We’re quite taken with Sony’s new handheld, the PlayStation Vita, which sees release at the end of this year in Japan, with a more global release sometime in the new year. It has a big shiny touch screen, a rear touch pad, gyroscopic controls and, importantly, two analogue thumb sticks – something that makes translating familiar game experiences to the handheld significantly easier.
SEGA, it seems, is equally struck – and although the company currently has just one title scheduled for the system – a port of Virtua Tennis 4 – you can expect many more in the future.
“It’s interesting on Vita – technically it’s brilliant, it’s beautiful, and it’s really great to play,†Sega’s Mike Hayes said to IndustryGamers. “We’ve managed to use a lot of the functionality of Vita. And we’ve made it very clear we’re going to support Sony with that title,†Hayes of the handheld version of Virtua Tennis 4. “Sony has made it very clear they want to target core gamers primarily. So we take that on board with the titles that we’re going to bring out,†Hayes explained.
“The nice thing about the Vita, I think, is ultimately going to be the range of software pricing types that you can put on it so it’s not just the high end game at the high end price. You can do the mid-point, more like your XBLA or PSN titles and of course maybe even a small bite size of more app type software. For me, the strength of that device is the whole spectrum of software, that will either sell as physical or as digital. That, I think, is a big point of difference for us as a developer. So that’s pretty cool.â€
that has me pretty excited. I loved the introduction of smaller, bite-sized games with PlayStation minis – something Sony seems only too keen to expand upon. This is exactly the lesson Nintendo should be learning; in this world of smartphones and tablets it’s going to take a lot more than just ports of classic games to win people over, and the fact that the Vita allows for app developments means hackers, who keep citing homebrew as the reason for their exploits might leave the thing alone for a while.
Source : IndustryGamers
Last Updated: August 10, 2011
