Released in 2011 (2012 for English-speaking countries), the PlayStation Vita has performed quite well on the market in Asia, but has never really seen much commercial success in Europe and North America. As the years have gone by since the console’s release, there have been fewer first and second-party titles released on the handheld, and sequels to former console exclusives have been announced for the PlayStation 4 console, rather than remain handheld exclusives. To casual observation, the writing has been on the wall for some time.
In a recent Sony Investors Relations Day conference discussion, Sony President Andrew House referred to the PlayStation Vita as “legacy hardware.” The response was nearly instant online, which lead to Sony quickly offering a clarification of sorts. “What Andy mentioned as ‘legacy platform’ was part of the write-off for PS Vita components for the first generation of the PS Vita, which is no longer available in the market,” as was mentioned by an unnamed Sony spokesperson through GameBeat. “And he did not directly mean the current PS Vita and PS TV models, which are available in the market. Our portable business will be continued, and many users are now enjoying PlayStation 4 remote play features as well as original PS Vita game titles on PS Vita and PS TV.”
While the clarification does exclude the Vita as a platform from being abandoned forever as “legacy,” the remainder of the talk still failed to mention any upcoming Vita titles or programs, or any new hardware or first party titles.
Opinion: While the situations for the Vita was already clearly bleak, Sony’s strategy seems to be pointed toward PlayStation Vue, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation Morpheus. The utter lack of PlayStation Vita titles announced, or even seeming interest in the PlayStation Network systems that work with the Vita. So Sony has said it doesn’t believe the Vita platform to be legacy hardware, it seems to be ignored for major future plans. So, for Vita fans, things still look bleak, but not entirely abandoned.
