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Is the Playstation Vita a Dinosaur Already?

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The title of this post is not my own assessment, but that of George Broussard, co-creator of Duke Nukem who had this to say about Sony's Vita on Twitter:

"PS Vita launch feels like the last dinosaur showing up to a mammal convention."

It's a funny quip, but even more so that it comes from someone who spent over a decade creating Duke Nukem Forever, only to have it arrive feeling exceptionally dated and a perfect fit for the dinosaur analogy he projects onto the Vita.

But irony aside, and overlooking black pots and kettles, does he have a point? Is the Vita a dinosaur in the current video game landscape?

Presumably what Broussard means is that with smartphones becoming the go-to mobile destinations for gaming, an offering like the Vita just seems outdated when people don't want to carry around a phone AND a portable gaming system, even if the capabilities are significantly greater.

The counter argument to this of course is Nintendo's DS and 3DS, which have found huge success despite the rise of smartphones, and it would seem to indicate that there is still room for a games-only mobile device in today's day and age.

But the Vita is not the DS, and it's predecessor, the PSP, was always vastly outsold by Nintendo during its entire lifespan.  The Vita might have a large amount of technology packed into it, and it boasts graphics that are almost at the level of the PS3, but there's something missing. Nintendo can get away with a successful handheld because they have a stable of franchises that customers have been willing to shell out for indefinitely, despite how many times the concepts might be recycled.

The most powerful of these are Mario, Pokemon and Zelda, but they can draw on Kirby, Metroid, Kid Icarus, Donkey Kong and many others if need be. But the Vita? They have Uncharted, and maybe...another God of War at some point? Jak and Daxter? But these are not as widely sought after as Mario or Pokemon games, and as such, the sales numbers can never compare.

I don't blame Sony for giving the mobile scene one last hurrah, but as Nintendo crowds the space and smartphones start using some of the same tech that makes the Vita unique, I just don't know if there's going to be room for it, and it might end up being a dinosaur after all. If the Vita isn't a hit for Sony, I think this will be their last entry into the mobile gaming market for while. Possibly forever. The industry has changed, and it might be too late for them to catch up with pure technological prowess alone if they can't come up with titles that aren't more addicting to the masses than Angry Birds and Cut the Rope.