21 Consoles And Handhelds That Crashed And Burned

News
By David Civera
published

PS Vita (2011)

Specifications

CPU: Quad-core ARM Cortex-A9
RAM: 512 MB
VRAM: 128 MB
GPU: PowerVR SGX543MP4+
Games: PS Vita Card, 4 GB to 32 GB

Consoles sold

Too few for Google to port Android

Year production ended

Soon, we bet (perhaps before Apple Maps is considered accurate?)

Reasons for failure

Alright, so we're trolling a bit. But there's a kernel of truth to our jest. The PS Vita has some serious advantages. But, for the moment, its sales figures are disastrous, totaling 2.2 million units worldwide as of June 30. Meanwhile, the Nintendo 3DS has sold more than 22 million units. These disappointing results call Sony’s economic model into question at a time when games on mobile devices are strongly appealing to mainstream gamers.

David Civera
Responsable actualités. Né aux États-Unis, élevé en France et à Singapour, adopté par les Philippines, et maintenant posé au Canada (pour l'instant), son amour du Monde n'est égalé que par sa passion pour les micro-architectures, les dernières trouvailles des labos ou les jeux sur consoles. Rédacteur Tom's Hardware France (anciennement Présence-PC) depuis 2005.
84 Comments Comment from the forums
  • anxiousinfusion
    Gizmondo (2005) It's probably a typo but what is GoForce 3D 4500? GOForce?
    Reply
  • kryzzay
    Hahha N-Gage that wasn't that bad I think. I knew quite a few people that had one.
    Reply
  • trumpeter1994
    Lol at the Vita, what about the PSPGO?
    Reply
  • suture
    kryzzayHahha N-Gage that wasn't that bad I think. I knew quite a few people that had one.
    True facts, i had one for years, hek i still have it, but the battery's dead.
    My first "smartphone" with serious multitasking.
    I could listen to radio, have msn running, and play worms ONLINE simultaneusly

    Well the drawback, everyone maked fun of me when i was on the phone =D
    Reply
  • I would say the PSVITA is a bit of a troll - comparing the sales of a handheld that is essentially new vs. the 3DS which has been around now for at least 4 or 5 years now - however it seems to be a foregone conclusion that handheld consoles in general are dying and Sony is fighting a losing battle with this one. That said, the PSVITA really is a very, very nice handheld. I was quite impressed with the graphics and speed when I played with one but like most people I doubt I'd actually buy one.
    Reply
  • Nintendo Maniac 64
    I would say the PSVITA is a bit of a troll - comparing the sales of a handheld that is essentially new vs. the 3DS which has been around now for at least 4 or 5 years now
    3DS has only been around for just under 2 years...
    Reply
  • Orion1024
    What...no NUON? That's one of the biggest failures in gaming history (but one of the favorites in my collection). It's not strictly a console, but games were a major selling point. Jaguar was a decent system with some great games that rarely get mentioned, like Rayman or Power Drive Rally. The only real stinker in this list (from what I've owned) is the Game.com. It's OS would crash frequently and the games sucked. However, the final revision of this handheld was smaller and did feature a built-in LED light for the screen...FWIW.
    Reply
  • amuffin
    All those knockoff ones too!
    Reply
  • Hellbound
    Funny thing is I have most of those consoles..lol
    Reply
  • silverblue
    Anybody remember the Barcode Battler or the Watara/Quickshot Supervision? :)
    Reply