Editorial: E3 killed my hopes for PSVita

Those of you that know me know that I was a huge fan of the PSP, Sony‘s first dive into the world of portable gaming. I felt like the system was well made and had specs to make nerds anxious. Looking back on its run it’s clear that while it was no failure, it was also not a success. PSP had numerous great titles and sold 70+ million units over its lifetime, but it could never overcome Nintendo‘s little system that could. Now, here we are years later and PSVita is traveling the same path.

It seems like forever since something this good came out.. And you weren't even that good.

On paper, PSVita is the clear winner, just like before with PSP. Every single person I have let use mine walks away impressed, and why not? The system is gorgeous. It has literally every feature you could want, within reason. Compare its visuals to the 3DS and you’d wonder why anyone would choose 3DS. That’s just on paper though.

It’s not on paper, but in reality that PSVita is getting smashed by 3DS in all the ways that counts. Oh, and by the way, the only thing that really counts is games. I’m not here to say that PSVita doesn’t have any games, because it does. There are at least a half-dozen titles I would recommend any owner to get. The thing is, none of them are blockbusters. It doesn’t have its Mario game, and 3DS has several.

All of this would have been moot if E3 had turned out different. Let’s be honest here, Nintendo didn’t do much with it’s handheld this year at E3 either, but you don’t have to run real hard when your competitor has been stopped at the water fountain for 3 hours already. People want to want to get a PSVita. All Sony needed to do was announce some games. Pay developers to make them if you have to. Its not like your investment in PSVita is so small that you don’t need it to sell.

No offense Sly, but no one really cares.

Coming into E3 I was convinced that PSVita would get a ton of love. I was absolutely wrong. Not only didn’t it get any love, it was basically an afterthought all night. 3 games. A Smash Bros clone that people won’t buy, an Assassin’s Creed game and a picture of Call of Duty written on the screen. How in God‘s name do you not have footage of Call of Duty to show? Sony absolutely has to have footage of that game. Period. It’s almost like Sony is okay with PSVita rapidly sinking into irrelevance. It’s been 6 months since the system hit the shelves and it is already behind by nearly 20 million units. To say time is of the essence here is probably wrong at this point. Time was of the essence. Sony is fighting for its dignity with PSVita now.

Us PSVita fans needed a price cut. We needed at least one blockbuster title like inFamous or God of War. Something. Anything! We needed PS+ integration. We didn’t need Hulu Plus. For all my hopes for Sony this year regarding my beloved PSVita, it was an absolute joke. I walked away both irritated and saddened by the fact that I dropped $350 on a console that 6 months in still doesn’t have anything big to look forward to. Still isn’t properly integrated with PS3 like it should be.