I am a gamer whose only connection to handheld gaming is through the Gameboy brand alone, which is the only brand of handhelds I've ever bought. Which for some reason I skipped on the DS and the 3DS; why I skipped is a story for another time. I wanna talk about another handheld that is also very near and dear to my heart.
A long time ago I owned a PSP, I got a used one at EB Games because I was cheap (still am). It was a magical moment because it was so amazing what that little handheld could do. I never really got into the PSP generation because that generation was literally stolen from; I was a dumb high school kid who left his PSP in one of the desks in my English Classroom. One Period later it was gone and so was my chance to play so many great games of that generation.
Fast forward a few years and the rumors of a possible PSP2 come up, I did not know what to think the potential of a even powerful PSP made me wonder; I asked myself should I bet on the horse known as PlayStation Handheld again. I had the money and I was more mature but was I ready to do this again. I think E3 2011 is when I thought to myself I'm going to bet on this horse known as the PS Vita. I got excited hearing my friends Greg Miller and Colin Moriarty talk about the Vita on Podcast Beyond, the #1 PlayStation Podcast on the internet. I don't want to say I got caught up in the hype but I was legitimately excited for the Vita thanks to them.
The thought of having a PS3 in my pocket sounded awesome at the time. I was 19 at the time I pre-ordered it from EB Games and told my parents that I'm buying this; I use to tell them if I was buying something big, not anymore though. When the launch Day in North America came for the Vita, there was a box on my kitchen ready for me to tear open. Now I did my research before buying the Vita; the memory card was shipped a week before the launch of the vita, so I was ready for the vita. I bought 3 games and I had so much fun with them.
Over the time with the Vita I've come to realize that this handheld is totally different then what Sony had in mind for it. I can't blame them either though, the market when they launched the PSP compared to the Vita is like yin and yang; they are the same in some respect but totally different at the same time. During it's time the joke of 'But the Vita has no games' has come up a lot in my ownership of this device; I've owned a PS Vita for 2 and half years coming up and in that time I've purchased 80+ games digitally that would like to say otherwise. I can safely say the PS Vita is my favorite handheld ever of all time. Whenever a game comes out on multiple PlayStation Platform I get it and play it on Vita only; I barely play console games nowadays because to be frank there are so many games on vita it is ridiculous. The Indie games are so good on Vita probably the reason I game so much on Vita, but please don't call them Indie ports or call the handheld an IndieStaion; the team of people who brought those wonderful games to this wonderful handheld feel a little insulted when they hear that.
Now even though the Vita has a lot of games now there has been something that has been on my mind lately; I wonder about Sony's Support for the Vita because from what I hear getting a PS Vita is not that easy to get any more. People wonder if there discontinuing it, which they are not at least that’s what I think. Plus the announcements at big shows like E3 and Gamescom make me wonder about the future of the Sony handheld that can keep on going hopefully. As a platform it is bad when I as a consumer question a company's support for this thing I love and cherish. It's something you should definitely you should be worried about; I know Sony is a smart company and I hope they continue to support it. Now this may have been a bad time for the vita, it can be theorized that Sony is trying to get the PS4 momentum going so they can support both in the long run; this Gamescom and E3 could have just been bad timing.
The Vita community is a very passionate fan base, I know that and so do many developers; I think Sony knows this more now than ever and shows us big guns at TGS in Japan where the Vita quantity wise is the strongest(that goes for consumers and developers).
It goes without saying I love this platform like any Vita owner I want this platform to succeed, you don't even know how much I want this or maybe you do. I keep saying the word 'hope' throughout this post but I just want it to happen that much. I want it to succeed no matter how many sites put it on their list of failed consoles and handhelds.
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