Sony is reportedly killing the PlayStation Vita in 2018

Cal Jeffrey

Cal Jeffrey

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Back in February, we reported that Sony would be removing PS3 and Vita games from PlayStation Plus' game lineup in March 2019 to focus on PS4 titles. So rumors that the Vita might be discontinued this year may not come as a surprise.

The Daily Star reports that Sony has begun halting production of the PlayStation Vita. Although Sony has not made a formal announcement of the retirement of the seven-year-old handheld gaming machine, the Star claims manufacturing in Spain has already ceased.

Indeed, a tweet from PlayStation España that was in response to a user having trouble finding the device in stores reads, “Hello! It's actually discontinued, yes.”

Last year Sony pulled the plug on the PS3 in Japan. After 11 years of support and the release of three subsequent consoles (PS4, PS4 Slim, and PS4 Pro), the company decided it was time to wind things down. It would seem the same is happening with the Vita now starting in Spain.

Although the portable is much younger than the PlayStation 3, the Vita has long struggled to compete with Nintendo’s 3DS. Now that the Switch has become Nintendo’s fastest selling console, the future for the Vita is looking even worse from a competitive standpoint.

For now, the Vita is still widely available in the US and other regions. Spain is the only known territory that is seeing shortages.

“Whether that means other European countries will soon follow suit, or whether this is just an anomaly, remains to be seen,” says the Daily Star.

Update: Clarified a statement that free PS Vita games will be removed from PlayStation Plus, not (necessarily) the PlayStation Store.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/74179-sony-reportedly-killing-playstation-vita-2018.html

 
I didnt even know they were still making them, what with the fact that theres barely any if any AAA development on it and sony barely supports it at all.
 
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Well, after the removal from the ps store, I cracked my Vita and now I play all games for free.
That's what you get for not giving 2 f*cks about your costumers, Sony.
 
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BGrant said:
Well, after the removal from the ps store, I cracked my Vita and now I play all games for free.
That's what you get for not giving 2 f*cks about your costumers, Sony.
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Woah, how did you do that?

Or rather, to make things easy, what words should I use to look this up? My google-fu is weak
 
The Vita is still alive???

What seriously contributed to the death of the Vita? Sony's insistence on pushing proprietary formats onto consumers. Nobody wants to buy Sony Flash for 2-3x the price of SDXC.
 
Sony will not be removing PS3 and Vita games from the PS Store in March 2019 (at least they haven't announced that), they will be removing them from their PS Plus program which is not the same.

My understanding is that anyone should be able to keep buying new games or download any game you might have bought, just not get any for free if subscribed to Plus.
 
ikesmasher said:
I didnt even know they were still making them, what with the fact that theres barely any if any AAA development on it and sony barely supports it at all.
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That's what most of the people who still use them like about it. The indie games and JRPG's are what everyone is after. I play borderlands, mess around with PSP games and do multiplayer on killzone when I am bored on the go.
 
ForgottenLegion said:
The Vita is still alive???

What seriously contributed to the death of the Vita? Sony's insistence on pushing proprietary formats onto consumers. Nobody wants to buy Sony Flash for 2-3x the price of SDXC.
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The memory prices and the lack of marketing in the North America and European markets was the largest factor. The Japanese marketing budget was 4 times larger then USA's for the first two years. The PS4 came out and Sony just tried to sell it as a add-on for the PS4, sending the message it was useless without a PS4. Game pricing was the final nail in the coffin, 8 year old PSP games for $30, Vita AAA launching at $60, and Vita A and B games at $40.
 
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I dont think they are removing it from the store, that's kind of impossible honestly. There are Ps one, ps2 and PSP games on the store that are not going anywhere. Why in the world would they remove ps vita games? I heard that they are removing ps vita games from Ps plus sales. But they can't just take all the games off of the store. If they did, I guarantee there would be lawsuits. You cannot simply shut something down like that. They would have to give refunds for ps vita purchases. They can stop funding games, but they can't take away independent developers right to port to the vita. All talk about the vita dying needs to stop right now. Sony needs to completely shut up and never mention the vita again. Never ever patch the vita again. If they stopped supporting it years ago then why do they keep patching it? They need to leave everything on the store. And allow all developers who want to release games. And let henkaku take over.
 
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I still use my psp from time too time ,its decent for a portable music player and converting movies for it are a snap..but ,its gotten long in the tooth with tablets taking its place in so many ways.,,not surprised to see it get the nails in its coffin.and as tablets get even more capable ,I see the demise of many proprietary handhelds...
 
Widely available? Most vita's are second hand and or imported a lot of store don't even carry a brand new Vita anymore I'm highly shocked they didn't do it earlier as much as I enjoy it Sony not supporting it the memory cards being overpriced and a lack of diverse games it definitely hurt its sells
 
They aren't going to kill it, it's already been dead for years now. Sony was just keeping the corpse around in hopes that they someday be able to revive it. But alas, it's time they bury that stinking cadaver...
 
My PS Vita is still alive and working.If this was actually true then I should have received an email from Sony saying that the PS Vita will soon be discontinued but I never received any such email.And it’s already April 2018 and nothing has changed.Whoever reported this has no idea what they’re talking about.
 
Andrew Marks said:
My PS Vita is still alive and working.If this was actually true then I should have received an email from Sony saying that the PS Vita will soon be discontinued but I never received any such email.And it’s already April 2018 and nothing has changed.Whoever reported this has no idea what they’re talking about.
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The Vita is a failed system, another casualty of the Nintendo handheld. Beleive me, the system was destined to failure out of the gates.

Without a significsnt flow of new games and weak support from even Sony themselves, time to call it a day.

Sony has kept the Vita on life support long enough. It's time to pull the plug and put it out of its misery.
 
Metalviper said:
Andrew Marks said:
My PS Vita is still alive and working.If this was actually true then I should have received an email from Sony saying that the PS Vita will soon be discontinued but I never received any such email.And it’s already April 2018 and nothing has changed.Whoever reported this has no idea what they’re talking about.
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The Vita is a failed system, another casualty of the Nintendo handheld. Beleive me, the system was destined to failure out of the gates.

Without a significsnt flow of new games and weak support from even Sony themselves, time to call it a day.

Sony has kept the Vita on life support long enough. It's time to pull the plug and put it out of its misery.
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If it were dead, why does it get new games added all the time? and why does it somehow stay in the news? You can play PS4 games on the go if you have internet or wifi and there are ALOT of people who play it still. Nintendo knew the only way they were going to survive was to make a better handheld because everyone knows that's the only thing that's worth a damn since they make the same games all the time and so making the switch was the only way Nintendo was going to keep from going under because they are getting wipped in the console market. They will probably only make handhelds from now on. Mean while Sony and Microsoft are searching for the best components for they're next generation consoles. And I and everyone else who has a vitamin will continue to enjoy them till Sony or someone else comes out with another.
 
Dude, I know it's a bitter pill to swallow, but the Vita is dead. It hasn't gotten any blockbuster games recently. Most of what it's getting are Indie games and older titles.

It's understandable that you like your vita and wish that it could always be with you, but you need reality to set in and not let yourself fall victim to denial.

The Vita has suffered enough already. Let Sony do the right thing - the moral thing. Let them pull the plug and end it's suffering as well as their own.

They should have never attempted to place the inexperienced Vita in the ring with a 500 lbs heavy weight like the Nintendo 3Ds and the DS before it. They refused to throw in the towel when things started to look bad. Now the won't be throwing in a towel, but pulling a plug.

Such blatant waste of life. Let's now our heads in a moment of silence and remembrance...
 
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Metalviper said:
Dude, I know it's a bitter pill to swallow, but the Vita is dead. It hasn't gotten any blockbuster games recently. Most of what it's getting are Indie games and older titles.

It's understandable that you like your vita and wish that it could always be with you, but you need reality to set in and not let yourself fall victim to denial.

The Vita has suffered enough already. Let Sony do the right thing - the moral thing. Let them pull the plug and end it's suffering as well as their own.

They should have never attempted to place the inexperienced Vita in the ring with a 500 lbs heavy weight like the Nintendo 3Ds and the DS before it. They refused to throw in the towel when things started to look bad. Now the won't be throwing in a towel, but pulling a plug.

Such blatant waste of life. Let's now our heads in a moment of silence and remembrance...
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bow*
 
The Vita is easily the best handheld console ever created, it just came out at the wrong time in history. It's a wonderful device, and few people appreciate how wonderful they are because hardly anyone ever bothered to buy or even try one. The screen is startling in quality. Almost like looking at an HD TV from a distance, but close up, if you know what I mean. Just beautiful. It's very comfortable to hold, and controls really well. It's got everything - but Sony still got it so wrong.

The proprietary memory cards were the death warrant. That and the shift to gaming on phones, instead of handheld consoles. The Switch is sort of a handheld too, of course, but with the key difference being that you can connect it to your TV, which is why it's been so successful. Bridging that gap between big screen and portability has been the key to its success. There just isn't room in the market any more for a device that's just a handheld game system. It has to be something more - a phone, or something that connects to your TV, etc.
 
Them memory card prices.... a 32g is still like $60 new! That's crazy. And the fact that they corrupt for no apparent reason at any time doesn't help. I love my Vita, as I did the PSP before it and their biggest problem was the company that created them.
 
Haven't they killed it every year since launch? Well maybe the first year they weren't killing it but after that it's been constantly killed.
 
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