Sony Surprised by Developers' Lack of Interest in The Vita

[The Wooster]

Sony Surprised by Developers' Lack of Interest in The Vita

Sony's Worldwide Studios president thinks the Vita will succeed when the company "defines what [it] is."

The PlayStation Vita is stuck in a vicious cycle: Critics are pinning the handheld's abysmal sales performance on its high price and limited selection of games. At the same time, developers are hesitant to invest time and effort into developing games for a platform with such a small install base. Historically, Sony has had no problem attracting third party developers to its platforms, and Sony Worldwide Studios president, Shuhei Yoshida, recently admitted he's surprised by the lack of developer interest in the handheld.

"One thing that was surprising and disappointing to us was the [lower] number of third parties to come out [in support] after launch," he told Gamasutra. "In retrospect, there are so many options for publishers now that we cannot take it for granted that our new platform would be supported by third parties, like [it would've been] many years ago."

Though Sony made a big push to get developers to commit to Vita projects prior to its 2011 launch, few showed an interest in the handheld. The meteoric rise of mobile game platforms, which are often cheaper and more lucrative for developers, is also pulling Studios away from traditional handhelds.

"There are limited resources that third party publishers have, and they have to diversify into new areas constantly; that's a challenge to get the support that we want," added Yoshida.

The problem, according to Yoshida, is that Sony isn't sure what the handheld "is." Sony has focused on the Vita as a mobile device which offers a home console experience, but that line clashes with the company's attempts to dissuade developers from knocking out PS3/PS2 ports. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/119547-Sony-Admits-the-PSP-Was-Overrun-With-Ports]

"As we can expand our install base and articulate what works really well on the platform as compared to others, it will get easier for us to be able get support from third parties," he added.

Source: Gamasutra [http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/178437/PlayStation_Vitas_biggest_challenge_Convincing_developers.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GamasutraNews+%28Gamasutra+News%29#.UGjcplGZ5jd]

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[mysecondlife]

I guess this is just another chicken and egg thing.

Developers don't want to make games on a console that has low install base.

Consumers don't want to spend on console with low number of games.

 

[ThePS1Fan]

I guess this is just another chicken and egg thing.

Developers don't want to make games on a console that has low install base.

Consumers don't want to spend on console with low number of games.

Sony's got quite the catch-22 on their hands.

 

[ArchAngelKira]

Strike 1SP
Strike 2S vita

I still like the PSP. It sells like hotcakes in japan while here it doesn't do as well. Maybe sony should ask "what games would people like on the PSP" rather then make a whole new hand held altogether.

 

[drkchmst]

If 3rd party devs arent jumping you need to get software out there yourself and sell the crap out of the vita. Get more innovative games that show off what the vita can do like gravity rush did. Right now most of what it does is the same thing the psp does. Must set it apart and figure out how to best sell it. Obviously playing console games on a portable wasnt the right sales route.

 

[VanQ]

Well, there are quite a few nice looking titles coming up for the Vita that were announced at TGS. Hopefully, they convince a few more people to invest in the Vita. This happens with all of Sony's consoles, people complain about "no gaems" for the first year or two then suddenly people realize it bloody does have games and act like they never complained in the first place. Happened with PS3 and PSP too. It's especially sad to hear the words come from another Sony representative, they should show a bit more faith in their product and maybe then more developers will jump on board.

As nice as a price cut would be, I think people are dreaming if they think that would be at all likely in the short term. Sony is already selling the Vita at a loss so it's just not gonna happen soon. Unless they released a completely gutted version of it and that would make the current owners quite mad. I think that rather than making the Vita cheaper, they should make it easier and cheaper to develop on so publishers may be more likely to take a look at it.

But seriously, it's not like the Vita has absolutely no games. I own 12 Vita titles physical plus several dozen downloaded PSP and PS1 classics. The future also looks promising with a very strong lineup for the english front with games like P4G, New Little King's Story, Jet Set Radio HD, Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD, that new CoD game, Assassin's Creed, Ratchet and Clank, Sly Cooper, ZoE, Tearaway, Soul Sacrifice, Ragnarok Odyssey... I could actually go on for ages, that's impressive for a less than one year old handheld and that's only a few of the confirmed English language titles to come out.

I really hope to see people's opinion of the Vita turn around in the coming year, I would hate to see it die out before it even gets a chance to show off what it can really do.

 

[Ninjat_126]

I played Gravity Rush, that almost convinced me to buy a Vita on its own. At the same time, if I had a choice between a 3DS and a Vita, I'd pick the 3DS.

 

[Adon Cabre]

The VITA won't have an explosion in the west. I believe that it did stand a chance maybe a year ago, but it was ultimately upset by the upcoming epic console games -- Watchdogs, Bioshock Infinite and Remember Me. People don't want a hand-held that is a console experience; because to westerners, a console experience INCLUDES a 30+ Inch television set along with these vivid games.

The more I wanted to buy AC III Liberations; the more I looked into ACIII. The more I looked into ACIII, the more I realized that I might just want to spend my money on the PS3 game and save up for the February releases.

SONY is falling behind the curb again; they're chasing NINTENDO when they're philosophy of business and production quality never meant it to be in the same race. For me? I don't care. All this does is push them toward CONSOLES and EPIC Games.

 

[Trishbot]

I played Gravity Rush, that almost convinced me to buy a Vita on its own. At the same time, if I had a choice between a 3DS and a Vita, I'd pick the 3DS.

That's how I feel. Dollar for dollar, the 3DS is just throwing great games at me almost all the time, to the point I just can't afford to buy them all or find time to play them all. The 20 free Ambassador games (along with several free bonus games, such as Zelda: Four Swords and Kid Icarus Classic) keep me coming back again and again.

3DS already has Street Fighter, Dead or Alive, Metal Gear, Star Fox, many Mario games, Zelda, Pokemon, Resident Evil, Blazblue, Rayman, Final Fantasy, Tekken, and other major brand-names churning out content for the system. Vita, while a good system, is sorely lacking in support.

Those memory card prices certainly aren't helping.

 

[Covarr]

I get that Sony can't afford to sell the thing any cheaper than they already are, but it's still too expensive for the average consumer. It's too late to change this, but the system simply should've been less powerful so that they could charge less. When most people can buy a decent gaming cellphone for less than this (even if it is on a contract), they will consider the Vita's price for something that only does games to be too much.

>inb4 "Vita also does netflix and web browsing". I already know that. But it's not a strong enough marketing point, and people still see it as a single-purpose device.

P.S. Thanks

 

[FalloutJack]

I guess this is just another chicken and egg thing.

Developers don't want to make games on a console that has low install base.

Consumers don't want to spend on console with low number of games.

The term you're looking for is 'Catch-22', and yes captcha, I agree: Helter Skelter.

This is why they should've allowed for proper backwards compatibility, not SOME games able to be downloaded MAYBE, but the right and proper deal. When you burn bridges without any support in front of you, you very soon become stranded. Sorry, Sony old girl, but you messed this one up and you'll have to figure it out for yourselves, because WE won't help you and neither will developers. Lost cause, the whole thing.

 

[orangeapples]

price is what is keeping me away.

$250 to get the device (Wifi only model)
$60 for a decent memory card (16 gb)
$40 a game

That's $350 to get into the device (or $340 since the 3G model comes with a 8gb card)

For that $350, from Nintendo I can get:

a WiiU and 1 game, but no one is going to be getting a WiiU unless they pre-ordered.

OR

a 3DSXL, 3 games and still have an extra $30 (which could mean a 4th game), plus access to play 99.99% of the DS library (silly guitar hero world tour).

and I have no idea why, but the Vita's PSP and PSone emulators are crap. It simply cannot play as many games as the PSP and this is only talking about the digital downloads. There are many PSP titles that for some reason were never made available for digital download.

between the PSVita and the 3DSxl, which is the better value? Which is the one parents will buy? It'll most likely be the 3DSxl. Heck, the 3DS is even cheaper, so that could be 5 games for the same price.

If the WiFi Vita was $200, and the cards were like half the price (or if the WiFi Vita came with a 4GB card) I'd probably buy it. There are a few Vita games I'm interested in. I am seriously considering the Assassin's Creed Liberation bundle as it pretty much is what I am asking for (Wifi Vita, 4gb card and game for $250), but I'm getting AC3 on PC so no cross play bonus and I'm not much for side-games.

Sony needs to get developers working on the big names. Where's the Metal Gears? God of Wars? Ratchet and Clanks? How about an all touch PaRappa? Ask Square Enix to throw a Final Fantasy XIII onto it (it seems to be the only number they care about in the series). Yes they would all be sequel games, but sequel games are how you draw people in. Uncharted and Little Big aren't enough to draw people in. Sony has to give them a reason.

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

I bought my vita the week it came out and didn't actually play any games on it until Grandia 1 worked for it. I have been using the hell out of it as media device for netflix and stuff because the screen looks great but it still feels pretty sad that I don't own any vita games after half a year.

I wish they would just port games to it from the ps3 and ps2. The reason I bought it was because I wanted to play more core games that used the touch screens and gyroscope to complement gameplay with the duel analog stick, not games that could have gotten on my phone

 

[Therumancer]

Hmmm, well, it's not really a catch-22 thing. Sony itself can increase their install base by lowering the cost of the hardware. Like it or not it's very pricy. If they say decided to move the hardware for $20 or whatever they would take a huge loss on the hardware sales but would also obtain the install base dramatically and be able to make up the losses through it's share of games using it.

The thing is that Sony is expecting monster profits at every stage (despite what they might claim about "selling at a loss"), even as a "loser" in the various platform wars, it's largely been comparitive, with them making bundles of money. I read an article a while back about "failure being subjective" on the PSP and while it's numbers paled compared to the Nintendo portables, it actually made a huge profit over what they put into it.

Right now it's not just a matter of a lot of people not wanting to get involved with the Vita because of the limited selection of games, but because it's a substantial cost of entry before you even consider the risks involved. Not to mention that after paying for that hardware you have to pay for all those games and services. Back when gaming was newer and a lot more novel things were differant, but today all hardware like this really is, is you paying an entry fee for the right to pay them for other things. People have caught onto that, and with so many people in the same business, I think a lot of developers are going to need to learn that the basic hardware might be expensive to produce but is something they are going to have to give away for a song.

As far as backwards compadibility goes, that's a touchy subject. As a user I think hardware should be backwards compadible. From a business perspective I can see how backwards compadibility is seen as counter-productive since it prevents them from re-selling the same content for each new platform. Refusing to support something also allows them to semi-erase mistakes, they can more or less try and pretend games that they choose not to port for one reason or another (could be game quality, or the games representing something they would rather see forgotten) never happened.

To be honest I think we kind of shot ourselves in the foot when it comes to hopes of backwards compadibility when we started actually paying for PS-1 classics (which I am guilty of myself) and similar things.

 

[Souplex]

Sony has terrible pattern recognition skills.
The same thing happened with the PSP.
Nintendo seems to always win handheld races against more powerful foes.

 

[Braedan]

Damnit, Every single article talking about handhelds says something about how smartphones are killing traditional mobile gaming, yet I have not seen a SINGLE person playing a game on their smartphone that wasn't either Angry Birds or Draw Something. 2 games are destroying an entire industry? Really?

 

[orangeapples]

Hmmm, well, it's not really a catch-22 thing. Sony itself can increase their install base by lowering the cost of the hardware. Like it or not it's very pricy. If they say decided to move the hardware for $20 or whatever they would take a huge loss on the hardware sales but would also obtain the install base dramatically and be able to make up the losses through it's share of games using it.

$20 for a Vita? Yeah, I'd buy it. I imagine it would be sold out by the time doors opened.

 

[Ravinoff]

Sony, just stop. Nintendo owns the handheld market. Nobody is going to buy your latest PSP variant, just like nobody bought the N-Gage. The Gameboy/DS/3DS is there, it's established, and it's not going anywhere. Nintendo has the edge in game, they've got the fans and they've got the exact target audience of every other handheld cornered. If you want a portable gaming device, you either go with a DS if you want real games, or a smartphone if you want timewasters.

And let's face it, the idea of porting full console games to handhelds is...debatable at best. Yeah, Ocarina Of Time 3D was fun. But I'd much, much rather either download it for the Wii, or dig out the Gamecube edition disk than try to play a game that expansive on a handheld. Maybe if they were designed better, it could work. But as it stands now? Eh.