The Playstation Vita was released in Japan in 2011, almost 3 years ago. In the course of 3 years, although we’ve seen a few nice games, the device has failed to gather a large audience. The market of mobile gaming surely has evolved since Sony’s previous portable console, the PSP, was created, but there are other reasons that are slowly killing the “psp 2”. In 2014, is it still worth owning a Vita?

Sony announced the “Playstation TV” at E3, which is the western name of the Vita TV. Besides the announce itself, what shocked me is the re-branding strategy that Sony is driving, a clear signal that they have less interest in the Vita than ever.

The lack of strong titles announcements at E3 for the Vita also contributed to the feeling of unease everyone has when we talk about the Vita. Yes, several nice Indie titles were announced, and yes, I loved Hotline Miami, but strong first party support and AAA titles are expected for a console to be successful.

Clearly at this point the Vita differentiating “features” such as the rear touchpad or the rear camera are just gimmicks, poorly utilized (if at all) in most games, with a few exceptions such as Media Molecule’s Tearaway.

In a sense, the Playstation TV release, and I’ve mentioned that before, will drive developers away from “Vita specific” games: if the Playstation TV is successful, developers will want to be on it, ditching the requirements for anything that cannot be played on a regular DS4.

On that subject, as contradictory as it sounds, I believe the “cross buy” functionality between PS3/PS4/Vita is hurting the Vita. Don’t get me wrong, I love that I can get the same game on the go. But it also makes it difficult as a gamer to understand the point of even getting a Vita, if it’s going to just be the “sub par experience when I’m not in my living room”.

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I an attempt to save the device (?) Sony introduced the remote play for the PS4 on the Vita, and it’s a cool feature, but it seems to be the main selling point of the device today, to a point that the “PS4/PS Vita” leaked bundle recently sounds like a lame attempt at selling a few Vitas to not get in the red at the end of the fiscal year.

It almost feels that every attempt from Sony at keeping the Vita alive is killing it a bit more each single time: Playstation TV removes the incentive for devs to use the Vita’s feature that are not shared with the Playstation TV. Cross buy blurs the usefulness of the Vita as its own device. Remote Play with the PS4 makes it look like the Vita is only really useful as a second screen or a glorified controller.

I am not pretending to provide any solution here. I think Nintendo have found the right pricing and first party support approach for the 3DS, and Sony made the bet of a “weird controls” device, I don’t think they can easily go back from that. Ironically, it sounds roughly like the same mistake Nintendo did with the Wii U.

Do you think owning a Vita makes sense in 2014, for people who don’t own a PS4?