Ok this is something I've been meaning to bring up for the longest time.
Yes, Yes, without a doubt, god dang it yes.
Pretty much KILLED all chances of the Vita in the west (For now. We might see a good GTA to drive some sales)
The franchise whole? No.
The problem is that people are going to be like, "Oh that 1 handheld CoD game sucked ass. CoD only good on consoles hurr derr."
If the CoD was actually fantastic, then Vita would've held a firm placement for the destination of quality handheld shooters.
But since Resistance and CoD were bad......Killzone Mercenaries will have to wipe that image, but the damage is already done and Killzone ain't no CoD game.
My point is, CoD was supposed to be that 1 game to give the system the "mainstream exposure" it needs. Like how everyone can always expect a good Pokemon.
Overall the strategy of focusing on the Western Market was risky at best, considering that Japan is the one eating up handhelds these days, and not many western devs develop games for handhelds.
But since CoD:Vita was terrible? Who's gonna develop for the system in the west expect for Sony 1st party? The Japanese games alone could carry the 3DS over in the west because of the universal mainstream appeal of Mario and Pokemon.
Monster Hunter had JP appeal at best and couldn't carry the system in the west, and Sony knew that, tried to release good western games to the Vita in order to counter that.
However? In the process they lost Monster Hunter and CoD wasn't the system seller they were hoping for.
Overall, it was a good strategy, HORRiBLE execution. Everything that could've gone wrong did.