Vita goes code red in America

With quoted NPD sales for March in the States of just 10,000 units, the Vita is in a death spiral over there, and probably in Europe, that not even the finest indie efforts and all the Japanese conversions in the world will help with.

While Sony might tout its Borderlands bundle as the future, that's a lot of weight on a years-old game. Which is put into even starker relief with this talk about Sony trying to partner with Respawn for a Vita version of Titanfall.

So, what next for the Vita, given it is supposed to get an April rebound from FFX, then another in May from Borderlands. We can line up the usual suspects:

• Another price cut - yet look on Amazon and the console is pretty damn cheap
• Cheaper memory cards - mainly a concern to current owners
• More big games - takes time and who would develop for a console no-one is buying?
• Marketing - Sony has lots of neat multi-game bundles (In Europe anyway) but you never hear about them

With the PS4 rampant, 7 million and accelerating, developers will focus on that big number no matter how much cash Sony offers (and Sony has precious little of that), how about thinking outside the little blue box:

Adam Boyes' old-game-for-PlayStation project floated about last year could incubate a hit or two (Shenmue still carries weight), but there's enough nostalgia through the indie movement to leave it as a curio, especially as all these rereleases will hit the rampant PS4 too. 

Sony develops a "hero" game. Throws everything into a western-focused Vita super hit, the same way Freedom Wars has a multi-development team. Reinvent the Syphon Filter series for today's tastes and see what comes out? 

I also wonder where a lot of the PSP hits have gone, where's LocoRoco and Patapon? Games that gave the portable distinctive titles (although I guess that was before the mobile horde). I'm sure Sony would welcome your thoughts too, since despite all its efforts, they're not having any impact.