Ten years ago today the PlayStation Vita launched in Japan. Over 300,000 people bought Sony's premium handheld, but after that initial burst of success there was a sharp drop-off. In the second week its sales dipped by 78% and never recovered. From a business perspective this made the Vita a failure. But as a system it was anything but. In fact, the Vita is one of Sony's greatest consoles, even though it took a while for it to discover its true purpose.
The Vita's big launch game was Uncharted: The Golden Abyss, which was Sony's way of saying: look, you can play proper games on this thing. Games with cutscenes and lavish 3D graphics and high production values, but portable! It was a decent attempt to squeeze a Nathan Drake adventure into ahandheld, but ultimately misunderstood the unique strengths of the system. Games like this just didn't fit on a console designed to be played in short bursts.
Sony's rival at the time was Nintendo, whose 3DS was taking the handheld market by storm. That's why it went all-in on Uncharted: not just to piggyback on a popular IP, but to show that the Vita could run games the 3DS could only dream of. Vita versions of Assassin's Creed and Call of Duty followed, but it wasn't enough to shift consoles. People didn't want big, expensive console-style games on a handheld, and it killed the console's momentum.
In Japan, things were looking bleak for the Vita. Predictably, dreary Western games like Call of Duty and Assassin's Creed didn't capture Japanese gamers' imaginations. But the worst blow of all was Capcom's decision to release the next Monster Hunter exclusively for the 3DS. This series had almost single-handedly kept the PSP alive, and its absence on Vita was a big part of why Sony dramatically scaled back its expectations for the console.
The best Vita games were the ones that took advantage of the console's portability. Trying to cram bloated triple-A games like Call of Duty into it was a mistake. Over time, thanks almost entirely to the efforts of third-party developers, the Vita became an incredible platform for indies, Japanese RPGs, visual novels, and all manner of distinctive, offbeat games that perfectly suited the handheld format. Finally, the Vita had found its calling.
Lumines: Electronic Symphony is one of the best iterations of Q Entertainment's hypnotic puzzler. Everybody's Golf strikes a masterful balance of depth and approachability, and is perfect for dipping in and out of. Persona 4: Golden is a bumper version of what is simply one of the greatest JRPGs ever made. Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc is a compelling murder mystery visual novel. Gravity Rush is a gorgeous gravity-defying action game.
As for indies, games like Hotline Miami, Fez, Spelunky, and Proteus all worked brilliantly on Vita. These games appeared on other formats, but having them loaded on a handheld was a lot more convenient than having to be locked to your couch or desk. I never found the time to finish the PC version of Fez, but on Vita I got all the way through it on a couple of long flights. Later in its life, the Vita became one of the best places to catch up with the indie hits of the day.
Its PSone archive was fantastic too. At one point I had Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Resident Evil, Vagrant Story, Ridge Racer Type 4, Silent Hill, and Final Fantasies 7, 8, and 9 loaded on my memory card. That alone made the Vita worth its weight in gold. These classic games were perfectly emulated and looked great on the console's big, bright screen—especially if you were lucky enough to own the original model with its vivid, pin-sharp OLED display.
The Vita is well and truly dead, and considered by many to be one of Sony's biggest mistakes. But if you owned a Vita, you know that's bullshit. Sure, it failed to find an audience, fell well short of even the most modest sales forecasts, and put Sony off making handheld consoles forever. But what a piece of kit. It looked great, it felt great, and more importantly, the games were great. The Vita deserved better, but some things are just too good for this cursed world.