Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida recently declared in an interview that the platform holder’s not planning to make many more big first-party PlayStation Vita titles, and SCEE boss Jim Ryan has since elaborated on that point in a fierce interview with Metro GameCentral.
“Are you going to see huge, mega budget Vita games that we have developed and we publish?” he pondered. “I think that that’s unlikely. That said, does the Vita play an increasingly important role in our overall ecosystem... the old vertical silos where nothing ever talked to each other, that’s all breaking down now.”
Indeed, the affable executive leaned upon the likes of Remote Play as a sign of its ongoing support for the system. “The statistics are really surprising in terms of the number of people who use the Remote Play functionality and the extent to which they use it,” he added. “It’s not like they use it once and then they say, ‘Ok, that’s great’ and then they put the Vita back in the drawer.”
Ryan concluded that online streaming service PlayStation Now will be supported on the handheld, too, potentially expanding its game library into the thousands. “In the sense that the system was initially intended – having huge, portable, exclusively-designed portable games – is that it’s future? Probably not. But does it have a future? Yes.”
Is that an outlook that satisfies you, though? The platform holder promises that smaller titles such as Entwined are still on the way, so the well of content is not suddenly going to dry up. Alas, with the manufacturer’s focus increasingly turning to Remote Play and PlayStation Now, things aren't looking great for native Vita experiences, are they?
[source metro.co.uk]
Comments 50
Facepalm.... Well, glad i like JrPG otherwise it would be dead to me. Sony is an idiot with handhelds. Look at Nintendo Sony! It annoys me even the higher ups tell us we don't get a second tear away.
Good job I have a backlog!
Huh the words remote play and PS now are the worst things to happen to the Vita it allows Sony to be rather lazy with the device.
@get2sammyb same here plus it is great for remote play when my daughter is watching kids tv lol
That interview was certainly different. 4Theplayers or Greatness awaits (more like denied) can't be applied to PS Vita.
@Jazzer94 Just like i said and an analyst was spot on in regards to this.
@get2sammyb Yeah I've got at least got around 10 more games I want to get so thats a positive.
@Jazzer94 Yeah, I actually agree with you. I get that it probably doesn't make sense for them to make multi million dollar games for it anymore — and I appreciate they're being honest saying that — but Remote Play and PlayStation Now are not alternatives. Focus on the cool indie stuff or the niche Japanese stuff if you have to, but I don't like this overemphasis on features that are distinctly anti-portable.
@get2sammyb I see where they're going with this but honestly I'm starting to get the sense that PS TV will be taking a much larger focus then Vita as that seems to fit more inline with PS Now and remote play.
Thank god theres a batch of JRPG's on the way then :/ after those. Hopefully more will be announced, they were the main reason i played my psp constantly.
Just wish square hadnt shunned the vita with Type 0
@get2sammyb "I get that it probably doesn't make sense for them to make multi million dollar games for it anymore — and I appreciate they're being honest saying that — but Remote Play and PlayStation Now are not alternatives. Focus on the cool indie stuff or the niche Japanese stuff if you have to, but I don't like this overemphasis on features that are distinctly anti-portable."
Spot on Sammy. My thoughts exactly...
This really disappoints me, I bought a Vita day one and its now essentially an indie and youtube player. I'd love some great new games but that seems to been fading by the day.
Sony Sony Sony , for the love of god please Shut the **** Up with these interviews you've been given lately they're talking like the Vita has absolutely no games coming for itThis is really start become annoying i mean seriously this is something gamers dont wants to hear.if there wasn't any good games coming to the Vita i would probably sold mine along time ago but there are .
@SuperSilverback Why would third parties care if the platform holder can't be arsed? It makes perfect business sense to go where the money is, which by the time Square Enix gets there is pointless.
@Mattym92
I was an early adopter of the system as well and so were several others here. Unfortunately the system just didn't sell to the masses.
I understand not wanting to make their Big budget,graphics whore games for Vita when they can be done much better on PS4.And to quit wasting resources trying to make inferior Vita ports of console games.
But Sony( and all the large game studios really) need to learn how to make "small" games as well.Right now they are all mostly leaving this space to Indie Devs but I see no reason why Sony can't have their own smaller,lower budget teams pumping out quality Indie style games.
I mean if they could put the resources they normally put into making a big budget game into three smaller games that don't require the best hardware,are still fun, are (probably)cheaper and faster to make and would fit well on Vita then everybody wins.
@Sanquine Well Nintendo has a few big first party titles, true, but besides that 3rd party support is mostly dead also. I think generally the times of the handhelds are unfortunately over. I'm not too much into J-anything gameplay wise, so for me it's probably more bitter than for you.
I think we should stop buying ps4,ps3 and and petition saying we want vita games...hurt them in their wallet and they will listen
Sounds to me like Gravity Rush 2 will be a PS4 game after all.
To tell you the truth I never played any AAA game on Vita. Uncharted was close, but it still felt like it wasn't real AAA. Killzone: Mercenary looked like expansion to Killzone 3. I mean, did they ever make any AAA game for Vita, anyway? No, all games on Vita are A at most.
Vita is great thing, but Sony is very stupid about what to do with software. Their biggest mistake was attempt to make Vita western oriented handheld, if you ask me. There is still no good TRPG on Vita... OMG.... except that Doctrine thing.
@ohhaime I agree
I don't understand the confusion regarding the Vita's failure. It's simple.
Look at the games Sony's gaming demographic buys, do they translate well onto a less powerful, small portable? No.
What's difficult to understand about that?
@eLarkos the only thing hard to understand about that is WHY.
I bought a ps2 for mgs2, ps3 for mgs4, and so I got a Vita anticipating sequels to MH, MGS:PW, Battlefront, GT, GTA, etc. and I'm gonna be waiting forever, apparently. GG, universe!
@charlesnarles Yea a difference with the PSP though is that it had only the DS as competition. No iphones etc. So what that meant is that everyone (kid) wanting to play games while waiting for their mum to get her hair cut or away on vacation would need a PSP (or DS). Now all those people (kids) just use an iPhone to get their fix. That means the only people that are left for Sony to target are their core gamers. If PS4 game sales are a measure to go by, their core gamers want big screen, increasingly pretty, cinematic experiences. No third party (or first party!) is going to put money into making a GTA for Vita when there is hardly anyone to buy it.
Obviously im generalising but this is business.
That is very sad to hear, and again makes me glad that I did not pick up a Vita.
And a bit ironic that they are letting the Vita (life in latin) die, and let indies do the hard work. The powerful portable becomes a PS4 peripheral.
Tbh people could as well say indies and small games are sh*t because I think Vita might be the best platfom for them. Besides Ill probably never have time/money to play all the games available already and would never give £40 for big budget game on Vita I keep most of my game budget for PS4. Too bad for people who think Vita is dead
Well Sony should definitely still make first party games, but with smaller budgets! Don't go spending 30-50 million, spend 5-20 million! AA game budgets yo! Nintendo does it all of the time!
Wise up Sony!
And just like that Sony has killed the Vita. They might as well bundle it with the PS4 now if that is their main focus with it now. I mean who is honestly going to buy a Vita now by itself?
Maybe they should change the name to death in Latin now.
@SecondServing well thats what they do with games like Entwined from new pixelopus studio for example as said in the article I believe
@Tasuki Mori xD Bad console name xD
Well that's depressing, but if that means more games like Tearaway will get green lit, I'm all for it. Doubt it though.
Dear Sony,
Stop with the Remote Play and PlayStation Now BS. I like to have my cherries with my cake, not just the effing cherries.
Losing love,
A disgruntled Vita owner.
I'm still loving it. I use my vita to play indies anyway and i have a huge backlog so i'll be good for a long time to come. I'm probably one of the few people who didnt buy the Vita to play AAA games. I prefer to play the big budget games on my PS4. I bought the vita for the indie games and the games i can spend a few minutes here and there playing.
Remote play and PS Now support is unsatisfactory. When the platform released, I did not buy a Vita so I could stream games through a subscription service, nor did I buy a Vita so I could stream games from a second platform.
It's like selling you a blue ray player then telling you no more blu rays will be made for it, but hey don't worry- it will still be able to play mp3s!
Granted, games will still be made for Vita but you guys get the point- you shouldn't release a separate platform if you're not willing to give it your full attention and support for the entirety of the generation. Even if it isn't panning out financially. Otherwise you lose the consumer's trust. Now everyone who bought a Vita will be apprehensive about buying the next Sony handheld for fear of them prematurely dropping support. In my opinion, that lost trust is far more damaging than any foreseeable losses from continuing to support the platform another 3 years
@JaxonH I really doubt Sony will make portables after the Vita, so if they lose trust, it won't really affect them.
Still, this really disappoints me. I'd be fine if Sony only made smaller-scale games, like Patapon, LocoRoco, and the like. But they seem reluctant to do even that.
I hope at the very least that they can get more support from the bigger iOS games, like the GTA 3 Trilogy, Max Payne, Horn, Infinity Blade, and the like. Playing those with buttons (barring the last one) would be great.
@moomoo
Thing is, I own all 5 platforms so I'm not really desperate for games. I buy all the consoles so I can cherry pick the best the industry has to offer. If Vita support is relegated to the likes of iOS ports, it's just gonna end up sitting on it's charge base the rest of this generation. I pretty much bought it just so I could score those excellent exclusives that all platforms seem to get (some more than others, but still). With those subtracted from the equation, there's really nothing left on the menu of interest to me.
I've never seen Sony make such stupid assumptions. Who would buy a Vita just for Now or Remote Play? That makes no sense. Sure, that may persuade a few people, but those people are nuts and probably horrible with money. They are not representative of all potential buyers. The system needs actual games that can be kept and taken out of the house, games that are saved on the Vita. Cloud services cannot be relied on unless the device has internet access everywhere, which virtually all Vitas don't. If triple-a games are too expensive then the Vita ought to just keep relying on indies and brave 3rd parties like it does now.
@JaxonH - So all winter when I was down in the dumps about my Wii U purchase due to lack of games and I didnt want to own another Dreamcast, and you kept telling me not to worry about it b/c Nintendo would make games for it for years. Well after E3 I know what you meant, and I'd like to return the favor, but unfortunately I got nuthin.
So we get no new games out of Sony's studios, since they're all busy jerking the PS4 owners, so you throw the system to the indies and the third party people? I love those guys, but c'mon, throw some ****ing effort into it. At least complete the PSone and PSP back catalog in all the regions, since these games work on both Vita and TV without any fiddling, even the ones that were never on PSP's digital library. FOLLOW THROUGH ON YOUR PROMISES.
Kinda saw it coming. Sad it ended like this, but at least the PS TV might bring some games to this. At least there's lots of indie games & JRPGs, and it makes me kinda glad I didn't get one of these.
@tonyp1987 that will just never happen. Not everyone cares about the vita, I would say a large majority are happy to use the vita for remote play and only care about the games for their ps4/ps3
To be honest, I brought my vita for that very purpose and haven't really been bothered about actual vita games
@ObviouslyAdachi I don't agree with you. I purchased my vita for remote play, I have kids so it's great when they want the tv. Horrible with money? Huge assumption. If that was the case I would be buying an 80" tv to play my ps4 on not a vita for remote play. So I'm sorry, but your statement actually makes no sense
@JaxonH I understand exactly what you mean even though we brought vitas for different reasons. Sony are still shedding money and some belts are being tightened and it looks like the portable market is one avenue being downsized. I really don't think sony will bother with portable again, they will just move it to mobile
Just give me XI on the Vita and I'd be set for a few years.
@sinalefa The Vita is still awesome tho.
@rjejr
Hahaha... no worries bud. It is what it is. Life goes on.
Ok, now I'm feeling mixed emotions.
I just found out that an update has gone live for Borderlands 2 (Vita) addressing the rear touchpad issue (the fact the ENTIRE touchpad registers as an action). This was the number one reason I stopped playing the game, and I was pretty sour about it too.
Well, apparently they have added in the ability to use a slider for the rear touchpad, so that you can "slide" the edge of the contact window inwards, so as to allow your fingers to rest on the touchpad without triggering a button command.
This is so bittersweet. I see games finally being perfected on Vita, and right at the time they decide to stop making them. At least I can go enjoy my Borderlands 2 in peace now.
PlayStation Mortem.
I don't like this Vita news keep hurting me, AAA games were the best on Vita many people were waited games like GTA v, more need for speeds and others. Indie games are for child but i will wait for new Pc handheld called Steamboy,if i love its graphics i will buy it not this sony
......and the Vita takes another shotgun blast to the face. Sony blew it with the Vita. Absolutely mind boggling how bad they have screwed up what is a great piece of hardware.
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