The President and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, Jim Ryan, spoke about the company's stance on handhelds recently. The topic came up in an interview with Game Informer on PlayStation's 25 years of business and status as the best-selling console brand of all time.
While looking back on the many years of PlayStation, Ryan stated that while he believed the PlayStation Vita was a "brilliant" console, it's clear that Sony has no interest in the portable scene anymore. As such, Sony does not plan to make a sequel console to the PS Vita or create any other handhelds in the future.
Jim's words echo that of Jack Tretton's, the former CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America. After Tretton departed from Sony, he spoke on the company's position with handhelds, and like Ryan, he stated that he thought the PS Vita was great, but the world just preferred to play mobile games on non-dedicated machines (smartphones, tablets, etc.). This seems to be a sentiment that most of the higherups across Sony's gaming brand share. Back in September of 2015, Shuhei Yoshida, the President of SCE Worldwide Studios at the time, claimed that PlayStation fans probably wouldn't see a successor to the PS Vita. He said that the market just wasn't suited for the release of another PlayStation Portable because of mobile gaming's dominance.
However, John Kodera, the president of Sony Interactive Entertainment before Jim, disagrees with the others. John believes that PlayStation should continue to experiment with handheld consoles. Instead of blaming the market, Kodera thinks that Sony should tackle portable gaming with a mindset that sees portable and home consoles as the same thing and that Sony should work to see what its customers want from a mobile device. John's methodology sounds similar to what Nintendo did with the Nintendo Switch, a console that's not only considered a fantastic home system but is arguably the greatest portable gaming device of all time.
Regardless of these opinions, Sony doesn't have plans to continue the PS Vita line or to create any other handhelds in the near future. Sony may change its mind later down the line, but it doesn't seem likely. It's even significantly dropped the price of PS Vita games on the heels of this news. From the looks of things then, the company will pour most, if not all, of its attention on the development of the PS5 (something nearly all of its fans have no complaints about).
The PlayStation 5 releases holiday 2020.
Source: IGN