Following the announcement of his retirement, Shuhei Yoshida has given an interview to media outlet Kinda Funny Games, in which he looks back on his long career at Sony and shares some interesting observations on the failure of the PS Vita.

If the name Shuhei Yoshida isn't familiar to you, but you've been a PlayStation gamer, then you owe him a good portion of your gaming sessions.

Recruited by Sony in 1986 from university, Yoshida rose through the ranks working on iconic titles such as Gran Turismo and Ape Escape, before becoming president of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios from 2008 to 2019.

The Time Extension website reports on Yoshida's comments in the two-hour-plus interview.

The context of a failure

Building on the success of the PSP (which sold 80 million units), Sony decided to launch a new handheld console: the PS Vita. However, this ambition came up against a major competitor. Nintendo's 3DS was a runaway success, selling almost 76 million units. The PS Vita, on the other hand, has struggled to make an impact, selling only around 15 million units.

However, Yoshida stresses that competition is not the only factor holding back the Vita.

Lack of development resources

Yoshida explains that Sony had split its teams between the PS Vita and home consoles, in particular the PS4. With a limited number of studios, the company had to make choices, and it was the PS4 that was prioritised. In comparison, more recently Nintendo has managed to consolidate its teams to work on a single hybrid platform, the Switch, a strategy that Yoshida considers to be one of the keys to its success.

Proprietary memory cards: a costly mistake

Another point raised by Yoshida concerns the PS Vita's proprietary memory cards, often criticised for being prohibitively expensive. He admits that this choice weighed heavily on consumers:
*It was a mistake. People have to spend more money to get a memory card.

Standard SD cards, such as those used by Nintendo for its 3DS, would have been a more economical and practical alternative. Note that for some games, this memory card became compulsory.

Questionable hardware choices

The PS Vita included innovations such as a rear touchscreen and a high-quality OLED screen (which was later removed in favour of an LCD screen), but Yoshida now admits that these choices increased costs without adding any real value. These elements, although attractive during the prototyping phase, were not essential in the end.

In addition, the lack of a TV output on the commercial model was also detrimental to the console. Yoshida reveals that this feature was present in the development kits but was removed to save on production costs. A regrettable decision considering the positive impact of TV compatibility on the Switch's success.

An analysis after the fact

It's always easier to draw lessons after the fact, especially in the face of the Switch's success, which now seems to be a given in terms of design. However, there's no denying that Sony tried to innovate with the PS Vita, delivering a quality product that was forward-thinking for its time, not least thanks to its OLED screen, rear touch surface and impressive graphics for a handheld console released in 2011.

After hearing Yoshida's words, we can't help but wonder how successful the PS Vita might have been if it had been dockable or, at the very least, compatible with a TV output, a feature that the Switch brilliantly exploited five years later.