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One ex-Sony boss has admitted the excellent PS Vita was a "great" console, but just arrived "too late".
The PS Vita was revered by critics as a powerful handheld with great potential, but was held back by a lack of software, expensive entry point and the mobile gaming's sudden surge in popularity.
Speaking during the latest episode of IGN Unfiltered, Jack Tretton – the former CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America – revealed his thoughts, in hindsight, of the PS Vita.
"Now that I don't work there anymore, I think internally it was: 'This is a great machine, it's just too late'," admitted Tretton. "The world has shifted to portable devices that aren't dedicated gaming machines."
It was the PlayStation Portable – aka the PSP – that really stole the show when it came to PlayStation handheld consoles.
It did the job of offering a console-like experience on a handheld and was also surprisingly popular with older gamers.
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The PS Vita however may have done the same, but was ruined by timing.
Tretton went on to call the PS Vita a "nice machine" that unfortunately launched "at a time when very few people needed a dedicated portable device".
Despite the PS Vita's shortcomings, Nintendo has seen incredible success with the 3DS family – with Pokémon Go even boosting sales by over 200% for 2DS and 3DS XL consoles.
