Is the Vita the only PlayStation console with poor third party support?

Sony's PlayStation line of game systems has been a leading brand for third party developers for more than 20 years now. After famously stealing Nintendo's thunder with the original PlayStation taking all the well known third parties with them, Sony has enjoyed the backing of some of gaming's top developers. Even less successful console's like the PSP and PS3 still got enough support to hold their own against their competition. But there's a big outlier in the PlayStation pantheon that could make even a lackluster Nintendo console blush, and that's the PlayStation Vita.

Vita is the red-headed stepchild of the PlayStation franchise. It's impressive hardware and cutting edge visuals couldn't save it from a terrible memory format, bad marketing, the rise of smartphone gaming, and as a result, poor sales. Because of all of these issues, third party support was unusually weak for a PlayStation console. When the system first launched in 2012, it showed some promise. It got ports of popular remasters from the PS3, and even ports of actual PS3 games to go with it. But once the realities of the system became apparent, everyone who originally backed the system, began to move away. Thus, after the first year, Third party support for the Vita dwindled to near non-existence, as developers began focusing on the much more attractive PlayStation 4, which would launch in NA, just a year later. It didn't help that Sony didn't bother making games that could make up for the lack of third party support, as much of their output consisted of watered down PS3 experiences. Unless it was a niche, no-name Japanese developer porting over a PS4 game, most major third parties dropped the Vita as quickly as they took it up. You know third party support on a PlayStation console is bad, when not even Square Enix releases much of anything for it.

It wasn't all bad though, what the Vita lacked in mainstream third party titles, it made up for it with a solid library of indie titles that lended well to its handheld nature. In fact, it was a better indie machine than it's competitor, the Nintendo 3DS at the time. Nintendo Switch may be the newest indie darling machine now, but I think the Switch owes a lot to the Vita regarding how to really court indies.

PS Vita could've been something great, and had Sony not been incompetent, it could've actually made Nintendo bleed in the handheld market, and possibly be the first system to actually bridge the gap between Smartphone gaming and console gaming like the Switch is now. But Sony had to be Sony and once again, force proprietary media down everyone's throats, barely release compelling games, and not even market the damn thing properly. I can't say I'm surprised nobody wanted to make games for the Vita.

The Vita has a fully functional online storeplace filled with 10000 of games and is doing amazing i couldn't own all the games even if i was rich the library is huge an filled with epic games

@ProtossRushX: You're not even trying. Lulz

Vita library isn't that terrible but it suffered from big first and third party support. There were rarely any huge hits to sustain it and push it into homes. I picked one up and it's a pretty good device. It works well with playing classics, remote functionaly with PS4 is good and there are some hidden gems. It's a nice addition to the PS ecosystem but something I wouldn't necessarily go out and get on its own.

Vita is amazing. It is a shame smartphones killed the casual handheld industry enough to where 3ds sold less than ds and vita sold much less than psp. Sony should have just called the vita psp2 to escape the terrible jokes about it dying, the portable Sony brand dying, being on life support, etc

The PSV is not only the worst Playstation for third party, its the worst first party. Even Sony took a fat shit on developing games for it after the first 18 months.

Hey, you leave the Vita alone. It's amazing.

well yeah it is. it didnt sell. games generally didnt sell well on it (especially games from western devs). support died off. no platform is immune to it. Japanese support was much better but a lot of those games dont even make it to the west (the new catherine is even coming to the vita.....but only in japan as i understand it).

if games had sold well and if the device sold well then support would have been better (i mean duh). there was nothing else stopping the support. hardware and tools wise developers liked it quite a bit. the game cart capacity was generally fine. sony got an awful lot right with the vita.

it's just, yknow, treating it like a second class citizen, stupid memory card prices, dropping support like a stone quickly....things like that killed it.

the switch is the nintendo vita and boy oh boy does it make a difference. the vitas hardware philosophy combined with getting the first class treatment by its maker games wise....well it's working quite well.