Sony PlayStation Vita

Playstasion Vita or simply PS Vita is a handheld console released by Sony in December of 2011 in Japan and 2012 in the rest of the world. It was the second attempt of Sony in the handheld market after PSP. However, the console didn't have the expected sales and is considered that it failed commercially.

The console came in two versions, the original version with an OLED screen and the slim version with a less powerful but still satisfactory LCD screen. The slim version is smaller and lighter than the original version. The slim version also is charged with a common mini USB cable that it's easier to be found than the unique cable that Sony produced for the original version.

Playstation Vita Design

In the bottom part, the mini USB port can be found, next to a headphone jack. There is also a serial number and the port to insert Memory Cards that Sony produced explicitly for PS Vita. On the top part there are the L and R buttons, the on/off button, the volume buttons and the port to insert the PS Vita game cards. On the back side the is a camera, the Playstation Logo and a surface. Touching the back side surface can have impact in the game play of some games.

On the front side, on the left there are a speaker, an analog stick, 4 directional buttons and the Playstation button. On the front side, on the right there are a speaker, an analog stick, the 4 classic action buttons of Playstation (X, O, rectangle, triangle) and the select and start buttons. In the front side in the middle there is of course the screen.

PS Vita - Why it failed

PS Vita has a lot of features. With dual analog sticks, an OLED powerful screen, microphone support, WiFi - 3G - GPS support, motion sensor, front facing camera, rear facing camera, front multi touch screen, rear multi touch pad, it was the most powerful console of its time and launched with a lot of expectations. A lot of indie developers created a lot of games for the console too. However, it failed to persuade the potential customers to buy the console.

One of the reasons was the high price of the console. Another reason was the unreasonable high price of the memory cards. Even the prices of the games was considered too high. The timing was also strange, since the gamers where waiting for the new generation of consoles - Playstation 4 and XBox One. Sony itself also couldn't support the console with marketing and promotional campaigns due to financial difficulties, preferring to invest in Playstation 4 that was a lot more successful. All these reasons along with the competition with the Nintendo 3DS and the too high expectations are considered the reasons why Playstation Vita had such low sales.