PlayStation Vita - Sony's last console
Vita’s main advantage was the five-inch screen (0.7 inches larger than the PSP), an OLED screen that even expensive mobile phones did not have at the time.
The first portable PlayStation system was not particularly famous next to the Nintendo DS console. But ten years ago, Sony still believed it could make a breakthrough in the handheld gaming device market. To this day, therefore, they have launched a device called the PlayStation Vita, at the time a fairly powerful and capable console that was not deprived or inferior to home PlayStation consoles in terms of controls. Namely, Vita was the first portable device with two analog sticks, but it also had a touch screen, rear and front camera, rear touchpad and stereo speakers.
Vita’s main advantage was the 5" screen (0.7 inches larger than the PSP), an OLED screen that even expensive mobile phones did not have at the time. The console was powered by a quad-core processor and relied on a 2200 mAh battery and 1 GB of internal memory. The games came on specially designed cards that could not be used on other devices.
The initial support of the games for PS Vito was more than good. After the release, exclusives such as Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Wipeout 2048 and Unit 13 could be played, and later came Little Big Planet, Killzone Mercenary, Gravity Rush, Soul Sacrifice, Assassin’s Creed 3: Liberation, Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified, Tearaway, Sly Cooper, Freedom Wars and others. The platform also had solid support for 3rd party games including Minecraft, Fifa, Metal Gear Solid, Rayman, Borderlands and others, as well as indie titles: Hotline Miami, Spelunky, Fez. What happened?
PlayStation Vita initially had a surprisingly good range of games, but Sony very quickly stopped making exclusives for it.
The console had a good start in sales, but interest in it dropped very quickly due to the rather high price. The price was reduced only in mid-2013 when the PS Vita 2000 model was introduced, which was 20% thinner and 15% lighter, had a longer battery life and had slightly more internal memory. However, the savings came at the expense of the highest quality part of the console - the OLED screen, which was replaced by a cheaper and lower quality LCD.
With the arrival of the PlayStation 4, the PS Vita has sunk even deeper into the shadows. Sony has tried to make up for this with new features and options, such as Remote Play, which allows you to play games from the PS4 console on the PS Vita while on the same network, or relatively close to the console.
When that didn’t work either, Sony tried to save the platform by launching a PlayStation TV in late 2014. It was a cheap device which games with PS Vita could be played on TV. However, interest in the device was very low and production was discontinued a year later.
Sony no longer produces games for Vito, in 2018 the production of cards on which games are distributed was stopped. In 2019, the console lost support for the PlayStation Plus, and production of the console itself was discontinued the same year. It is estimated that about 15 million players have owned the console so far.
