The History of the PS Vita: The Handheld That Could've Dethroned the Switch

In the late 2000s, Sony had recovered from a difficult start with the PlayStation 3, the console was establishing itself as a major success, and the PlayStation Portable (PSP) had proven that it was possible to challenge Nintendo in the handheld market, selling around 80 million units.

In 2009, rumors about a new handheld from the company began to circulate. The expectation was that Sony would bring a revolutionary console, and the result was the PlayStation Vita, a console with impressive technology for its time, but marked by challenges, wrong decisions, and a premature demise. This is the story of a handheld that had everything to dethrone Nintendo on its own turf and change the industry long before the Nintendo Switch appeared.

The Concept of the Handheld

The first rumors about the successor to the PSP, then internally called the "Next Generation Portable" (NGP), indicated a console of unprecedented power in the industry. Reports from 2009 showed that its graphics performance would be comparable to the PlayStation 3. In January 2011, at a "PlayStation Meeting" in Japan, Sony revealed the project to the world.

President Kazuo Hirai presented a bold vision: a device that would combine the experience of a home console with the freedom of portable gaming. The philosophy was to offer physical buttons and two analog sticks for traditional gamers, while incorporating a touchscreen to attract the new mobile audience.

The initial prototype, with images leaked in 2010, showed a design similar to the PSP Go, but overheating problems led the team to adopt a format closer to the original PSP. The final hardware was an engineering marvel: a quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor, a quad-core SGX543MP4+ GPU, and a 5-inch OLED touchscreen (something well ahead of its time).

As well as a touch-sensitive rear panel and two cameras, which promised new forms of interaction and augmented reality games, features far ahead of their time. In June 2011, at E3, the console received its official name: PlayStation Vita, where "Vita" means "life" in Latin, symbolizing its mission to be a central device in the user's entertainment life.

The Launch and the First Signs of Trouble

The PS Vita arrived in Japan on December 17, 2011, and in the rest of the world in February 2012, with an initial price of US$249. The launch was accompanied by a series of high-profile titles showcasing the system's power, such as Uncharted: Golden Abyss, WipEout 2048, and Gravity Rush.

Initial sales were good, but an obstacle soon arose: memory cards. Unlike the PSP, which used a universal UMD media type, the Vita adopted a new, much more problematic card: proprietary and extremely expensive flash memory cards for saving data and digital games.

On the other hand, Nintendo, with its 3DS, was recovering from a weak start through price cuts and a library of exclusive games. Meanwhile, smartphones (iPhone and Android) were booming, offering "good enough" games at low prices or free on devices people already carried in their pockets.

The Vita was expensive and had a library that was still in its infancy, struggling to justify its existence in this new world. As noted by analysts, the console attempted to be a complete multimedia entertainment device, but as a media player it was mediocre, and as a connectivity tool, it quickly became obsolete in competition with smartphones.

Facing the Fans

Around 2013, faced with stagnant console sales and the departure of major studios, Sony was forced to rethink its strategy. In 2014, it launched a redesigned model, the PS Vita (model PCH-2000), also known as the PS Vita Slim. Thinner, lighter, and with a longer battery life, the OLED screen was replaced with an LCD screen to reduce costs, but this didn’t solve the problem of expensive memory cards. Another problem was the games; without the support of major Western publishers, Sony began to seek out independent developers and medium-sized Japanese companies.

This change saved the Vita from complete oblivion, but there was still a long way to go. The Vita became a niche console for: acclaimed Japanese RPGs like Persona 4 Golden, visual novels, and a flood of Western indie titles that found in the handheld a good partner for their games.

The Remote Play feature, which allowed streaming games from the PlayStation 4 to the Vita, also became an excellent marketing tool, even though it was more of an accessory for the home console than a selling point. This marketing strategy didn't generate mass sales, but it brought a dedicated and passionate fanbase that valued the "premium" portable gaming experience that the Vita offered.

The End of the Road

Sony discontinued physical game production for the Vita in 2018 and, on March 1, 2019, officially discontinued the console worldwide. Total sales were estimated at between 15 and 16 million units, a small fraction of the more than 80 million for the PSP and 76 million for the Nintendo 3DS. For Sony, the Vita was a commercial failure, leading the company to publicly state that it had no plans for a successor in the handheld market.

But the PS Vita's legacy is more complex than its sales figures: for many gamers, it’s remembered as a console ahead of its time. Its ergonomics with two analog sticks became the standard for handheld console gaming.

The enthusiast community kept the device alive long after its official support ended, exploring its hardware and ensuring its preservation. The most curious part is that the success of the Nintendo Switch, a hybrid console that would deliver console experiences in a portable format, proved that the original vision for the Vita was correct and ahead of its time, even if Sony failed in its execution, and we'll understand why below.

The Awakening: How the Community Redefined the PS Vita

With the end of official Vita support in 2019, a new beginning was established. The independent developer community found in the Vita something that could’ve changed the course of the handheld's history. Independent developers discovered that the Vita has native features such as pairing PS3 or PS4 Bluetooth controllers (DualShock/DualSense); support for ports of PC and Android games; running PSP, PS1 games and (remastered/adapted) versions of various PS2 games, such as God of War Collection, Jak & Daxter, Sly Cooper and Metal Gear Solid 3.

The company could partner with SEGA, Rockstar, and several other studios: imagine being able to play titles like Crazy Taxi, Sonic Adventures 1 and 2, Bully, Diablo, Heroes of Might and Magic II, the Doom Saga, Quake, Wolfenstein 3D, Portal, Max Payne 1 and 2, among hundreds of other titles?

The Vita supports the use of standard SD cards (which would completely change the portable's lifespan in terms of cost); screen streaming from the Vita to a PC and, with a PS Vita TV dock, direct streaming of games in 720p resolution to the TV (exactly like the Nintendo Switch does); media player and streaming; console overclocking that would allow for running more demanding games and encourage studios to produce more games; home screen customization; usability options throughout the console system; a feature to save game progress anywhere, allowing players to resume the game exactly where they left off—a precursor to what is now the Xbox Series' Quick Resume.

The community never stops exploring and discovering features that the Vita natively possesses and that we now see in consoles like the Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series, and PlayStation 5. A reimagining of the console, transforming it from an underutilized portable into one of the most versatile home platforms in existence. And perhaps the irony lies here: Sony had all of this from its launch and either didn't know how to take advantage of it or didn't have the foresight that Nintendo had with the Switch.

Conclusion

The PlayStation Vita remains one of the most contradictory and fascinating chapters in video game history. Launched as a technological ambition, its hardware carried the promise of a future that wouldn’t materialize under Sony's dominance. Its journey was marked by crucial strategic errors—such as proprietary memory cards—and the relentless shift in the market.

Today, with the resurgence of interest in portable gaming, driven by PC devices like the Steam Deck, the PlayStation Vita is revisited not as a simple failure, but as an ambitious and underutilized precursor. It was a guide at a time when the market was divided, a victim of poor business decisions during a period of technological transition, and, even after its end, a platform that can find meaning and love from its fans even when it lost the war for the mainstream market.

The Vita may’ve had a short life, but for its fans, it was intensely lived. Through the dedication and passion of the developers, the Vita experienced a true digital reincarnation. They discovered a whole dormant potential that Sony hadn't awakened.

The Vita's story is yet another chapter in the industry showing that a bold, forward-thinking vision isn't enough; decisions are needed on how to redefine and extend a console's lifespan. Its light may’ve faded within Sony's corridors, but in the hands of its community, the Vita continues to shine brightly.