😀The Vita has entered this phase, and already we're seeing some interesting applications, from custom apps and games to being able to overclock the processor. In Japan, select downloadable and titles became backward compatible as well. The Vita features a quad-core CPU and a quad-core GPU. Due to the difference in controller input between the Vita and a DualShock controller, Vita games that are dependent on the system's touch-screen, rear touchpad, microphone, or camera are not compatible. Additionally, the battery can supply about five hours for video watching, and up to nine hours of music listening with the screen off. The games The Vita has a bit of something for everyone. Bottom line Do you really need a Vita these days? Towards the end of its lifespan, Vita versions of games began to be cancelled, in favor of PS4 or Nintendo Switch releases. The amount of RAM allows cross-game chat to be used on the system. , President of revealed that his studio, despite usually being more involved with software, had a continued role in future hardware development at the time. Despite this, the system still only managed to sell 4 million units worldwide in its first 10 months on the market, and estimated by analysts to only be at 6 million units sold after two years of availability. Through mid-2010, websites continued to run stories about accounts of the existence of a "PSP 2". The price cut also coincided with the release of a slight redesign of the system, the "PS Vita 2000" model. Although some of the Vita's big hitters have made transitions over to the PS4, there are plenty of great exclusives, including Freedom Wars and Soul Sacrifice. Jeff Rubenstein January 27, 2011. The device did not fare well and had a short retail shelf life in North America and Europe, where it was discontinued at the end of 2015. 2013-10-11, , JustPushStart• Production of new physical Vita games in Europe and America ceased by the end of Sony's 2018 fiscal year, which ended on March 31, 2019. Gaston, Martin May 29, 2013. My blue PS Vita 2000 was very easy to set up in English. The heavier support from Japan, in turn, also helped support the system in the West as well, with many games in the , , , , and series into English on the Vita, or made playable through the system's with digital PSP games. The console is the successor to the , and a part of the brand of gaming devices; as part of the , it primarily competed with the. The sales of the Vita started strong at launch but then stalled and greatly underperformed. The Vita launched with 26 titles in Japan, with Sony announcing that there were over 100 titles in development prior to the system's release overall. The PSP ended up being a mixed result for the company. Byford, Sam February 22, 2013. While the system managed to stay afloat as a minor success, other issues continued to persist, including the high price of the system in comparison to its main competitor, the , and its sibling device, the PS3, the high price of its memory cards used for game and data storage, and the increasing popularity of and. Don't Starve, Lumines: Electronic Symphony, The Walking Dead, Rogue Legacy, Spelunky, OlliOlli, Luftrausers, Guacamelee, Sound Shapes, Severed, Resogun, Fez and the list goes on. 2014-12-11, , Reuters• and various indie game developers praised the platform for its wide selection of more original and niche video games, and the strong respective sales of them. The Vita technically has Remote Play functionality with the PlayStation 3 as well, though due to limitations with the less-powerful PS3 hardware. Yes, remote play as well, but that requires you to bring your controller and a USB cable along. The hardware Any way you look at it, the Vita is a slick-looking handheld. Archived from on June 7, 2013. After a slow start in the worldwide market, it was invigorated in Japan with multiple releases in the series. The system continued to get high-profile games over the course of 2012, including , , , , , and. Though Sony has not released exact sales figures, late-lifespan sales estimates are around 15 to 16 million units. Additionally, big games such as sold well and roughly in-line with their home console counterparts. Metacritic editor Jason Dietz noted that reviewers tended to praise the Vita's actual hardware design and operating system, but expressed some concern on its practicality, namely competing in 2012 onward, with a large size and price, where mobile phones with large screens and cheap games were prevalent as an alternative. With higher-profile games not pushing the system sales enough in 2012, big third party companies like and started reducing or eliminating support for the system, especially in the West. In mid-2017, estimated that approximately 15 million units of the system had been sold, while by September 2018, USGamer estimated it had grown to about 16 million units. With support diminishing, Shahid Ahmad, Sony's Director of Strategic Content, instead began a new approach to software, through directly reaching out to, and making accommodations for, smaller, independent developers who were previously release games for mobile and PC platforms. Remote play OK, Christmas is coming. Throughout 2010, Sony would not confirm these reports of a PSP successor, but would make comments regarding making future hardware. Launch and early years [ ] On June 6, 2011, at , Sony announced that the device's official name would be the PlayStation Vita, with the word "vita" being Latin for "life". A number of other third party apps commonly found on mobile devices have also been made available on the Vita: , removed in 2015 , broken , removed in 2015 , , LiveTweet Sony's third-party client for , broken , , discontinued , removed in 2016 , broken , , and removed in 2015. By November, Senior Vice President of , Patrick Soderlund, confirmed that he had seen that the PlayStation Portable successor existed, but could not confirm details. And many indie titles are cross-buy enabled, so if you buy the PS4 version, the Vita version will be included for free. Sony has stated that the Vita generally runs well under its full clock speed due to overheating and battery consumption issues that would ensue, instead placing its processing power "around halfway between the current PSP and the PS3". The whole ecosystem with PS4 at the center, the Vita's a part of that. Similarly, many Western critics felt that the low sales through 2013 would lead to an early death for the product. Nintendo software, even on a chintzy 400 x 240 resolution display, was — and still is — incredibly compelling. While none of these particular high budget tech demos materialized into actual game releases, and few big-budget Western games would be made for both outside of , many Japanese development teams would go on to develop mid-level games that would release for both platforms, including Falcom's duology, Compile Hearts' original trilogy, and many entries from Tecmo Koei's and series. Archived from on November 23, 2011. In July 2014, Yoshida stated that the company would focus on it less as a dedicated handheld video game console, and more on its combination of uses, stating "it's not about individual Vita games any more. But only in a side-by-side comparison. However, the redesign did remove the screen in favor of a cheaper screen. Inglis, Blair January 30, 2014. : February 22, 2012• It would have been nicer if it were glass, but plastic gets the job done. It was seen as a success in that it was the only handheld video game platform that had ever significantly competed with Nintendo for market share, with almost 80 million units sold in its lifespan, roughly the same amount as Nintendo's had during the. Though this led to less diversity in its game library, it strengthened support in , , and Western-developed. Three-axis electronic compass• More PS3 games are available for streaming on the Vita through Sony's service , though they are streamed over the internet in the form of rather than directly from a physical PS3 console. Prior to the Vita's release, several third-party studios showcased of the device by exporting existing assets from their counterpart and then rendering them on the device, high budget examples including , , and. A concentrated effort to attract smaller independent developers in the West, combined with strong support from mid-level Japanese companies, helped keep the platform afloat. Michael McWhertor January 27, 2011. Despite reports of the delaying the release of the device, Sony reconfirmed that it was on track for a late 2011 release in Japan and a February 2012 release date for other major regions of the world. Even in the Vita's heyday, it was ultimately hard to recommend it over the 3DS. In mid-2017, estimated the Vita userbase to be around 15 million. Production of the system and physical game cards in the West ended in March 2019: Sony has no plans for a successor. The , released across late 2013 and 2014, also aimed to expand the system's userbase by allowing for Vita games to be played on a television like a home console, though the device was discontinued in the West by the end of 2015, and did not fare well in Japan's handheld-focused region either. The model was released in six colors in Japan white, black, light blue, lime green, pink, and khaki , although it was only released in black and light blue in North America and Europe. If you jump on the or the , you'll notice that games are still occasionally dropping for the system. Software [ ] Game library [ ] Further information: , , and Physical software for the Vita is distributed on a proprietary called "PlayStation Vita game card". The system does allow for additional external battery solutions as well. Archived from on February 26, 2011. 8 oz 3G PCH-2000: 219 grams 7. Yoshida stated that Sony would be releasing fewer first party games for the platform. in particular was successful for the platform, with it selling over 1. Rear• is also possible through Sony's motion sensing system, consisting of a three-axis and a three-axis. The newer model also comes with 1 GB of internal storage memory, although it is not possible to use both the internal memory and memory card concurrently. Main articles: , , and The device is backward compatible with most PSP games; however, its lack of a disc drive limits this capability to those titles which have been digitally released on the via the , but not physical PSP games or films. This model has a Type B port, which can be used to charge the device along with any standard micro USB cable. Leadbetter, Richard May 29, 2013. However, reviewers felt more mixed on the decision to change from to screen in the revised model, with some feeling it led to a minor downgrade in image quality. History [ ] Background [ ] After the success of 's of throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, with little market competition, and 's massive success with its and around the same time, Sony entered the handheld market as well. After 2012, Sony ceased releasing direct sales figures of the Vita, instead opting to release combined sales figures with it and the PSP. The system, only known by its code name "Next Generation Portable", was announced to be a handheld gaming device that aimed for quality visuals, which was later clarified to not be taken at a literal level because, according to David Coombes, platform research manager at , "Well, it's not going to run at 2 GHz [like the PS3] because the battery would last five minutes and it would probably set fire to your pants". Schramm, Mike April 6, 2011. Additionally, while the Monster Hunter series had significantly boosted the sales of the PSP, its absence instead hurt the Vita. trials for PlayStation Now functionality on the PS Vita began on October 14, 2014 in North America. As rumors had suggested, the device was designed to present "the best of both worlds" between mobile and handheld gaming, including a 5-inch OLED touchscreen, a rear touchpad coupled with physical buttons and dual analog sticks. In September 2015, Yoshida stated that Sony had no current plans for a Vita successor, stating that "climate is not healthy for now because of the huge dominance of mobile gaming. The 3G model was discontinued in 2013 and not made available in the system's future revised models. At the 2016 , research analyst firm EEDAR estimated the sales of the Vita to be about at 10 million unit sold through the end of 2015. Shifting focus [ ] Towards the end of 2013, around the launch of Sony's next video game device, the the , Sony began making comments in regards to the change in focus with the Vita. The Vita is a great way to escape from your little cousins asking if you want to a lick of their candy cane, so you can dive back into the world of Red Dead Redemption 2. Between the system's launch and January 2013, 4 million units were sold worldwide. The real showstopper with the original Vita was its OLED display. Pre-loaded apps include an , a "Content Manager" app for monitoring data saved to the device, an app, a music playing app, a photo app, and a video playing app. MORE: Other than that, all the buttons feel responsive and clicky. The last major Sony-developed title, , still found success, selling over 188,000 copies in its first week of release in Japan. Rumors of a successor to the PSP came as early as July 2009 when reported that Sony was working on such a device, which would utilize the PowerVR SGX543MP processor and perform at a level similar to the original. Sony addressed the "economics of Vita game development" issue with beginning on focusing on the fact that almost all PlayStation 4 games could be streamed and played through a Vita through. The Vita is very much alive, and while it might not be thriving like the , it's still one of the , and totally worth owning. 2 million units as of the end of February 2012, 4 million by the end of 2012, and were only estimated by analysts to have reached 6 million by the end of 2013, figures that have not been confirmed due to Sony's ceasing to release Vita sales figures after hitting the 4 million mark at the end of 2012. Moriarty, Colin December 17, 2013. The silver trim surrounds two pieces of plastic that sandwich the device, giving it an ultra-premium look. Reasons cited included the company focusing on supporting the PS4, and the fact that it felt that third party Japanese developers and Western indie developers were sufficiently supporting the device. The Vita's design was intended to meld the experience of big-budget, dedicated with the then up-and-coming trend of as seen on and. 59 in d Mass PCH-1000: 260 grams 9. The 3G service has been partnered with in Japan, in the US, in Canada and in Europe and Australia. Upon inserting a PS Vita memory card, the system will offer to copy the existing data from the internal memory to the new card. Production of Vita hardware officially ended on March 1, 2019. " Sony later announced that the Vita will have integration in the form of a as well. Ben Gilbert September 16, 2010. The original model, which is slightly chunky when compared with the later 2000 iteration, is still solid. : March 2, 2012• The model also roughly added about an extra hour of battery life. Good, Owen August 20, 2013. This built moderate sales in Japan and a smaller yet passionate userbase in the West. Surely, given the system's age, you'd think that using that money toward a Switch is a more worthwhile investment. While it was routinely outsold by its main competitor, the Nintendo 3DS, the Vita still managed to be one of the top consoles sold overall, partially due to Japan's preference towards handheld gaming. The colors simply do not pop as well, but it's far better than anything found on a 3DS. The Vita launched in the west with 25 titles, including original titles such as and , and ports of games such as and. Like the PS3 and PS4, the Vita contains support for games. Similarly, in the United States, the system debuted with 200,000 units sold in the first month, before slinking down into an amount of about 50,000 a month. As of its initial Western launch in February 2012, out of 44 professional critic reviews, 9 fell in the "Great" rating, 29 in the "Good" rating, 6 in the "Mixed" rating, and 0 in the "Bad" or "Awful" rating. While it largely maintains the original's overall structure and layout, the original's screen has been replaced with a lower-cost display. The device was officially announced by Sony on January 27, 2011, at their "PlayStation Meeting" press conference held by the company in Japan. Software for the PlayStation Vita is distributed on a proprietary called "PlayStation Vita game card" rather than on UMDs as used by the PlayStation Portable. 6 inset; -moz-box-shadow: 0 1px 3px rgba 255, 255, 255, 0. 2013-09-09, Corporate Release ,• Schreier, Jason. The system was released in Japan in November 2013, in North America in October 2014, and in Europe on November 14, 2014. In line with Sony's ambition to combine aspects of traditional video game consoles with mobile devices like and , the Vita contains a multitude of. And unlike the Switch, the Vita has Bluetooth support. 2014-08-12, , Gamespot• This is only a little more than half of the sales of its actual market competitor, the DS, which was more than 150 million units by the end of 2011. Robinson, Martin July 9, 2014. The platform also launched with a model with support, which required a separate data plan through a data provider. Sam Byford March 24, 2016. Other hardware includes , a , built-in , and connectivity, and two. Its developer, , had decided to release and future Monster Hunter games exclusively on the , where it would sell millions of copies for Sony's main competitor. The March 2017 launch of the , which operates on a similar concept of providing high budget video games on a portable unit, further overshadowed the Vita, though niche support through indie games and JRPGs continued into the year. At the time of the announcement, estimated that the Vita userbase had grown to approximately 16 million units. Facebook, Flickr, Google Maps and YouTube no longer function as Vita apps, but continue to be available by using the Vita's web browser. The second generation PS Vita system, PCH-2000 A revised model of the Vita was released in Japan on October 10, 2013, in Europe on February 7, 2014 and in North America on May 6, 2014. While not completely reversing the sales trends of the Vita, the lower costs of making or porting smaller-budget games made it easier for developers to make a profit on the systems's smaller userbase, and in turn, increased consumer attention on the console, keeping the device afloat. LiveArea, the user interface for the Vita Unlike the PSP and PlayStation 3, the PlayStation Vita does not use the interface. Since its launch, digital-only releases have slowly become more prominent, partially in an effort to reduce production costs for release on the platforms comparatively smaller user-base, and partially due to the influx smaller-scale indie mobile phone games that have always been digital-only releases. However, in the year after the device's successful launch, sales of the hardware and its bigger budget games stalled, threatening to end its lifespan. Whilst the Vita hosted several acclaimed titles and built a small but loyal and passionate fanbase, the system is regarded as a , with a lack of support from Sony and major third-party developers along with competition from the significantly more successful and smart devices noted as major factors. Sony also revealed that the device would be using a mix of retail and digital distribution of games. For the slimmer , Sony opted to use an LCD display. Remote Play interactivity with PlayStation 4 [ ] Main article: All games developed for the PlayStation 4, with the exception of games requiring the use of special peripherals such as , are playable on the Vita through. The PS Vita is incompatible with standard , such as , and instead stores data on proprietary PS Vita memory cards, which are available in sizes of 4 GB, 8 GB, 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB. , , , and all found success with releases on Vita. Views on the hardware dropped to more moderate levels in 2013, after the platform's initial sales lulls. That depends on the type of gamer you are. As of present, no other reliable sales figures have been released. It also obtained million-selling software in the same year, with the Japanese Vita release of. And the game train still hasn't stopped with the Vita. But while the 3DS has aged like a Palm Pilot, with its chunky plastic body and mediocre displays, the Vita has aged like an iPod, still very functional, and totally cool to be seen in public. Phillips, Tom September 13, 2016. The Vita is also backward compatible with the majority of the — the group of games Sony has made available digitally for download, and — small-budget downloadable titles originally created for the PSP and PS3. 2 inset; -moz-box-shadow: 0 1px 3px rgba 0, 0, 0, 0. I own both the 1000 and 2000 Vitas, and I can tell you, the 1000 does look better. In addition to these input methods, specific to just the Vita, is a secondary touchpad that is on the back of the device. If you're a fan of AAA titles, there are games like Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Killzone: Mercenary, Gravity Rush, LittleBigPlanet Vita and Dragon's Crown. Sarkar, Samit February 15, 2017. In December, CEO stated that Sony aimed to appeal to a wide demographic of people by using multiple input methods on future hardware; buttons and joysticks for traditional handheld game system users, and touchscreens for users. Archived from on January 19, 2013. Similarly, sales dropped off to about 30,000 to 50,000 units sold per month for the year after launch in North America. All Vita games are also made available to be downloaded digitally on the via the , although not all games are released physically. The Vita's internal battery has between 3—5 hours of power for game playing, depending on the processing power required for the game, screen brightness, sound level and network connections, as well as other factors. The platform has been considered to have sold well in Japan, where it outsold the PS4 in 2015, and reached 5 million units sold in 2016 according to sales tracker. The device features a "" shape similar to the design of the original PlayStation Portable, with a 5-inch 130 mm in the centre of the device. Despite the smaller userbase, the platform continued to be viable for game releases into 2017 due to the high of software sold per hardware user. 5 mm headphone jack, Bluetooth Input• Reports arose during the that the device was unveiled internally during a private meeting during mid-September held at Sony Computer Entertainment's headquarters in Aoyama, Tokyo. First implemented in 2014, the service was announced to be discontinued on the Vita on August 15, 2017. External links [ ] Wikimedia Commons has media related to. The system's web browser supports , cookies, and , but not. In March 2016, Sony announced that instead, it would be forming a new company, "Forward Works", and be instead concentrating on bringing PlayStation-based games to mobile platforms like and. Reception and sales [ ] According to , the Vita's original hardware release was generally well-received with critics, although a few concerns persisted as well. In November 2014, president suggested that the new approach was working on hardware level, stating that Vita sales had increased since the implementation of PS4 Remote Play, though he and another Sony representative did not give specific figures. " At , he had stated that Sony would not be making any more AAA, big budget games to the system, but by October, the comment had been revised that Sony would not be making any more games for it at all. In the same month, released pictures of an early prototype version showing a -like slide-screen design along with two analog sticks, two cameras and a microphone, though the report mentioned that overheating issues had since caused them to move away from the design in favor of a model more similar to the original PlayStation Portable device. Ahmad also maintained interest in the device by directly interacting with consumers on social media; the game was localized into English only because it was number one in a survey of games desired on the platform. Oli Welsh January 27, 2011. The Vita 2000 also comes in a slew of nifty colors. 7 oz Wi-Fi download only download only Predecessor PlayStation Portable Website The PlayStation Vita PS Vita or Vita is a developed and marketed by. 2013-11-04, , Siliconera• 3-5 hours for games, 5 hours for video, 9 hours for music in stand-by mode PCH-2000: approx. With the series being less popular in western regions, it failed to revive the platform in the same way. There is also a plethora of AA titles, like Wipeout 2048, Tearaway, Danganronpa, Everybody's Golf, Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward, Dragon Quest Builders, Disgaea 4 and Oreshika 2: Tainted Bloodlines. Karmali, Luke March 10, 2015. Games from Sony's initiative had initially been compatible, but were removed when the service was shutdown in September 2015. : February 22, 2012• The system was designed so that it would be easy for developers to extract PS3 game assets and in turn use them to make Vita versions of games. along with two cameras, facial detection, head detection and tracking capabilities. The two cameras feature the abilities of face detection, head detection, and head tracking. From 2013 onward, Sony was able to reverse the trajectory of the system by changing focus, aiming to be more of a product than one with mass market appeal — focusing more on small Western mobile phone games and mid-level Japanese developed games, and attaching it to the rise of popularity of its platform with its connectivity functions. A maximum of 500 applications and games can be stored on the device at a time, regardless of data storage available. Overall, Sony fell far short of the worldwide sales targets of 10 million Vitas sold by the end of March 2013. : February 22, 2012• The original model of the handheld includes a 5-inch 130 mm multi-touch , two , and front and shoulder input, and supports , , and optional. Archived from on July 9, 2010. 6 inset; box-shadow: 0 1px 3px rgba 255, 255, 255, 0. Christopher MacManus September 14, 2011. By the end of 2015, research firm EEDAR estimated the sales of the Vita worldwide to be around 10 million. Modding As gaming systems grow older, dedicated communities usually find ways to hack devices for more functionality. : March 20, 2015• It also shares the Remote Play and PS Now functionality of a regular Vita. The device features two analog sticks, a , a set of standard PlayStation face buttons , , and , two shoulder buttons L and R , a PlayStation button and Start and Select buttons. Sony released the , a short-lived, re-purposed version of the Vita that uses a screen like a , discontinued at the end of 2015. Phillips, Tom September 26, 2015. Archived from on September 26, 2011. Further details were announced at 2011, including that Sony would be dropping the PSP's disc format in favor of small game cartridges of 2 GB or 4 GB size variants. Applications [ ] A number of are available to run on the Vita, some initially pre-loaded on the device, while others are available via Sony's PlayStation Store. Sony also released the Vita model revision, the PCH-2000, which was generally well received by critics as well for addressing a number prior complaints about the system, which included a price and size reduction. It's more about how Vita can have multiple uses — with PS4 , PS3 games with , and the dedicated games. But if you're both a hardcore gamer and one who's willing to mess with some hacks, then you can get some incredible functionality out of your Vita, making it one of the best pieces of handheld kit on the market. Sure, the colored variants are in Japanese units, but that won't pose a problem for American gamers. 2 inset; box-shadow: 0 1px 3px rgba 0, 0, 0, 0. When the limit is reached, applications or games must be moved or deleted in order to access those beyond the limit. The Vita should not be considered a main purchase, but a secondary one. Sony continued to support the system with games through 2013 as well, albeit lesser so, with titles such as and , along with a handful of other Western-developed ports such as and. Brian Crecente July 7, 2010. John Koller February 10, 2014. Byford, Sam March 12, 2013. The sticks are small, and feel most similar to the Switch's joy-cons, and the touch screen is responsive. And then there are the indie titles. I would say it's most similar to a Switch display in quality. While the focus on indie games kept the device afloat in the West, in Japan, no such measures were necessary, as the Vita maintained moderate hardware sales. Michael McWhertor November 17, 2010.。
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