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PSP2, Switch 2 and an Xbox handheld... a brighter portable future?

Blue Reflection and Musou Stars show the torch passing from Vita to PS4

The tipping points continue to keel over for the Vita, with two games on Sony's big console easily outstripping the handheld.

Crossover whack-a-moler Musou Stars on PS4 hits the No. 2 spot for Tecmo with 40,000 sales, while the Vita version can only manage No. 6 and 17,800. This was pretty much expected, given the shinier and faster console version. Both are way behind Monster Hunter XX on 3DS, which sells another 125K despite horrible user reviews.

A similar battle is between Blue Reflection which is at No. 3 for PS4 with 35K sales and only No. 8 on the Vita with close to 14K sales. That, in the past, would have been closer, or see the Vita winning, so Gust may be wondering how long the portable is worth supporting. At best, it (or publisher Tecmo) just reduces the production run and relies more on digital sales, but that won't help the Vita's visibility in the chart.

Anime-based Death or Kiss is the third Vita title in the Media Create top 10, picking up just under 12K sales, double the PS4 version's, showing where the Vita's strength now lies. While Chaos Child Love Chu Chu creeps into the top 20 with 6K sales.

None of which can help the Vita hardware, it manages just a few hundred more sales on last week, creeping up to 7,780. With no big games on the horizon, except the new Digimon and maybe God Eater, we're really in the territory of praying the major developers stay interested, and relying on niche publishers to keep the bandwagon rolling.

Switch continues to sell well, doing another 45K, with Vita very much clinging onto the coattails of the big three, at 6.5% of hardware sales. Hopefully, Sony will be happy with a flat line year bringing another 600K sales, plus whatever seasonal boosts it can get. But, if whatever is left of the 5 million strong Japanese user base doesn't show up for launches, even that won't save it next year.

Gaming releases go quiet for a couple of weeks now, Dungeon Traveler 2-2 pops out in a fortnight, with Akiba's Beat and Gun Gun Pixies at the end of the month.

Currently playing on my Vita/PS4/PS5