Sony stops production on the PlayStation Vita.
After having almost an 8 year run, the portable gaming console (both the original PlayStation Vita (PCH-1000) and slimline model (PCH-2000) will no longer be produced.
It launched in Japan in December 2011, right when phone and tablet gaming were taking off and Nintendo’s 3DS had already captured a large chunk of the market,
the PlayStation Vita struggled to break away from cult status and into more of a household name — the 3DS sold approximately 74.84 million units whereas the Vita is estimated to have sold only 10 – 15 million units.
Sony itself stopped making games for the Vita in 2015, and in 2018 ended the production of physical media games for the device. February was also the last month that the PlayStation Plus subscription service gave out games for the platform.
“Vita just didn’t reach that critical mass with the audience,” Shawn Layden, the chairman of Sony Interactive Entertainment’s worldwide studios, told Polygon in a 2017 interview. “And thereby, the development community doesn’t get behind it, and thereby, the audience doesn’t come, and it’s a quick negative spiral effect.”
Sony looks to bolster the loss with increased PS4 sales while it prepares for its upcoming PlayStation 5 (rumored to be portable) release in 2020.