold more than 1.2 million units worldwide as of February 26, 2012.

After all these years that's how many it managed to sell.I was expecting 5-10 million units by now.

Old data. It sold 4 million worldwide by the end of 2012 and then Sony stopped reporting worldwide sales figures. Apparently they sold another 1.8 million units in Japan by mid 2014. The last four years are completely unreported. They aren't great numbers, but they're better than a lot of unsuccessful handhelds have seen.

I think what they should have aimed for was something closer to what we got in the PSP3000 model with full TV output. The proprietary memory cards didn't help either, at least the PSP used Sony's common (if overpriced) Memory Sticks. If Sony were to do a new handheld they need to use SD cards and bring back video output, be it through a dock or directly.

Emerje
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DigitalScratch





PostPosted: Thu Sep 20, 2018 3:55 am Reply with quote
Sad to hear but I can also understand why if it’s because the PS Vita isn’t seen as profitable anymore. I have one, and honestly there are very very few games that I enjoy available for it. Most of them are JRPGS (Odin Sphere, Digimon Cyber Sleuth, Persona) and Visual Novels (Dangan Ronpa and Zero Time Dilemma), which may seem like a lot but is very minuscule compared to my other consoles. And nothing really noteworthy for just the Vita has come out recently, unless you’re a huge fan of otomes, imo.
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Aca Vuksa



Joined: 22 Mar 2018
Posts: 643
Location: Nis, Serbia
PostPosted: Thu Sep 20, 2018 3:57 am Reply with quote
Oda saying that there are no plans for successor for the Playstation handheld means that Japan's smartphone game are now dominant. It feels like Japan's video games industry is shifting away from home consoles and handhelds, so sad that see that Japanese people change their perceptions.
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Squidslinger



Joined: 01 Jul 2017
Posts: 76
PostPosted: Thu Sep 20, 2018 4:15 am Reply with quote
Aca Vuksa wrote:
Oda saying that there are no plans for successor for the Playstation handheld means that Japan's smartphone game are now dominant. It feels like Japan's video games industry is shifting away from home consoles and handhelds, so sad that see that Japanese people change their perceptions.


This is very likely what's happened. The Switch is one thing, but the mobile market and the power of the hardware has far surpassed the Vita. Unlike back when the Vita launched where it was pretty top of the line in power.

Vita endured well due to the Japan market. Also endured in the west due to great JRPG support. Hardware was good, but it was a very eastern console. You can't convince western gamers to invest in a walled garden nightmare that the Vita is. Especially not after the PSP. Japan is totally different. You tell them to jump, they jump.

Vita still had the best screen (OLED model) seen in a handheld console. If you think about how many years it took before OLED TVs got released, it's insane how early Vita had it.

Still love my Vita despite not playing it much anymore. However, I will say, if Sony did a Switch style console, they'd have my money. Really that would be perfect to me. Especially because it would have decent titles and JRPGs. Nintendo gets some stuff but not enough for me to justify a purchase. Nintendo also gimps their hardware which also limits the quality of the games.

I could see a future where the 3DS is replaced by the Switch and Nintendo just advances that more and more. Makes a lot more sense given how ancient the 3DS hardware is.
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MarshalBanana



Joined: 31 Aug 2014
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 20, 2018 4:37 am Reply with quote
really huge shame that it never took off, I wasn't fond of the PSP, and the Vita fixed all the issues it had.
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Aquasakura



Joined: 01 Jan 2014
Posts: 700
Location: Chesterfield, Virginia, U.S.A
PostPosted: Thu Sep 20, 2018 6:34 am Reply with quote
Looks like I should get a Vita soon then. There are a couple of games I wanted to play that are only available on the system. One of them I have my eye on in particular is Lunar: Silver Star Harmony. I have been wanting to give the Lunar series a try for a long time and from what I have searches Silver Star Harmony is the best version of the original game and it's only available on the PS Vita.

I am kind if sad to learn of this news but it is not surprising as I have heard the Vita and the PSP before it never did as well as Sony hoped it would and given both the Nintendo Switch and mobile games it was just a mater of time before they finally decided to cease production of the console. I am impress though that they manage to hold onto it for this long
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Stampeed Valkyrie



Joined: 10 Aug 2014
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 20, 2018 8:14 am Reply with quote
Aquasakura wrote:
Looks like I should get a Vita soon then. There are a couple of games I wanted to play that are only available on the system. One of them I have my eye on in particular is Lunar: Silver Star Harmony. I have been wanting to give the Lunar series a try for a long time and from what I have searches Silver Star Harmony is the best version of the original game and it's only available on the PS Vita



Is there a difference between the PSP and and Vita version?
I have this for the PSP (physical copy) and is one of the few reasons besides Ace Combat that kept me playing it.
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Greed1914



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4422
PostPosted: Thu Sep 20, 2018 8:50 am Reply with quote
It's a bit sad to read this, but not unexpected. Going digital only in America and Europe was a clear sign, and now that I'm reminded of how old the system is, it was probably in its wind down phase just going from typical console trends.

That said, it's disappointing that it didn't catch on more than it did. I've always thought it was a good system that made for solid mobile gaming. Stuff on phones still doesn't compare in my eyes. Plus, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was a great way to play JRPGs, including my favorite game Persona 4 Golden.
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GeorgeC



Joined: 22 Nov 2008
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 20, 2018 11:33 am Reply with quote
Stampeed Valkyrie wrote:



Is there a difference between the PSP and and Vita version?
I have this for the PSP (physical copy) and is one of the few reasons besides Ace Combat that kept me playing it.


The Vita was better in just about every way than the PSP.
The PSP had that awful UMD drive that eventually broke. My last one (of 3; I was covered under warranty and sent back 2 to Sony in the mail that had manufacturing issues) gave up in 2 years!
PSP Go was technically more durable but you had to download ALL your games off PSN which meant buying them all over again and porting over any existing saves. There were many games never ported over and some that were web exclusives that of course got pulled off PSN after a while.

The Vita screen was MUCH better than the PSP. I never had a PSP that DIDN'T have a few dead pixels onscreen.

The problem again came down to mostly lackluster software support.
That's the reason I didn't buy a Vita. I got burned on the PSP and mediocre support for it and I could see that being repeated on the Vita as well.
Darn shame -- it really was a nice piece of hardware.
Only Nintendo seems to be able to make the portable player market work for it but it's questionable now with mobile smartphones how much of that they own anymore...
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ninjamitsuki



Joined: 15 Sep 2007
Posts: 590
Location: Anywhere (Thanks, technology)
PostPosted: Thu Sep 20, 2018 4:39 pm Reply with quote
Aquasakura wrote:
I have been wanting to give the Lunar series a try for a long time and from what I have searches Silver Star Harmony is the best version of the original game and it's only available on the PS Vita.


If you were to ask me, Silver Star Story Complete is the best version of the original game. Harmony is the most accessible and the music is gorgeous, but also has some baaad loading times, really rigid sprites, and Nall's voice is godawful. The voices and the new lyrics are really a matter of personal preference, but I prefer the old ones for most characters. John Truitt's hammy performance just makes Ghaleon.
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BadNewsBlues



Joined: 21 Sep 2014
Posts: 5917
PostPosted: Thu Sep 20, 2018 4:40 pm Reply with quote
Aca Vuksa wrote:
Oda saying that there are no plans for successor for the Playstation handheld means that Japan's smartphone game are now dominant. It feels like Japan's video games industry is shifting away from home consoles and handhelds, so sad that see that Japanese people change their perceptions.


Japan never had a strong fascination with consoles compared to America and Europe.
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EricJ2



Joined: 01 Feb 2014
Posts: 4016
PostPosted: Thu Sep 20, 2018 5:07 pm Reply with quote
BadNewsBlues wrote:
Aca Vuksa wrote:
Oda saying that there are no plans for successor for the Playstation handheld means that Japan's smartphone game are now dominant. It feels like Japan's video games industry is shifting away from home consoles and handhelds, so sad that see that Japanese people change their perceptions.


Japan never had a strong fascination with consoles compared to America and Europe.


Even less now, now that Anime, the Internet, and home-based Console gaming are considered part of the evil "Otaku triumvirate" that conspires to rot young minds and turn them into sheltered unemployed perverts.
It's different in the US, where gamers, usually the multiplayers, are serious about whether they get their game on console quality or Steam/desktop quality.

Handhelds at least kept commuting gamers on the go, but they always had trouble competing with the national obsession for Smartphones, in a country where even a desktop computer is the road to temptation.
The Vita did even more poorly in the West, it's just that Japan's gamers are catching up now, when Nintendo's Switch has whatever handheld market there is on both coasts already sewn up.
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