History Platform / PlayStationVita

'''Long story:''' Debuting at the beginning of 2011 in a private press conference by Sony [[WorkingTitle under the name]] "Next Generation Portable" (or "NGP"), and bestowed with the official name of '''[=PlayStation=] Vita''' at UsefulNotes/{{E3}} 2011, pre-release reactions to Sony's newest handheld eerily mirrored those of its predecessor. Just as the [=PSP=] before it, gaming media proclaimed the Vita to be the Creator/{{Nintendo}} Killer. The system was visually stunning, offering near-Platform/PlayStation3-level graphics at a resolution of 960×544, far surpassing the visuals offered on the rival Platform/Nintendo3DS's 400×240 screen. Unlike Nintendo, who would only use connectivity between their home and handheld hardware lines sparingly, the Vita would work together with the Platform/PlayStation4 to give owners of both access to "Cross Play" (a cloud-saving system that allowed gamers to take up and continue their console games on their Vita using the same save file) and "Cross Buy" (buying the [=PS4=] version of a game also gave one the Vita version, and vice versa). And its cheapest model, the Wi-Fi only version, was the same price as a 3DS at launch. Combine all that with the 3DS struggling throughout its first year, and gaming pundits quickly crowned Sony's handheld as [[http://www.ign.com/articles/2011/10/22/the-playstation-vita-is-set-to-succeed the obvious consumer buy]] over Nintendo's offering. So naturally, when it was released in Japan on December 17th, 2011, it performed well for its debut week... before losing almost 80% of its sales numbers the next, being outsold on Christmas week not just by its main competition[[note]]at one point, the Nintendo 3DS was outselling it by '''47:1'''[[/note]], but by the ''original PSP'' as well.

Sony also released a home version of the device called the PS Vita TV in Japan on November 14th, 2013. A "microconsole", the Vita TV was a HDMI device that could play PS Vita and [=PlayStation=] Plus games on the television with the use of a [=DualShock=] controller, as well as stream [=PS4=] games onto a different television through Wi-Fi. The device's primary purpose was to form a foothold for Sony in the multi-function streaming device (Apple TV, Roku Box, etc.) market in the Eastern markets, where living room streaming admittedly had less of a foothold. Sadly, a fair chunk of Vita games are actually incompatible with it[[note]]Seemingly mostly due to a combination of licensing difficulty (technically, having to re-license a portable video game as a home title is a legal hassle), incompatible controls (the PSTV lacks the camera and microphone from the Vita, its touchscreen emulation is imperfect, and for some unknown reason, the native motion controls on the [=PS4=] haven't been used yet to emulate those of the Vita) and outright laziness by the dev teams. This CAN be circumvented easily enough by the "[=DolcePolce=]" homebrew plugin which makes the PSTV ignore Sony's game blacklist, but it obviously doesn't allow the aforementioned controls to be used. Note that some hacks permitted by Henkaku allow spoofing of certain functions not natively possible on the PSTV, e.g. faking a camera signal.[[/note]], though a large collection of [=PS1=]/PSN games are downloadable and compatible with it. Due to low sales, it was renamed [=PlayStation=] TV when it was released in North America and Japan the following year, to avoid association with the Vita brand.

->"Never Stop Playing."

->"[[{{Slogans}} Never Stop Playing.]]"

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/psvita_7.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[{{Slogans}} Never Stop Playing.]]]]

'''Short story:''' Creator/SonyInteractiveEntertainment's successor to the Platform/PlayStationPortable turned the company's "successful failure" in the handheld gaming market into an outright financial failure. While the Vita [[AmericansHateTingle struggled to cultivate a user base outside of its home market]] and became the company's lowest-selling system, the device managed to perform well enough in its home country thanks to Japan's growing preference for handheld gaming over home consoles. Despite the bad luck the Vita suffered, the handheld developed a small yet passionate [[CultClassic cult following]] with smaller Asian studios and Western IndieGame makers still developing games for the system long after Sony gave up on the system, along with modders finding exploits to make the most out of the Vita's hardware.