I loved the Vita. I have vivid memories of playing Persona 4 Golden for hours in the dark on my dad’s couch in Chicago flying around the world of Gravity Rush from an airplane seat and playing Murasaki Baby before bed. The Vita felt good and it made me happy. And then, Sony killed it.

For the past seven years, I’ve been wondering why the Vita had to die. So today, we’re finally going to grieve and analyze together: What happened to the Vita, and what if it were still around today?

It’s been difficult to not think about the Vita recently. The mobile market is on fire right now, with Valve’s Steam Deck shipping out, the Playdate on its way from Panic, and of course Nintendo’s Switch and Switch Lite at the top of the charts. Not to mention, Microsoft is courting the handheld space with Cloud Gaming and Game Pass, and mobile gaming represents the largest and fastest growing segment in the industry. From consoles to PC, it seems every company is investing in handheld play. Every company except Sony.

To be clear, Sony doesn’t have to compete in the handheld market just because everyone else is doing it, but the tragedy here is they were doing it with the Vita – and as LL Cool J would say, they were doing it well. Even with an embarrassing amount of options in the handheld space, I still want a new Vita. I want one in black and another in a peach colorway; I want the entire back panel to be a touchpad with DualSense-style haptics and I want a little hole in one of the corners so I can attach charms, just like I did on the original. And, charm-hole aside, I don’t think I’m alone here.

Atlus

So, why don’t we all have shiny new Vitas in our hands right now? Basically, I think Sony got scared and scattered, and not necessarily in that order.

The Vita was a commercial failure, but its numbers weren’t completely tragic and there were even bright spots in its sales history. The Vita was an evolution of Sony’s successful PlayStation Portable line, with enhanced input mechanics, an OLED touchscreen and upgraded guts, and it first hit the market at the end of 2011. This was just before the launch of the Wii U, PS4 and Xbox One, and right after Nintendo dropped the 3DS.

As another handheld device, the 3DS is a good comparison point for Vita sales, and it doesn’t end up looking good for Sony. In 2012, Nintendo sold more than 13 million 3DSes, and that same year, Sony sold about 4 million Vitas. Sony stopped reporting Vita sales figures on their own after its first year on the market, and despite a few hardware iterations, the studio stopped building new devices in 2015. Sony essentially wrapped up support for the Vita by 2019, and best estimates place total global hardware sales around 16 million units. The 3DS, meanwhile, is at more than 75 million.

That’s the surface-level analysis, but I think comparing the Vita to the Wii U actually offers more insight into Sony’s mindset at the time, while offering a clear picture of what could have been.

By the beginning of 2013, the Vita and the Wii U were on shockingly similar trajectories. They were both iterations of previous hardware, trying new things and fumbling along the way. Nintendo’s Wii U came out in late 2012 and wasn’t nearly as well-received as its predecessor, the Wii, offering players a bulky gamepad with an uncomfortable UI and crappy battery life. In its five-year lifespan, Nintendo sold about 14 million Wii U consoles – 2 million fewer than the Vita's estimated total, even.

Here’s where Nintendo and Sony pivoted away from each other. In classic Nintendo fashion, the designers of the Wii U kept their heads down and continued building their vision of a hybrid console. The Wii U wasn’t perfect, but that didn’t mean the entire concept was trash, and Nintendo’s blind focus eventually resulted in the Switch, a console with an emphasis on mobile play. Today, it’s one of the best-selling systems in history.

But where Nintendo chose to stay the course, Sony decided to turn around and go back home. It simply killed the Vita – and I think this was the result of internal turmoil at Sony proper. There was a disconnect in the way Sony marketed the Vita to different regions, and even in the way it explained basic ideas behind the hardware itself – like with its confusing and expensive memory card plan.

Since Sony stopped divulging Vita information early on, I’m using stats compiled by a self-professed data nerd at Kresnik258Gaming for this bit: The Vita sold best in Japan, where it enjoyed a sweeping marketing campaign complete with unique hardware bundles, models and games. The North American audience didn’t get the same attention, with limited advertising, few hardware bundles and only a couple of half-hearted attempts at regional software. By the time the second-generation Vita and Vita TV came out in 2013, Sony seemed barely interested in explaining the benefits of these systems to US and Canadian players, and Redditwasfilled with complaints about the company’s lack of support.

Ovosonico

This regional disparity happens to align with some major managerial shifts at Sony, and a larger change in its approach to players and developers. With the launch of the PS4 in 2013, Sony was on top of the world – interactive entertainment president Jack Tretton obliterated the Xbox One during an iconic E3 show, and once both consoles hit the market, the PS4 emerged as a clear winner in terms of sales numbers. Then, Tretton left Sony in 2014 and Shawn Layden took his place. By this point, the Vita was clearly an afterthought in North America. With Layden at the helm, Sony’s E3 shows took on a more business-oriented tone, and by 2016, it felt like an entirely different company on-stage. And this wasn’t just external: Sony had been saturating its systems with innovative and award-winning indie titles throughout the 2010s, but in 2016, two of the company’s pivotal indie evangelists, Adam Boyes and Nick Suttner, left, and indie developers said they felt abandoned by Sony’s system.

Honestly, it seems like Sony had too much going on internally to properly focus on the Vita, and in the chaos, it lost its sense of experimentation. Since this time, Sony has doubled down on the things it knows, like upgrading its console hardware and releasing first-party games, and it’s simply following the crowd when it comes to things like PlayStation Plus and streaming. I guess PSVR is cool, but it certainly doesn’t have the same impact as the Vita once did.

Or, as the Vita could still have. Imagine if Sony had a sequel to the Vita around today to market alongside the PS5 as a connection point for its streaming ambitions and an attractive hub for developers of all sizes. While Microsoft is busy buying up every mid-tier studio in town, a Vita would offer Sony a chance to collaborate in unique ways with smaller developers, giving the company even more exclusives, the currency of the modern market. We know that players today appreciate a sleek handheld component to their consoles, and Sony could use something to compete with Microsoft’s vast cloud capabilities and funding in R&D. It could use something that Microsoft doesn’t have. PSVR can’t fulfill this role – but Vita totally could. 

At least, that’s how I feel. Let me know if I truly am alone here, or if you also want a handheld system from Sony – only rule is, you have to say whether you want the charm hole.

The days of getting kicked off of Xbox because a partner or family member decides to sign in from another room may soon be over. Microsoft is reportedly adding a family plan as a separate subscription tier to its Xbox Game Pass, according to Windows Central. 

Engadget reached out to Microsoft for confirmation of the news, but the company is keeping its lips sealed for now. “We are always looking for ways to improve the Game Pass experience and add more value for members, which includes regularly testing and refining features based on community feedback. However, we have nothing to announce at this time," wrote a Microsoft spokesperson in an email to Engadget.

Unlike Netflix, Spotify and many other subscription services, the Xbox Game Pass currently has no option for multiple users to share one account. This has been a common frustration amongst Xbox players over the years, particularly those who share a household with other people who love to play games. Xbox Game Pass subscriptions are tied to specific Xbox profiles and not specific devices, allowing players to sign-in from anywhere. While players can technically add a secondary Xbox console to their Game Pass subscription, the primary account holder must be signed in for the second person to access their games. Households with multiple gamers often get around this inconvenience by paying for multiple individual Game Pass subscriptions.

The family plan will reportedly allow up to five players on a single subscription and should debut later this year. It is unknown what the exact pricing will be, and whether the family plan will be exclusive to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, or include the other subscription tiers. 

A family plan will likely give Microsoft an extra edge over Sony Playstation, which this week announced a newly revamped set of subscription plans — none of which include a family plan — to compete with the Xbox Game Pass. 

As we’ve noted in the past, Microsoft has been very eager to grow its Xbox Game Pass subscriber base. The cloud gaming service is currently at 25 million subscribers as of this January. The company’s $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard is expected to close next summer, meaning popular titles like Call of Duty, Diablo and World of Warcraft are coming to Game Pass. It’s not surprising that one of the ways Microsoft will accommodate this larger subscriber base is by making it easier for households to share a subscription.

After a fair degree of speculation, Sony has officially announced its next evolution of PlayStation Plus, its subscription service. And, finally, it could offer enough to match Microsoft’s compelling Game Pass. It’s still called PlayStation Plus but will fuse it with PlayStation Now, the company’s middling game streaming service, at least at the highest tiers.

PlayStation Plus Premium ($18 per month) is where the PS Now aspect really comes into play, with access to an extra 340 or so games, including PS3 titles you can stream via the cloud. A bunch of PS1, PS2 and PSP games will be available to stream or download, too, but the streaming feature will be only in markets where PS Now is currently available. That includes the likes of the US, UK, Japan and a large chunk of Europe.

Then there’s PlayStation Plus Extra (for $15 per month), which will fold in the existing PS Plus service, soon to be renamed PlayStation Plus Essential (still $10 per month) but add a library of “up to” 400 PS4 and PS5 games. These will encompass PlayStation’s in-house titles as well as third party games.

At the outset, Sony plans to offer games including Death Stranding, God of War, Marvel’s Spider-Man, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Mortal Kombat 11 and Returnal. However, it’s unlikely that first-party PlayStation games (usually exclusive at launch) will appear on the service immediately. Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan told GamesIndustry.biz in an interview: "We feel if we were to do that with the games that we make at PlayStation Studios, that virtuous cycle will be broken." In PlayStation’s favor, at least in the US, the annual price is $60 less than Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members’ annual cost.

The new-look PS Plus will start rolling out in June.

— Mat Smith

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• 8BitDo's Pro 2 controller drops to an all-time low in Amazon's gaming sale

Dyson made noise-canceling headphones that filter the air

They have the technology.

Dyson just unveiled its first wearable product: a set of noise-canceling, air-purifying headphones. The Dyson Zone comes with a detachable vizor for the bottom half of the wearer’s face, which looks, to put it mildly, odd. That vizor actually blows filtered air to your nose, mouth and chin, sort of like a portable fan dedicated to the lower portion of your face. Dyson has integrated a smaller version of its air filtration system into the earcups.

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Intel claims its new 5.5GHz chip is the world's fastest desktop processor

It arrives on April 5th, but isn't cheap at $739.

Intel has unveiled the Core i9-12900KS Special Edition CPU, claiming it's "the world's fastest desktop processor." Intel boosted the clock speed from 5.2GHz to 5.5GHz (on up to two cores) by bumping the power from 125 to 150 watts. AMD recently said its $449 Ryzen 7 5800X3D was the world's fastest gaming processor, that its 3D V-Cache beats Intel’s older Core i9-12900K. However, Intel’s latest model has a much higher maximum clock speed (5.5GHz compared to 4.5GHz). Now we wait for the benchmark tests to prove the eventual winner.

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NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 3090 Ti will cost you $1,999

And you thought the Intel chip was pricey…

NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 3090 Ti is finally here, and it's clear the no-compromise design comes with the steep price tag to match. The new flagship GPU is now available, at a heady $1,999. That's $500 more than the 'base' RTX 3090 and closer to the price of line-blurring GPUs like the old $2,499 Titan RTX. And don't be surprised if you pay more thanks to ongoing shortages — we're already seeing more expensive cards at retailers.

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Devialet’s huge soundbar might not need a separate subwoofer

It has eight built-in subwoofers.

Devialet

There’s not an awful lot of competition at the high-end soundbar market, with most consumers looking towards surround sound speaker setups with multiple speakers, separate subwoofers and the rest. For those of us looking for minimalist aesthetics and better sound, Sennheiser’s Ambeo now has competition from Devialet. The giant soundbar can upmix stereo sound so it’s more enveloping and richer. You also have to be a certain level of rich to afford the thing.

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'The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild' sequel delayed to spring 2023

No, Nintendo. Nooooo.

This won’t come as a huge surprise to gamer cynics, but Nintendo has announced it’s delaying the launch of the hugely anticipated Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild sequel. As is usually the case with such delays, Nintendo didn't offer a ton of details. Legend of Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma said the company decided to "extend our development time a bit" and apologized to those looking forward to playing the new game. Expect to wait til spring 2023. And possibly even a little longer.

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Unicode won't accept any new flag emoji

Politics and usage are to blame.

In the next wave of emoji, which has brought us burritos, flamingos and so on, don't expect to see more flags. The Unicode Consortium has warned it will "no longer accept proposals" for flag emoji, regardless of category. They're more trouble than they're worth, the organization said, whether it's the inherent politics or the value they bring. Flags are "by far" the least-used emoji, Unicode said, and aren't even used that often in social media bios. The Consortium added that flag additions tend to "emphasize the exclusion of others."

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After months (if not years) of speculation, Sony has officially announced its revamped game subscription service as it looks to take on Microsoft's all-conquering Game Pass. The company is keeping the PlayStation Plus branding as it combines PS Plus and PlayStation Now into a three-tier service, but don't expect Sony to add new PS4 or PS5 games on their release day.

Developing...

8BitDo's Pro 2 was already great value at its regular price of $50, but now the controller has dropped to an all-time low on Amazon. It's on sale for $42.50, which is 15 percent off the usual price.

As with the excellent SN30 Pro+, the Pro 2 is compatible with Nintendo Switch, Windows, macOS, Android and Raspberry Pi. This time around, the controller has two back buttons. Like all of the other inputs, those buttons on the handles (where your ring finger or pinky might rest naturally) are fully customizable through a Windows, Mac, Android and iOS app. The controller has a profile configuration switcher as well, so you can swap between three input configurations without having to fire up the app.

It's a little disappointing that the controller isn't compatible with iOS devices, PlayStation or Xbox. For those who game on pretty much every other major platform, though, the 8BitDo Pro 2 is well worth checking out, particularly if you pick up a cheap smartphone clip so you can more easily play cloud gaming titles just about anywhere.

Razer

Elsewhere as part of Amazon's gaming accessory sale, you can save on Razer's wired Wolverine V2 Chroma controller. It also dropped to an all-time low. At $127.50, the white variant is slightly cheaper than the black model ($130). The controller usually costs $150.

The Wolverine V2 Chroma is compatible with Xbox consoles and PC. It's a worthy alternative to Microsoft's Elite Wireless Series 2 controller.

It has six more buttons than a standard Xbox controller and they're all remappable. Those could be useful for swiftly building structures in Fortnite (once that becomes a thing again) or executing rapid combos. There's also full RGB support via Razer's Xbox controller app, swappable thumbsticks and a hair-trigger mode that could give you an advantage over your rivals.

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You might not have to wait much longer to see Sony's response to Microsoft's Game Pass. Bloombergsources claim Sony is introducing its rumored "Spartacus" service, which combines PlayStation Now game access and PlayStation Plus online features, as soon as next week. The service will launch with a "splashy" collection of recent hit games, the tipsters said, but you might not see blockbuster games arrive on the service the same day as they're available for purchase. Don't expect to play the upcoming God of War Ragnarok right away.

There were no new leaks for pricing. Bloomberg previously mentioned three tiers that would include a $10 per month Essential offering identical to PlayStation Plus, a $13 Extra level with access to a Game Pass-style catalog of "hundreds" of downloadable games and a $16 Premium Tier that adds PlayStation Now's game streaming and pre-release game trials.

Spartacus might not be vital to Sony's bottom line. PlayStation console sales still comfortably outperform the Xbox, with Ampere Analysis estimating that PS5 numbers were 1.6 times higher than for the Xbox Series X/S in 2021. However, Game Pass has quickly become a major selling point for the Xbox — a monthly fee provides access to a growing selection of games, including blockbusters like Halo Infinite. The PlayStation equivalent could make Game Pass seem less appealing and keep some players from switching platforms.

The PlayStation Network is currently having some issues that are impacting PS3, PS4, PS5, PS Vita and web services. Sony said on a status page that it's working to resolve the issues, but players might "have difficulty launching games, apps or network features" in the meantime. 

The problems are also affecting PlayStation Now (which might inconvenience those who want to stream games at the minute) and all aspects of the PlayStation Store. They started at around 8:30 AM Eastern time.

The issues come in the wake of updates Sony started rolling out for PS4 and PS5 earlier on Wednesday. Some players have noted on Reddit and elsewhere that their console isn't able to verify a PlayStation Plus subscription or connect to online services.

The updates will (at least once the issues are resolved) allow PS4 and PS5 players to create or join Open and Closed parties. Sony has tweaked the UI of trophy cards on PS5 and added more accessibility options, including mono audio for headphones. Those with US- and UK-registered accounts can also test voice commands on PlayStation 5.

Variable refresh rate (VRR) is coming to the PlayStation 5 in the "coming months," Sony announced. If you have an HDMI 2.1-compatible TV or PC monitor, it will dynamically sync the refresh rate of the display to the PS5 console's graphical output, Sony explained in a blog post. The feature is long overdue, as VRR has been available on the Xbox Series X and Series S consoles since they debuted. 

As you're no doubt aware, VRR helps minimize visual artifacts like screen tearing. "Gameplay in many PS5 titles feels smoother as scenes render instantly, graphics look crisper, and input lag is reduced," Sony explained. "Previously released PS5 games can be fully optimized for VRR through a game patch and future games may include VRR support at launch."

Sony

You'll also be able to apply VRR to PS5 games that don't support it, something that "may improve video quality for some games," Sony said. The results may vary depending on the TV and game you're playing, it added.

Sony only recently unlocked VRR on its HDMI 2.1-equipped TVs in the US and Europe. The PS5 offers 4K at 120Hz, but it's arguably not as well implemented as the Xbox Series X/S consoles. 

Sony didn't specify an exact date for the VRR patch, but will share more details as the feature gets closer to release. In the meantime, the latest PS5 release includes a few other new features. That includes the ability to test drive a Voice Command feature that lets you control media playback or find open games, apps and settings; join open or closed parties through the PS App; and enable a dark mode on PS Remote Play. All of those are rolling out later today.

Several Razer peripherals are on sale on Amazon, including the Kishi gaming controller for iOS and Android. The Android version is $50 off at $40. It's best to make sure the "for Android" option is selected — the Xbox-branded variant is also on sale, but it's $55. The iOS model has been discounted as well, but the savings are much more modest. The price has dropped from $100 to $80.

The Razer Kishi is a great option for playing games on the go without having to resort to touch controls or a Bluetooth controller. It works with many games that run natively on your device as well as cloud gaming services like Google Stadia, NVIDIA GeForce Now and Xbox Cloud Gaming. The controller plugs into your phone's USB-C or Lightning port and holds it in place. There's passthrough charging support, so you can keep your device's battery topped up while you play.

Elsewhere, Razer's BlackWidow V3 mechanical keyboard is on sale. At $60, it's $40 off the regular price. The peripheral has Razer's clicky green switches and fully programmable keys, but since it's a tenkeyless model, it doesn't have a number pad at the side.

You can also save on the Razer Viper Ultimate, which is currently $70, almost half off the usual price of $130. The ambidextrous wireless mouse has a battery life of up to 70 hours, low-latency HyperSpeed tech, a 20,000+ DPI optical sensor, Razer's optical switches and eight programmable buttons. We picked it as our favorite gaming mouse for everyday use.

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Nintendo stopped selling DSi and Wii games in 2017 and 2019 respectively, but it has continued to allow users to download games they already own. Now, both stores have gone completely offline with no explanation from the company, Eurogamer has reported. If you try to select the Wii Shop channel, you'll just see a blank white screen and error code — a situation that has persisted for around four days.

When it initially shuttered those stores, Nintendo said that you'd still be able to download purchased games for an unspecified period of time. However, it warned that the servers would eventually be shut down completely, meaning folks wouldn't be able to download or transfer purchased games using the Wii System Transfer Tool.

Nintendo has kept these stores running for a long time (since 2006 in the case of the Wii), but folks would rightfully be upset if Nintendo shut off access with no heads up whatsoever. Many would no doubt have liked at least a few months notice so they could download or transfer their games. The servers do appear to still be up, though, as some folks have found they can use third-party tools like NUSDownloader to access games. 

Sony was recently forced to backtrack on a decision to close the PS3 and Vita stores after a consumer backlash. The situation isn't quite same for Nintendo, but it should probably provide some kind of explanation if the stores don't come back online soon.