According to recent rumors, the PlayStation Vita will no longer be adding new games to its store after July 20. Although this is sure to come as disappointing news to Vita’s relatively small but loyal following, it is a far better alternative to the store being taken offline completely, a fate that the handheld system narrowly avoided. After announcing that the Vita and PlayStation 3 were scheduled to have their stores taken offline, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan wrote on the PlayStation Blog that “it’s clear that we made the wrong decision here,” reversing the decision amid backlash from Sony fans.
Often, gaming systems like the Vita and the Sega Dreamcast are adopted and appreciated by retro enthusiasts years after their first release. While the Vita sold well in the first week of its release, sales dropped by 78 percent in Japan only one week later. Sony wound up ultimately not meeting its goal of selling 10 million Vitas by March 2013, and the company has been thin lipped regarding Vita sales since 2012.
Per a recent Kotaku article, it appears the last “new” game to be released on the Vita may be Russian Subway Dogs, a game that has players controlling stray dogs as they try to survive in the Moscow Metro. A fairly niche game, Russian Subway Dogs is now being ported to the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and the Vita. The article mentions that developer Miguel Sternberg had actually always wanted to see his game make it onto the Vita in particular, describing the console as his favorite handheld and the port as a “passion project rather than a sound business decision.”
Despite narrowly avoiding having its store taken away, the Vita remains an excellent handheld console in its own right. It became home to entries in fan-favorite series such as Uncharted, Need for Speed, and Killzone and its ability to emulate older consoles such as the Game Boy and Nintendo 64 made it a handy console to bring on the go. Finally, the Remote Play feature made a return from the PSP and gave players a fantastic way to access their PS4s from anywhere within range.
Unfortunately, the Vita’s sales may have been a simple case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Like the Dreamcast, which many now realize was ahead of its time, it took the gaming community several years to warm up to the Vita. Interestingly, Sony may have just extended the Vita’s shelf life by taking steps to shorten it. Should the company decide to release another handheld console alongside the PlayStation 5, hopefully, Sony fans will reflect on the Vita experience and help Sony actually hit its sales goals next time.
Source: Kotaku
