PlayStation Vita

Lore & Background

The PlayStation Vita was officially announced on January 27, 2011, at Sony's 'PlayStation Meeting' press conference in Japan, under the code name 'Next Generation Portable' (NGP). The device was designed to present 'the best of both worlds' between mobile and handheld gaming, featuring a 5-inch OLED touchscreen, a rear touchpad, dual analog sticks, and physical buttons. It used small game cartridges instead of the PSP's UMD format. The original model included Bluetooth and Wi-Fi as standard, with a variant offering an additional 3G modem. A revised version, the PS Vita 2000 series, was released across 2013 and 2014, featuring an LCD panel instead of OLED, a slightly smaller size, and extended battery life. Sony also released the PlayStation TV, a short-lived repurposed version that used a television screen like a home console, discontinued at the end of 2015.

Sales started strong at launch but then stalled and greatly underperformed. In Japan, the Vita sold over 300,000 units in its first week, but sales dropped 78% to under 73,000 in the second week, settling to about 12,000 per week. In the United States, the system debuted with 200,000 units sold in the first month before declining to about 50,000 a month. 1.2 million units were reported as sold as of February 26, 2012. 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, strengthening support in JRPGs, visual novels, and Western-developed indie games. This built moderate sales in Japan and a smaller yet passionate userbase in the West.

Reader's Guide

The PlayStation Vita is regarded as a commercial failure in the video game industry, significantly outsold by the Nintendo 3DS. Sony has not released exact sales figures, but estimates are around 15 to 16 million units. In the platform's later years, Sony promoted the Vita's ability to work in conjunction with its other gaming products, such as Remote Play of PlayStation 4 games, similar to the Wii U's Off-TV Play function. The platform stalled in 2017 upon the release of the Nintendo Switch and was completely discontinued in 2019. No direct successor was released by Sony, though in 2023, a similar remote play accessory, the PlayStation Portal, was released for the PlayStation 5. The Vita's legacy is that of a technically ambitious handheld that struggled to maintain commercial momentum after a strong launch, ultimately finding a niche audience through indie games and Japanese titles rather than the big-budget experiences it was initially designed to deliver.

Did You Know?

• The original PS Vita model features a 5-inch OLED multi-touch capacitive touchscreen and a rear touchpad.
• The PS Vita 2000 series replaced the OLED screen with an LCD panel and offered extended battery life.
• Sony released the PlayStation TV, a repurposed version of the Vita that used a television screen, discontinued at the end of 2015.
• The Vita's code name during development was 'Next Generation Portable' (NGP).