I bought a PlayStation Vita at launch, because I’m a (broke) gadget-obsessed nut. at the time, I was pretty enamoured with it – but I have to admit it’s rapidly becoming quite a shiny dust-magnet. One of the biggest problems with it is that beyond its launch titles, there have been very few games worth playing – especially those from third parties. Sony’s surprised and upset by the lack of third-party support.
"One thing that was surprising and disappointing to us was the [lower] number of third parties to come out [in support] after launch," Sony worldwide boss Shuhei Yoshida told Gamasutra.
One reason for that, he suspects, is that there are just more platforms than ever before for developers to jump onto – notably mobile platforms – that it’s tricky for developers to support newer platforms that require more resources.
"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," he said.
"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."
That doesn’t mean that Sony’s giving up on the platform; the company still believes that it’s the perfect platform to bring real gamer’s games to handhelds.
"PS Vita is the best hardware to bring a very immersive game experience onto portable," he said.
Trying to avoid ports from console games, Sony’s current challenge with the Vita is to define exactly what Vita is and what kind of software would work best for the platform.
"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 said.
The only Vita game that’s coming soon that I’m really keen for is Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation – and after that there’s just Media Molecule’s Tear Away. The Vita needs games – and it needs a lot of them, soon.
Last Updated: October 1, 2012
