The Reality
Instead, the Vita saw just a slow trickle of big name titles released during its first year. While plenty of games were released digitally, and we were treated to a plethora of games by way of support for PSP and PSOne legacy content, major releases were thin on the ground. Early adopters weren’t short of choices in terms of what to play, but that choice wasn’t visible at retail. Walking into any store we were presented with the same limited choices that had been on display for months on end with just a couple of new games released a month into the stores. For a brand new exciting console, the PS Vita needed a steady stream of major titles showing off what the console was capable of. But that didn’t happen.
While we did see entries in the Call Of Duty, Mortal Kombat, FIFA, Assassin’s Creed and Need For Speed franchises, it’s the ones who were absent that were just as important. Critical first and third party series were absent and all of these were critical to making the Vita a success and without them, it quickly lost its credibility as a portable AAA device. WWE, NBA, Grand Theft Auto, Gran Turismo – all games that made an appearance on the PSP were nowhere to be seen.
The Vita Has No Games
With this shortage of major physical releases, retailers found it difficult to persuade customers that the Vita had more than a handful of titles available. That lead to poor sales and many stores were reluctant to stock newer releases. It became a catch-22 situation that lead to many stores abandoning the Vita completely. That certainly isn’t the case for the Switch Lite and it’s marketing has capitalised on promoting the existing library. With such a major high street presence, it’s hard to miss just how many games the Switch has so you’re spoiled for choice as a new owner. When it comes to the Vita, even now people who don’t own a Vita are shocked when they are told just how many games are available for the system.
Enter Big Brother
What really marked the beginning of the end for the PS Vita was the launch of the PlayStation 4. While the two consoles had the potential to become a perfect pairing through the combination of Remote Play and Cross Buy, Sony had other plans. Once the PS4 hit stores their marketing attention and budget was concentrated almost solely on their new “baby”. Retail chains were “requested” to reassign display space from the PS Vita to the PS4 making an already under-promoted range even less appealing to customers. Their own publicity through the PlayStation Blog slowly shifted focus away from the PS3 and Vita and it seemed as if Sony were only interested in anything if there was a PS4 connection.
Nintendo, in stark contrast, started with the “big brother” with the Switch. The Lite can be best described as being the younger sibling of the family. But in true Nintendo fashion it is clear that the Switch will be an ever evolving line. While we can expect to see new, revised models for several years to come at the very core it will still be a Nintendo Switch. If a game is released for the Switch in several years time, it will almost certainly work on the original Switch or Switch Lite. Nintendo don’t forget their customer base are the ones who keep them in business.
Could Things Have Been Better?
Many still cite the high memory card prices for the failure of the PS Vita. It’s clear that this didn’t put people off at the beginning and it did get off to a fantastic start. It’s certainly a much deeper problem than just memory cards though. Sony addressed this to a limited degree with the Content Manager app, so it made it less of an issue. But a console without a large range of games, no matter how good it is, is never going to sell in huge quantities.
Advertising certainly was an issue but it never felt that Sony – at least in the West – were behind the console. Short term investment to get major publishers to release some of their bigger games on the Vita could have paid dividends in the long run. Instead of just seeing several FIFA games, we could have had regular entries from most major franchises. The console itself could have enjoyed sales to equal the level that the Switch is currently enjoying and instead of being one of gaming’s best kept secrets, it could have had the respect it rightfully deserves.
They say that a few games can’t make a console. But the lack of just a few big ones can certainly break one.
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