The PlayStation Vita: Ten Years Later 

I recently hacked my vita with a 128gb sd card and ive never left that thing alone, i havent been playing my steam deck and switch as much as the vita which is odd but i love how extremely comfortable to carry this thing is

"Playing the PSVita in 2022 feels like holding a liminal space in your hands. There's an uncanny valley to it." Perfect way to put how I feel about this system. Viewed through a modern lens it's a novelty at best just due to the way it was designed and marketed, with a lot of its library hinging on it being the most powerful handheld at the time, and most of its games just being worse alternatives to anything you could find on other systems, neither of which make a system age particularly well But even then, the whole system is just fascinating. It embodies a bygone era and it feels like a relic from a whole other world just due to how little it was actually talked about in any mainstream gaming spaces. It's almost cozy and nostalgic, and this coupled with the unfortunate circumstances surrounding its first party development just makes pick mine back up on occasion out of curiosity alone

Excellent retrospective of one of my favorite hidden gem consoles. It could have had a great library and left such a mark if not for the marketing and the time period it came out. I still play mine to this day and get a wave of nostalgia every time I hear the home theme (seasonal). Shoot, I’m gonna break it out later today. Thanks for the shoutout!

Great video on the Vita. I am one of the people stuck on the system to this day, still playing my OLED Vita daily. Where Sony dropped the Vita, indies and modders really picked it up. The modding scene on the Vita is easily one of the most dedicated I have seen for any system ever. With ports of all the 3D Era GTA games, and more and more emulation becoming possible, the future is looking bright for those looking to mod their systems.

Just picked up a vita I sold my lauch model a few years back. Currently playing unit 13, dead nation and modnation racers. Having a blast somehow the system still feels very modern, I would buy a sequel in a heartbeat

The video overall was quite good but I really think you hit the nail on the head at the last minute there. The Vita to me does feel very personal which I think is why I enjoy sharing about it so much.

Fantastic video! The closing remarks were quite impactful, and I cannot agree more with you. Thank you for recognizing such a small yet dedicated community.

I still believe that micro SD support and having micro USB from the start would have helped. those memory card prices were INSANE!

Fantastic video! The closing statement really hit hard for me, and I cannot agree more!

Awesome Job with this video! Going to check out some of your other vids! keep it up!

That was such a good video. Especially towards the end where you compared them to the liminal spaces. Absolute perfect comparison!

Man! Watched the whole thing and I don't regret it one bit! Thanks for this, you just gained a sub.

This is a impressive piece of work. I want to Thank You for taking the time to do this video journey. Like the Vita a journey of impressive knowledge. VERY COOL !! Your Humor is appreciated too!! Owning a Vita for about a year now. First bought and It sat for a while. Was taking the Vita to doctor offices when I family needed fixed up and I had to wait, forever! Lately I discovered the super impressive things that this little system can do. Just last night I was using my PS4 controller on my Vita as I streamed the video thru it's USB plug, into my computer and on my HD TV with no lag and very passable graphics. Also had a huge Bluetooth speaker throwing those Awesome game soundtracks at me. I feel it was WAY BEFORE IT'S TIME, yep 2012 ? Really, think about 11 years ago as it is now Dec,2023, It still holds up, why do I say that? I can only explain it like this. I was a heavy Commodore Amiga user. Yep, if you ever got in front of that computer, the software game library was filled with "off the wall," intelligent and just plain different game designs. The Vita has that feel to this day. The PS VITA has a collection of games that show so much difference then the main stream "YAWN" we see nowadays. For a game company to invest enough in a game to make it, let's face it, it has to sell. The line of sequence Call of Duty's and racers, shooters out there stay in the same design Blah1 Blah2 and Blah3's out there, it is down right miserable. The Vita, on the other hand, has a accessible collection of impressive thinking titles, puzzle games, driving, sports, and let's face it, emulation for it's 2012 birthdate, WOW. With the help of the internet, You can play a huge arrangement of Consoles and Arcades straight from your pocket. Final point, since it is at it's age, the Apps, Brews and "Tech Help" just on the forums is down right blow your mind. What is impressive is the links are still active and usable stuff it still there! VITA is in your face, QUALITY ! Let's face it, since even the Commodore CRASHED AT TIMES, This system is a rock and never shows any sign of being Glitchy.. Exceptionally FUN machine.. VITA AMIGA !!! OHH, by the way, I have entire Amiga Collection on the VITA NOW IN MY POCKET! Just play it. -DI

Really good video! I recently received a PSP as a gift and have been interested in it and the Vita ever since. Hoping I can get my hands on a Vita sometime soon, even if it's just to satisfy my curiosity.

still have my launch model, absolutely love the bastard. The proprietary storage type was a massive mistake on their part which was honestly their bigger failing point. On my own system, I set up the hack and was able to get a 128gb micro sd card working. For reference I was on a 4gb memory card before.

Great content dude, good job

Man this video is way to good! Keep it up with the great work 👏

The idea of consoles being springboards into new worlds is so on point, and there really is something special about having been one of a "few" travelers to that world. Really well made video, I loved it.

I think the fact that Vita games were always compared to full console versions led to unrealistic expectations that the experiences would be the same. This was unfortunate as the Vita was way ahead of its time and the games were very good! The Nintendo Switch successes came from the lessons learned from the Vita and Wii U failures.

Great retrospective! Good cutting skills, a fun script and really enjoyable narration. And most of all, I really like the conclusion you drew in the end. I am really thankful to have been somehow included in this. :) Although I have to say for my personal liking there was too little coverage of Japanese games, this was a very broad view overall. I know that you personally don't like the Japanese style of games, but for people who like those, it opens up an entirely new and huge world of Vita games, which was supported much longer than the western side of the games industry. I bet tons of people already suggested this to you and I will do it again, but P4G is actually a really great game and even with the Steam release last year, Vita is still the best place to play it imo.

Thank you for the upload!

This was really enjoyable!

Excellent retrospective! Kind of sad that it never got a good footing but the past is the past. I gotta dust off my own and get some more games just for the Hell of it.

Wow, great video! Keep up the good work!

Also if you modify your vita just cosmetically and put some knobs on the top of the joystick to make them taller, you will ultimately have way better control in any game you play and notice a difference immediately!! I used the boots off the bottom of a $25 Walmart DVD player which was these little round black foam pieces, and I super glued them to the joystick covers that I had ordered on the Internet, The combination worked perfectly, combine that with the fact that I had a bigger D pad also glued to the default D pad and the best $.68 grip from China that gave you triggers!! It was a match made in heaven and made playing with big hands like mine perfect-

Subbed. Awesome video. Funny. Informative. And all about my favorite console 😊

I got my first Vita 2 years ago and at this time I have all 3 versions of the Vita, 1001, 2001, TV, and 148 physical games. Luckily I got all of my expensive parts of my collection right before the prices shot up.

Wow this channel is small but very good

I know it probably wouldn’t of saved the vita from certain death. But if they really took their time on black ops declassified and made an actual vita exclusive game with a story, better multiplayer, and zombies. I bet it would of helped it sell a lot more

Man the video was good you deserve more subs man

The thing that firsthand killed the Vita for me and all my friends was the lack of monster hunter releases, which I'm surprised you didn't talk about. Back to 10-12 years ago, I had a group of friends with whom I was playing monster hunter on the PSP, each of us had the console and amassed over 500 hours on the game till the point there was nothing else to do. We waited so long for a release of a new monster hunter on the Vita, but not only it never came.... It came on the 3DS and 2DS, which was stupidly cheap. People don't realize how many handheld consoles monster hunter titles moved back in those days.

Written May 21, 2022 I have two takeaways and feedback to share from this video: First, while gaming on the go is indeed incapable of living up to dedicated gaming consoles, it’s not due to mobile chipsets being weak and unable to play them(taking a look at modern mobile hardware says that)it’s rather due to the fact it’s logically inherently difficult to port a game from a game that was already vastly hard to design on that systems console architecture to run on(the Ps2, PS3, and Vita are known to have very unique and hard architectures to code for as even many devs didn’t even want to make games for PS3 and not many ps2 games can’t run on modern consoles)and expect it to run 100% like said console without some drawbacks. Finally, while the Vita had a terribly short life, I appreciate you taking the time to list it as a console that could’ve done better if property advertised(or maybe not given its uniquely hard architecture as Killzone Mercenaries was reportedly the best looking game) I actually had a Vite one year after it launched but due to the expensive memory cards,owning a max of 8-10 AAA games at 4-8GB storage per game on a max 64GB storage card was less than ideal, especially knowing the OS itself took like 6-10GB.

I was like 20 when I got my vita. After being a huge psp fan I was soooo excited to get the new console. With my help desk salary I got mine a year after it came out and I by that time it already had tons of games. I remember loving wipeout, gravity rush (my first platinium), soundshapes and persona 4. Fun times.

Im fairly new to the vita, but man I love this console. I cant quite put it into words but it just feels so good, and so right. Its a shame about the memory cards, and Sony jumping ship so quickly though. The Vita deserved more love

I should bring up the famously untalked about feature of the Vita... remote play. The remote play from the Vita to the PS4 is actually amazingly good! Especially so if you have a grip that adds in the L2 and R2 buttons, so you don't have to deal with the rear touchpad. Nobody ever talks about this feature... and Sony was very poor about marketing it as a feature, so that is surely why. Being able to play my PS4 from my bed, or when someone wanted to use the TV to actually watch TV made my little Vita into sort of what the Switch ended up being.

I play my PS Vita more so than the Switch. The cameras were used for AR games. More so were released outside the US. I found the 3G and GPS useful. The games that made use of the GPS/3G were interesting. I enjoyed in game/chat room voice chat and cross platform chat. Blutooth headset/headphones from launch was awesome.

working thanks

The handheld that should had been much more. Still peeved about Sony's management of the damn thing

Mod culture picked the Vita up right where Sony dropped it which make it a great handheld in 2024 and the handhelds of today look like they take a some inspiration from the Vita like the gpd win 4

The main thing that probably killed The PS Vita where those expensive memory cards rather than just using the SD stuff instead. My theory as to why they inflated the price was because of the then recent PlayStation Network Hack attack that they dealt with in 2011 which was definitely a lost for them. Although,that doesn't explain why add so much to The Vita like 2 cameras. Most average customers would overlook all of that,and not see a justification for the price. I don't watch Fraki anymore or "Lexx" as he calls himself nowadays. All i'll say is,he can do whatever he wants with himself.

The 3ds is arguably my favorite console of all time but, a PSP/vita has been a part of my life since the launch in 2005. I couldn't imagine my gaming life without the PSP-PS3-PS Vita-PS4 ecosystem.

Awesome video love my vita and play everyday when not on my PS5 👌👌

1:30 Also, There Was A Scene In Smallville that had it too. I believe even Criminal Minds. I also know college football teams like Penn State were giving all their players a PSP...

Watching this video while playing on my vita ❤

New sub here. You have quality content. Keep it up!

When watching this I was sure you'd have at least like 700k subs 🤣 you're too good man! Keep going :)

He thinks he has big fingers, but holds vita with eagle talons. Surprisingly you can hold the OLED vita with noodle arms.

I cant wait to order one, i see a few games that i like thats on the vita to bad Sony gave up on the system

Great retrospective. I had a PSP but never got PS Vita. I think that the biggest Vita flaw is its battery: without it you can't even start console!This is so absurd and the biggest effin' beeep :) Is there a solution to aging PS Vita batteries? I am interested in getting an used PS Vita, is it really worth it today in 2022? Thanks in advance, cheers!

Every time I see the vita's home screen I'm just like "oh fuck yeah dude"

I just picked up another Vito and I’m going to re-download my games that I have in my download library at the very least and then start re-buying all the great games I had each month.. I sold mine back in 2018 and I regret it immensely, it was the best handheld if not one of the best video game consoles I’ve ever had!!

Resistance Retribution is a good shooter despite the lack of a second nub.

I got mine when it first came out. Now modded with psp and ps1 games

single layer umd is 900mb dual layer which most used was 1.8gb, was plenty on psp. Vita using 2gb i didnt know but 4gb i was certain, based off file sizes for games. Switch uses 16gb and 32gb i think. Which is insane, because both systems offer larger memory cards but they didnt provide developers with them. Thats why some vita games had download codes and switch has insane downloads nowdays too. Oh heres 20-30gb of the game but you have to download like another 20-30 gb, like wtf just give them a 64 option to put the entire thing on jesus i hate that

I recently bought a vita and wish I had bought one when it first come out now I can’t put it down always loved gaming ever since I was a kid now the wife can have the tv controller because I just play on the vita 👌

Subbed 👍

27:35 Any one who is anyone who has played these games has gone WEEEEEEEEEEE while paragliding.... TELL ME I"M WRONG. Great video. fun time.

I still play my vita. I wish Sony didn't give up on this wonderful device.

I love my Vita since it is hacked and with a 128gb sdcard loaded with just about everything NES/SNES/GB/GBA/GBC/SEGA/PSP/Vita. But it is painfully obvious why it failed. It wasn't the hardware and there is nothing hardware wise that could of been done to save the Sony portables. The problem was the games. Not that they were not good games but they were the wrong games. For some reason Sony and their 3rd party publishers never could figure out that portable games need to be different than console games. Phone/tablets hit the wants of the people on the go. And Nintendo always had a good grasp of that. Sony did more porting than making new games for their portables. There was also the problem of the memory sticks but now that it is so easy to hack and use a sdcard fixes that. You can also find Vitas at goodwill pretty easy at dirt cheap prices. The HomeBrew community is still rocking also.

Damn. Bought twice. Sold twice... after bought the Psp Go. The unpopular Playstation portable i love every bit on it. Metal gear peace walker. ( the pause function as now doing xbox series ) Gran turismo, god of war... it was my first portable console, all digital. I missed more the psp go than ps vita ! Even tho Playing Uncharted on subway was amazing. Also remote ps3 and wipeout was so good and beautiful and killzone omg... I have still have ps vita save somewhere but it seems i loose every save and ps store isn't working anymore right ?

This video was ahead of its time. I just got Josh hutchersonned

I agree that a lot of the Vita’s gimmicks weren’t really necessary. I’d replace the touchscreen, touch pad, and cameras with clickable joysticks and L2/R2 buttons. Oh and cheaper memory cards. That said, I still highly enjoy the console. Just wish it did better.

PS Vita is ahead of it's time

I’m blown away with the ps Vita community is wildly awesome! I mean they are borderline cult that I have joined 😂

Fantástic video

21:06 what game is that

YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH GOOD VID YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Played gravityrush on sly on it lol

I bought both the PSP and the Vita ppl overlooked it, Nintendo just sold ppl bc of the price and age requirements, and that was good. If Sony would've delivered games like call COD in quality level on a portable designed by Treyarch that would sold the system alone

Loved the psp but life and work forces me to play while commuting, resulting feeling dizzy and sick

i have a vita. in 2022 the only way its useful imo is to mod it to play more than just vita games. the BEST part of the psvita for me is that i can still listen to music using an aux. i would buy a vita 2.0 if sony ever released one. COULD YOU IMAGINE???? acutally could you make a video saying what youd like in a vita2.0? maybe sony will see it and take notes as most of us are thinking the same thing. dont make special memory cards. add R L triggers. etc

When you boot up the Vida and the screen that you ”tear away” to reveal the menu cannot be customized and this was one of the things I always disliked- All of the other backgrounds to pages with bubbles that you make, all can be customized with your own custom background images! I always had a unique theme centered around each of my 7 Pages of games! Like for my PS one classics I did a custom background that showed a PS one with a dual shock on the background image that looked perfect with the PS one game tiles laying on top of it!! And then for the page where I had all my racing games I just did some race car picture or whatever?! And for RPG I would always have a very reminiscent picture from a popular RPG as my background! If it’s not obvious, I loved the PlayStation Vita and it’s the one thing that I’m pissed at Sony for ruining-!!!

I love it. Modded mine. Can play ps vita, psp, ps1, ports of some ps2, and a lot of retro games through stand alone emulators and retroarch. It's like an rg353m but better cuz it can play psp and vita. Also, it's a jrpg, visual novel, indie games machine. I like the patches that allow for the true experience to certain "Spicy" jrpgs and visual novels. Delicious 😈

If only Sony tried to push this system forward instead of almost right away giving up.. despite that it has some awesome games but could have been soo much more.. hardware quality and desing was awesome for the time .. Look at what sony engineers do nowdays.. literally split ps5 controller in half and attach tablet in middle lol😅 unfortunately Vita is reason why we will never see another handheld from sony😢 atleast anytime soon

HES SO FUNNY

⭐

what’s the game at 3:11 ?

Watched this entire video and felt like an asshole Vita owner, I got it about a year or so ago and did get hooked on Uncharted and went on a spree of going to my local game shops to buy whatever physical games they had. I was watching this in bed currently midnight and sprung up to go and find my Vita and plugged it into my PS5 to charge, thanks for inspiring me to give it some attention and playtime lol. Awesome video .

Seems like in hindsight it truly was crushed by the momentum of the smartphone industry. It's a bummer for that, I think the handheld systems offered way better gaming experiences than phones have even through today. Yes there are some controller peripherals for phones and a few really good games on there, but the majority of mobile games are just casual button pushing cash grabs. PS Vita ultimately launched at a very unlucky time in mobile computing and suffered because of it.

Excellent video. I wish Sony hadn't dropped the ball. I love my Vita more than my Switch. I wish it had the game's Library. Imo, Vita has the perfect form factor. It just feels natural. Holding my Switch while lying in bed is tiresome. I don't feel that with my Vita. 🥳

Still say a new PlayStation Portable / Vita would be great

So much 2d platformer potential. Rayman ran so good

I dont fucking uderstand how the vita has a better ui that the switch even in 2024, wtf nintendo

You dont mention some of the best reasons to own a Vita: Killzone Mercenary, Tearaway and P4G. Also you can play PS1 and PSP games on it

The memory cards killed the vita, nothing else

Pretty Funny "and......This "

10 years later officially dead . Thank u steam deck.

In regards to the vita. I believe it was the niche games and japanese games that kept the handheld alive. Did you know that there were vita releases in December 2021 physically? They were limited run style games from playasia. They were a visual novel and a walking simulator.

Marcus psp

What about the PlayStation Vita TV?

😳 24:01

The psp and vita were better than there nintendo counterparts. The ps vita is the best handheld out there and even has things that the switch doesn't have.

you know whats the problem was whit the vita. it was ahead of its times

Ppl realized at some point, tht phones don't deliver the best gaming experience. Least not yet

I love the psp and the vita but man did the 3ds and ds crush sony portables. The ds/3ds was just a more fun and creative system and in a lot of ways had better games 🤣

I sold my Vita Slim to a buddy, and bought it back when I realized the potential. Hack it and fill it with tons of games. PSP games play and look better on it. Plus all the emulators you can put in it.

I was going along, entertained, until you snubbed japanese games. As if they were all bad.

Really boring video. I blame RU-vid for recommending this

I remember the first movie I owned on the PSP was Superbad. First time I ever watched that movie was on the PSP. Sh*t was amazing!🥹🥹