Hardware Shuhei Yoshida: You Can Expect Fewer First-Party PS Vita Games

[GameWinner]

I thought this was pretty interesting and wanted to know what everyone else feels about it.

PS3 HD collection ports aside, the PlayStation Vita hasn’t been getting much first-party support from Sony lately, with the majority of their big games arriving in the system’s early months (Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Gravity Rush, WipEout 2048, LittleBigPlanet PS Vita, etc).

During a recent interview between Polygon and Shuhei Yoshida, the Sony Worldwide Studios head mentioned that the company is looking at indies, third-party developers, and Remote Play as the biggest focuses for the PlayStation Vita. When asked if he thinks this means the Vita would be getting fewer first-party games going forward, he replied:

I would say, yes, that’s correct.​

Yoshida then talked about how the indie boom was perfectly timed to provide the PS Vita with games:

It’s very fortunate that the indie boom happened and they are providing lots of great content to Vita. Gameplay… game mechanic wise, people want to spend 10 minutes, 15 minutes getting in and out. On Vita, it’s great with suspended functionality, so these indie games [are] really great for that from a game design standpoint.
Instead of watching big stories or cinematics, you can spend hours on Vita. So, I think that’s actually the biggest star to help provide great content to Vita going forward. And we continue to make cross-platform games, especially on digital side.​

He later added that Remote Play has taken off some of the pressure for them to make more first-party games, but still wouldn’t confirm whether a PS4/PS Vita bundle is coming, just teasing, “Never say never.”

You can also expect Sony will “continue to provide more utility to Vita as a PS4 companion device, as well as PS Now terminal.”

It sucks. I love indie games but I also enjoy first party games Sony brings to their platforms. It also sucks that Sony has made the Vita into a PS4 accessory now after such a mediocre E3 showing (For Vita). I really don't know what to think anymore.

Source

 

[Nathan Drake]

I can't say I'm surprised. This was intended as more of an accessory than really being its own system from the get go from Sony's standpoint. Unfortunately, it sounds almost like they want the Vita to be like a smartphone, and that, I don't like. I sincerely hope they rethink their strategy, or the Vita truly is dead in the water.

 

[BORTZ]

I might be seeing this a little bit differently but because I dont really have a good PC to play many indie games, nor a decent pc controller, having a portable indie console doesnt sound all that bad to me, besides there is plenty to play already.

 

[Arras]

Fewer than none? ;O;

 

[ibis_87]

I can't say I'm surprised. This was intended as more of an accessory than really being its own system from the get go from Sony's standpoint. Unfortunately, it sounds almost like they want the Vita to be like a smartphone, and that, I don't like. I sincerely hope they rethink their strategy, or the Vita truly is dead in the water.

I really doubt it was intended to be like that from the beginning - it all looked like Sony was gearing up for a "PSP vs DS. Round 2" type of battle. But the rapid rise of smartphone/tablet gaming and the 3DS taking much of what was left from the dedicated handheld market have somewhat pushed the Vita out of the ring. Almost. The ironic thing is the usual stance of Nintendo (we are basically on our own with our systems and every system is our last stand until the next one comes out) has paid off - the huge pile of their first party titles makes the 3DS stand out and gives it a chance against multimedia-capable smartphones/tablets with waaay more impressive hardware.

I can't say I don't understand the stance of Sony, it's very logical - but hell, I feel cheated. I can play indies on virtually everything (two smartphones, a Windows 8 tablet, a PC, the Macbook Air), and I bought my Vita because it was promoted as a handheld for AAA-titles that would never make it to the 3DS. The start was very good, the later AAAs (Killzone, Tearaway) were good...

With the rest, I fully agree.

 

[ViRGE]

I can't say I don't understand the stance of Sony, it's very logical - but hell, I feel cheated. I can play indies on virtually everything (two smartphones, a Windows 8 tablet, a PC, the Macbook Air), and I bought my Vita because it was promoted as a handheld for AAA-titles that would never make it to the 3DS. The start was very good, the later AAAs (Killzone, Tearaway) were good...

I can't say I disagree either. Which doesn't mean I like the outcome, but I can appreciate Sony's situation. The Vita has failed in the west; the major 3rd party western publishers have given up on it, and lifetime unit sales are not where they need to be 2+ years in to support the kind of software ecosystem that the console needs.

Sony could continue producing first-party games for the west, and that would certainly move more units, but it would be at best a break-even proposition. It's highly unlikely anything they could come up with would move enough consoles to justify the risk and the development costs. And of course they can't rely on third parties for anything.

Discontinuing expensive first party support is the most logical move. There's still money to be made (or made back as the case may be), but that can only happen if Sony limits further investments to "cheap" projects: remote play, indies, and porting over popular Japanese games.

Which brings up the other point: the Vita is a failure in the west, but it's holding on for survival in Japan. It's still badly outsold by the 3DS there, but the situation isn't nearly as dire as it is in the west. Sony will at least for the time being continue to produce first party games for Japan and otherwise maintain status quo as an active, competitive console. So we'll probably see a first party Sony game or two (such as Gravity Rush 2) brought over, but that's it. It will be like the Vita 2000: so long as the console survives over there, Sony will bring things over to the west in a delayed fashion to minimize risk and take advantage of mass production.

Ultimately I have to wonder how Borderlands 2 fits into all of this. The naive assumption is that Borderlands 2 was the console's last great hope in the west and killed it by failing to deliver, but in retrospect I don't think that was the case. The Vita died after Christmas of 2013, after which point Borderlands 2 ceased to matter. Sony did move a number of copies of BL2, but that was almost entirely due to the VIta 2000 bundle and the fact that they continued to sell the Vita 1000 here well after the Vita 2000's Japanese launch to draw down the rest of the 1000 inventory. Furthermore the current retail situation and lack of inventory would seem to indicate that demand is actually on projection, but Sony is purposely no longer keeping the Vita well stocked in retail channels. They're operating on a very thin inventory in anticipation of low sales. BL2, by extension, is just Sony completing a development project. It couldn't save the Vita any more than it could kill it.

It's still a shame though. It wasn't the perfect console, but there were so many things it did better than the 3DS...

 

[Mariko]

Excuse my French, but fuck Sony's approach, and fuck the indies. Indie market is over-saturated, and to be hones, I've had just about enough of "innovative" bullshit games. I want big, proper titles, and this applies to every console out there, especially the handhelds. I'm disappointed with the 3DS as well, because as a long time gamer I can't be anything but. Take away all of the virtual console stuff and titles no one in their right mind would play, because they suck so, so bad, and you're left with precious few first party games with Mario in the title and not much else.

Vita is even worse off, because after Tearaway and Killzone, I see no big releases on the horizon, and now Sony basically says there won't be any. Vita isn't doing so well? Hey, guess what, maybe it's precisely because you've given up on it. It's chicken and egg situation, basically. No games, no popularity. No popularity, no reason to make games. Still, if Sony wanted to, they could just throw some money at the console and make it relevant, but why? You can just let the fucking indies do the job for you, and fifty useless bullshit games will make Sony the same amount of money a first party title would, with no money spent.

And by the way, what happened to demos? No matter what eShop or PS Store you visit, there are no fucking demos. Wii U is simply pathetic. Remember the time when official magazines had demo discs and we got new playable demos monthly? Now, with digital distribution, it's easier than ever to release demos, but we don't fucking get any. PS Vita got a bunch, but they're all spread across regions. Japan got demos for titles which were released everywhere, but Europe didn't get any. Shinobido could be one example.

Anyway, I haven't been impressed with anything lately. It's all going down the drain. I've had enough of indies and enough of consoles with no games. I miss the Dreamcast days, when games were properly entertaining and more arcade styled. I can't stomach jRPGs these days, because they're so pathetically juvenile. Thus, I feel I have no games to look forward to, at least on the handhelds. End of rant.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

Indie devs in general are pretty terrible. For every good indie game there's about ten terrible ones. Not to mention this bullshit like Kickstarter and Early Access makes spastic indie devs be able to run free with your money, which is the most unwise decision to do. They start a project with no due dates, just "work on it whenever" and when they "lose passion" for it they just stop development and bugger off. Like corporate video game design is certainly not perfect but at least they have time tables and goals to meet.

I've got my Terraria on the Vita so I'm happy, if they get Transistor on there too I'll be set. But I definitely want bigger titles for the Vita, because some of the big titles for it are really amazing and it's sad to see this great piece of tech used for generic 8-bit pixel art style games.

I know they're moving the Vita to be a "PS4 accessory" now instead of a standalone handheld with is pretty awful but I've had my fun with the system and it'll still live on as a PS4 accessory in the future for me.

 

[yuyuyup]

Unfortunate timing for that front page article

 

[Foxi4]

Fewer doesn't mean none at all, and even if we won't see a whole lot of them, I don't mind. There's still a lot of third-party developers releasing the games on the system - The Walking Dead Season 2 is going strong, the new Dynasty Warriors game was released recently, Borderlands 2 was just released and Freedom Wars and Natural Doctrine are coming up soon, I'm not worried about not having any PSVita content to invest in.

 

[Mariko]

The Walking Dead Season 2 is going strong, the new Dynasty Warriors game was released recently, Borderlands 2 was just released and Freedom Wars and Natural Doctrine are coming up soon, I'm not worried about not having any PSVita content to invest in.

How about those of us who have already played Borderlands 2, and it wasn't in 12 FPS, either? The Walking Dead is not an exclusive title, and in my opinion it plays better on a bigger screen. Natural Doctrine does not interest me at all, so out of the titles you named, only Freedom Wars would qualify as something I could be interested in. That's not too impressive. It's a real shame that such a strong handheld is wasted on mostly GP2X quality games. I expected more from the Vita.

This is not to say I haven't had my fun with the console, but I wish there was more. I'm not at all impressed with all of the visual novels Japan spews out, and for the reason stated in my previous post, I'm no longer a fan of jRPGs, either. And to think that Japan was once a savior of sorts, with countless quirky and import friendly titles. Not any more. Unless you like flipping through miles of dialogue in the borderline retarded visual novels.

 

[ibis_87]

What I don't really understand, is the Remote Play thing. I like the idea - I have the PS4, and it would be nice to play those titles on the Vita since being a 26-years-old gamer I don't always have all the time I want for games on the big screen at home. I also have a lot of BTs, and playing PS4 games in a hotel or on board a plane or a train would be cool. I commute a lot - again, very good for teh PS4 gaemz. But you need the Internet connection, and it f*cks all up. There's no proper connection in the Moscow Metro - there's Wi-Fi on certain lines, but the speed is not sufficient, and with everyone and his brother owning a smartphone or a tablet nowadays it can be a pain in the arse to even connect. 3G or 4G doesn't work underground. The same with planes or trains. Hotel Wi-Fi connections are shite in all the countries I have been to. I've been to Japan several times, and I doubt the idea lives up to the initial plan even there. If Sony could somehow make it offline-playable, like, with preloading encrypted files to the memory card of the Vita, that would make the whole Remote Play thing much more appealing. In that case I would even invest in a larger memory card.

 

[ViRGE]

Fewer doesn't mean none at all, and even if we won't see a whole lot of them,

It's technically not none at all because SCEI (Japan) is still making games. However by the standard most people are using - western developers - Sony's first party western developers are not working on any new Vita games as far as anyone knows. At this point it's a tossup whether we'll even see MLB15; or if we do, whether it's anything more than a roster + skin update.

 

[Foxi4]

That's entirely correct, but not terribly surprising considering the facts that the PSVita isn't selling too well in the west, Sony's a Japanese company and they have the PS4 to worry about right now as well. I don't think they'll pull the plug on the PSVita, it was too big of an investment, but they do have to spread their efforts thin to keep up with both platforms at the same time. I think we'll definitely see more of a push in terms of remote play and perhaps more cross-buys as well as more Japanese-themed games, since that's where the system is doing the best - if the situation in the west improves, we'll see how that impacts their schedule.

 

[Mira]

That's entirely correct, but not terribly surprising considering the facts that the PSVita isn't selling too well in the west, Sony's a Japanese company and they have the PS4 to worry about right now as well. I don't think they'll pull the plug on the PSVita, it was too big of an investment, but they do have to spread their efforts thin to keep up with both platforms at the same time. I think we'll definitely see more of a push in terms of remote play and perhaps more cross-buys as well as more Japanese-themed games, since that's where the system is doing the best - if the situation in the west improves, we'll see how that impacts their schedule.

do you really believe that is gonna improve?
well theorycally speaking is simple,it may improve with two things (or three if you take hacking into account):
just one real worldwide AAA+ killer(don't start naming,because some of them are porting and the exclusive are lacking to be called aaa+) or further price cut
we know that the latter is not gonna happen and it's gonna take a miracle right now for kojima to release peace walker 2 or square anix to release a brand new exclusive ff

 

[Foxi4]

do you really believe that is gonna improve?
well theorycally speaking is simple,it may improve with two things (or three if you take hacking into account):
just one real worldwide AAA+ killer(don't start naming,because some of them are porting and the exclusive are lacking to be called aaa+) or further price cut
we know that the latter is not gonna happen and it's gonna take a miracle right now for kojima to release peace walker 2 or square anix to release a brand new exclusive ff

The system was on the market for two years, I don't think it's the time to pound the alarm when its predecessor lived happily for almost ten years.

 

[Gaming4Ever]

I seriously doubt the Vita will last 5 years let alone 10 years.....the PSP had a robust and varied library which still has new releases coming up i believe


So much wasted potential here folks lets not fool ourselves

 

[WiiCube_2013]

It sucks. I love indie games but I also enjoy first party games Sony brings to their platforms. It also sucks that Sony has made the Vita into a PS4 accessory now after such a mediocre E3 showing (For Vita). I really don't know what to think anymore.

Source

It's the best decision they made for it and anyone could've guessed Vita's place is as PS4's GamePad nothing else.

 

[ibis_87]

Well,

It's technically not none at all because SCEI (Japan) is still making games. However by the standard most people are using - western developers - Sony's first party western developers are not working on any new Vita games as far as anyone knows. At this point it's a tossup whether we'll even see MLB15; or if we do, whether it's anything more than a roster + skin update.

Well, on the bright side of things, you might be right. If we could at least get timely localizations of Japanese AAAs, that would be nice.

 

[Hells Malice]

I've never been big on Sony's titles anyway. Hell if I had to name some, I couldn't think of any. Hopefully we'll see Gravity Rush 2. Anything else I really don't care about. Sony titles are meh.