End of the line

Sony hasn’t washed its hands of the PlayStation Vita by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s clear from its messaging coming out of E3 2014 that the company’s approach has changed. While it originally tried to brute force the device into homes with blockbusters such as Uncharted: Golden Abyss and WipEout 2048, it’s since taken a more light approach with titles like Destiny of Spirits and No Heroes Allowed: No Puzzles Either.

Speaking with Polygon, Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida seemed keen to set expectations at the right level, pointing out that there will be fewer first-party releases moving forwards. However, the affable executive doesn’t see this as a particularly bad thing, as it looks towards indie titles and third-party publishers like NIS America to plug the gap, as it turns its attention to the more popular PlayStation 4.

“When we launched PlayStation Portable titles, a big talking point was PlayStation 2 quality games in your hands," Yoshida explained. "It was an amazing experience to play PS2 quality like Twisted Metal on your portable device. But as time went on and the PlayStation 3 launched and people started to see next-gen games, that PS2 quality was not enough. People's expectations for the quality just moved on.” The suit stressed that the same thing is happening now to the Vita.

“It's very fortunate that the indie boom happened, and they are providing lots of great content to the Vita,” he continued. “Gameplay, game mechanic wise, people want to spend 10 minutes, 15 minutes getting in and out. On the Vita, it's great with suspended functionality, so these indie games are really great for that from a game design standpoint. So, I think that's actually the biggest star to help provide great content to the Vita going forward.”

Yoshida stressed that the company’s still going to continue to support the system with plenty of digital releases like Entwined and Fat Princess: Piece of Cake. And, of course, there are still bigger titles such as Freedom Wars and Oreshika: Tainted Bloodlines on the way. Will these, along with the slew of cross-buy indie games, be enough to hold your attention in the future, though? Discredit smaller studios in the comments section below.

[source polygon.com]