It may be an end of an era, as the next PS Vita isn’t coming anytime soon and recent statements from Sony officials make it difficult to believe that the portable platform will see a successor. Technology is advancing, and what once were incredible handheld consoles are now gathering dust.
The fault can fall on many. For one, third party companies have shifted their views from handheld platforms like PS Vita and Nintendo 3DS, to their more powerful counterparts. The PC will always remain a strong contender in gaming, but the age of consoles is still in full bloom.
It’s where the big titles now appear, with stunning graphics, intricate gameplay and boundless options when placed with a controller in your hand and a huge flat screen in front of you. The little handheld devices are now losing steam, with small screens and limited controls, and it has been said multiple times that they’re slowly losing their place in the market.
The competition is growing fierce when it comes to the gaming community, and with virtual reality on its way, it’s about to get even hotter. Even the younger generation, who generally preferred the handheld devices, are now shifting their attention to the more powerful consoles, which provide better games.
The second reason is the skyrocketing value of mobile gaming. Many gamemakers have turned their eye on smartphones, as their highly advanced features may provide as a decent enough platform that make handheld consoles, like the PS Vita, slightly obsolete.
Furthermore, most mobile games are free, and now have the same touch screen options that was once the advantage of the portable gaming devices.
Why buy an additional gadget for games when your phone will work just fine for when you’re not at home? That seems to be the question most users place when faced with the option of purchasing a handheld platform. That further inflicts pain on PS Vita and Nintendo 3DS.
Additionally, Sony’s focus is now more pointed at their highly successful PlayStation 4 as the gaming platform to shine in the spotlight. It has generally wrecked competition, and for the most part remained in lead of sales, beating out its most important rival, Microsoft’s Xbox One. That is another reason why attention is falling away from the PS Vita.
According to chief of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, Shuhei Yoshida, in spite of the fact that he is personally “a huge fan” of PlayStation Vita, he implied that there isn’t much of a future for the handheld device, nor is a launch of its successor likely to come anytime soon.
The PS Vita launched in 2011, and will become more of a “legacy platform”, according to SCE Worldwide Studios president, Andrew House, for markets outside of Europe and Asia.
However, one era ends, another begins, and it remains to be seen if mobile gaming will be the perfect way to fill the gap.
Image source: game-insider.com