1941

The PSVita ceases production in Japan.

“Currently, we do not have any plans regarding a new handheld device,” Oda said. “In Japan, we will manufacture PlayStation Vita until 2019. From there, shipping will end.”

I still use mine daily. Best handheld for gaming ever.

1942

Too bad Sony didn’t put more support behind it here in the U.S. It really is a great handheld. I put it a close second to the 3DS. Both were JRPG powerhouses and between the two, I probably have enough gaming for the next 20 years!

1943

I still look at mine when I go to bed every day. I should charge it up so that it comes on when I press the button.

1944

I’m sorry the device didn’t work out for you @Rock8man, but the Vita was worth it just for your entertaining melancholy. (Seriously, I got a good belly laugh out of that.)

I’m in a similar position, but I love the machine and it’s packed with stuff I want to play. I just can’t get round to it and my New 2DS and Switch… too many games etc.

1945

Great little piece of hardware, but the Switch has chased it off my nightstand.

1946

I still use mine as well. Love the thing. Currently playing Chasm and a Digimon game. I have a 64GB card for Vita titles and a separate 32GB card for all my PS1 and PSP games. People call me crazy for spending that much for flash memory, but I’m not subscribing to an online service so I can pay $60 for NES controllers that only work on a random smattering of NES titles. Who, now, has the right to call ME mad?

1947

Anyone have recommendations for Vita games for a 6yo girl? She’s really into the Lego games on the PS4, loves Pokemon and princesses, and has a birthday coming up!

We thought about going the Switch route but figured we’d wait a year or two on that.

1948

Maybe Rayman Legends or Origins?

1949

The vita version of Dragon Quest Builders is well done.

1950

Wouldn’t Little Big Planet be great?

1951

Thanks for the quick recommendations!

Rayman - she hasn’t really tried platformers yet, unless the Lego games could fall under that category. Might be interesting to try though.

Dragon Quest Builders - this might work as she really liked watching me play the PS4 version! Didn’t even know there was a Vita.

Little Big Planet - I tried to get her & her sister into this on the PS4 with the Disneyland levels but they lost interest quickly. Might be different on a handheld though.

I really need to check out the list of Vita games I already have thanks to PS+. Probably have some from crossbuying on PS4 also.

1952

Tearaway?

Gravity Rush is a little fiddly controls wise, but it’s got a Strong Female Protagonist ™ that a little girl might like.

1953

Added to the list to check out!

Being the dad of two little girls has really opened up my eyes to how important it really is to have those strong female protagonists as options. In the Lego games, the 6yo will specifically play as and try to unlock all the cool females as soon as she can. Her little sister hasn’t really mastered controller use yet but she also only wants to play as a female character when she’s up for joining in.

1954

Builders has a female character option too.

1955

I plugged in and charged my Vita last night for the first time in 3 years, since I just subscribed to PS+, so I figured I should see if I have anything in my old PS+ Vita library that might be good for my son to play maybe. And I downloaded a Prince of Persia game and Geometry Wars 3. This was a mistake. I forgot how slow downloads are on the Vita. It’s not like downloading stuff on your phone. Downloading a 1GB game took about 6 hours I think? I’m not sure because I went to sleep since it seemed to be downloading 1MB every few seconds.

Anyway, this morning I put it away in a drawer. My son is still in the “throw things when you get frustrated” phase as a 3 year old, and looking at this hardware, I’m not sure how many throws it can take. It took my son months to break a 360 controller that way, but the Vita looks pretty vulnerable in comparison.

1956

I recently charged my own Vita back up and downloaded a game with no trouble. It was les than a gig in size though. Bummer your having issues. Now back to persona 4!

1957

Yeah, my downloads are definitely faster than that. If you decide to break it out again, I’d recommend Hohokum for a very young child. It has no failstate and is really delightful and charming.

1958

Nintendo just reminded its Switch users to charge it at least once every 6 months to prevent the internal battery from becoming unchargeable. I wonder if I should have the same worry with the Vita?

1959

I have a Vita I occasionally use that hasn’t been charged in a while and I also have a GBA and DS I haven’t touched in about two years.

But I also have a brand new still sealed Vita (Amazon mistake led to me receiving two of them three years back) so I wonder if that will even work down the road (kept as a backup for current one so it may never even get used).

Maybe I should stock up on whatever batteries I can find. But then, wouldn’t batteries go bad “on the shelf”?

1960

Batteries are usually partially charged during manufacturing to let them sit on the shelf for a long time. I had several Vitas in a box for a few years and they call came out and charged just fine recently. I hacked them all for retro gaming - they make a delightful handheld even today.