PS Vita – A Diehard Fan’s Ultimate Eulogy

I was kind of expecting this update for some time now so there were no surprises for me in discovering that Sony has decided to put an end to the manufacturing and supply of the PlayStation (PS) Vita through 2019. This handheld gaming platform which received a well-deserved upgrade 4 years ago in the form of PS Vita Slim is sadly going to be buried forever. Personally, I was never able to push the potential of the gadget, which I bought when it launched in North America in 2014; beyond playing the Uncharted – Golden Abyss, with other exclusive titles such as Killzone Mercenary and WipeOut 2048; and Mortal Kombat. In fact, it was the storyline of the Uncharted series that kept me hooked to the Vita for the duration of its gameplay and I bagged the Platinum trophy as well, but it also left me lurking in the dark about why some of the other more popular franchises such as the Second Son or Crash Bandicoot (available on the Switch) for that matter, weren’t introduced on this handheld platform. Presumably, Sony’s gaming studios were more focused on developing games for the PlayStation 4.

A Slow Demise

There were several factors that led to its demise but let me mention the one that affected me the most experience-wise. As an owner of the PlayStation 3 long before I bought the Vita I expected it to support multiple PSN accounts. How would have this helped me? Well, Sony has a nagging policy of not allowing a user to change the country info on its PSN account, meaning, if I originally purchased a PS3/PS4 and opened a PSN account in the US then moved to another country I can’t simply change my geographical information. In short, my PSN account which includes the trophies I earn, the payment details, and so on, stays locked to my country of origin and Sony has its own logic in binding us by this rule. So users create multiple accounts and reconcile with such a narcissistic arrangement. But I couldn’t agree with Sony when, to my shock and surprise, I discovered that it gave me only one account to play on the PS Vita! This meant I could no longer buy digital games on the local account and play & collect trophies on my primary account on the Vita, just as I was doing on the PS3/PS4. This and the unavailability of physical copies frustrated me a lot and set the ball rolling for a slow demise of the Vita. There’s a more detailed walkthrough of the other Vita limitations and nicely done in this insightful video which hurt the brand dearly. For me, the Vita belongs in the PlayStation universe where a nonsegregated & seamless experience across the products & services would have certainly helped augment its presence in the market. Why should gaming – a legitimate form of sports & entertainment; and more so personal gaming on devices such as the Vita be dictated by any form of hardware/software constraints or company policy preferences? And it’s especially upsetting if that company is an experienced player in the multi-billion dollar gaming & media industry!

The Mobile Gaming Era

I simply cannot comprehend scrapping the Vita at a time when handheld mobile gaming is picking up the pace, including the iPhone which has become a major player in the field and is releasing updates regularly for mobile gamers and who can forget the Nintendo Switch, suggesting that Sony got its strategy wrong for the Vita. While there’s little to compare between the Vita and the smartphone devices Sony could have analyzed the usage stats, listened to the support forums and realized the need to make disruptive changes to not only the product, but the service line from the ground up, maybe by offering more cross-platform games alongside allowing creation of multiple accounts, consolidating the gaming experience with WiFi/Cellular network with the ability to introduce a VR headset for the Vita (why not?). There were endless possibilities for innovation, but instead, the Vita was relegated to becoming a distant cousin to the PS4 with what? Remote Play. Meh! Then Sony attempted to boost the genre by introducing the PlayStation TV, that connected the Vita to the big screen and enabled the use of a DualShock 3 or DualShock 4 controller to play the games. But much like the Vita itself, the gadget did not fare well and was discontinued in 2015.

Besides the list of exclusive titles, PS Vita also boasted a large repository of Indie games and most famous amongst the lot was Guacamelee, Tearaway, Gravity Rush, the RayMan Series that delighted any fan of the handheld experience. The Vita should have been given a fair chance to thrive and succeed but alas, we are all set to witness the Sun setting on perhaps one of the most pioneering gaming platforms pretty soon. So au revoir, dear PS Vita! You’ll be missed, and that’s for sure.