Author: Rachel Kaser / Source: The Next Web
Sony’s little-loved handheld, the Vita, is rumored to be winding down, and the gaming world will be lesser for its absence.
Earlier today, TechSpot reported the Spanish PlayStation Twitter said the Vita had been discontinued in its region. Sony earlier this year announced that, starting March 2019, it would no longer be offering Vita games via its PS Plus subscription service.
If the device isn’t dead already, the prospects of the now-seven-year-old handheld are certainly looking grim.The market for the Vita has never been very good. Compared with the industry-altering success of the Nintendo 3DS and Switch, the Vita hasn’t had the same lasting impact. In 2016, TechRadar reported the console enjoyed more popularity in Japan, but I suspect that has dwindled with the release of the Switch, of which 3.4 million units were sold in 2017 in that country alone.
Shawn Layden, head of Sony Interactive Entertainment America, told TIME in 2017:
To be honest, the Vita just didn’t reach critical mass in the U.S. or Western Europe. I don’t know if it was that it was more technology people had to carry around, or more things to charge, or whether their phone or tablet were taking care of that. But once the content slowed in that pipeline, it became hard to keep the Vita as a going concern.
It’d be a shame to kill off a handheld that had — and still has — great…
The post Dear Sony, please don’t kill the PlayStation Vita appeared first on FeedBox.