How the PlayStation Vita set the stage for the Switch
Sony has not had many misses when it comes to its console offerings. The PlayStation has consistently sold well, even if the most recent generation has struggled with supply issues and scalpers. But hidden away in the string of sales success stories that is the PlayStation line is the Vita. The console was released in North America 15 years ago today and stands as the sole commercial failure among Sony’s consoles.
The Vita did have its share of successes, though. It boasted a solid library of niche JRPG titles, with the fantastic Persona 4: Golden and Trails of Cold Steel series both getting their initial release on the console, as well as iconic visual novels like Danganrompa and Steins; Gate. It also had great support from indie games both from Western studios and those in Japan. OlliOlli World might have recently captured our hearts, but the original game came out for the Vita.
If this combination of strong JRPG titles, plenty of visual novels for fans to dive into, and a wealth of indie games to keep the console’s library full sounds familiar, it’s because that is what Nintendo has done with the Switch. Even the Vita’s home console capabilities, which would become more fully realized with the release of the PlayStation 4, seem oddly familiar in light of the Switch’s success. The Vita, for all its failures, laid out the blueprint for Nintendo’s 100 million unit selling home-handheld console hybrid.
Why did the Vita flounder while the Switch has soared? The reasons behind the Vita’s failure are pretty obvious with the benefit of hindsight. It was in direct competition with the more successful Nintendo 3DS, though both suffered from being in indirect competition with the rise of mobile gaming that was happening at the
Read more on gamepur.com
