Sony’s next handheld will be competing directly with the Apple and Android devices when it launches in the near future. The lure of inexpensive mobile titles for handheld devices has become on that many gamers use to get their mobile gaming fix, on the cheap. While the PS Vita games will likley not be costing you $1.99 in most cases, the company will be offering multiple price points for the software.
Jim Ryan of SCEE spoke about the pricing strategy in a recent interview with Games Industry. “I think it would be safe to assume we will take a more tailored approach than perhaps we’ve done in the past…It’s our challenge to ensure that the gaming experience that we provide is closer to that TV console experience that it is to your 69p thing that you’ve downloaded on your iPhone,”said Ryan. “If we do that and we provide great value to the consumer games like Uncharted, I think the possibility to sustain historic console type price points is there.”
There’s definitely a huge difference between games that look like an Uncharted for example, and something like Angry Birds. We’ll see what the future holds for the Vita and what types of content is deemed as a full price title, Sony will definitely need to test the waters to see if consumers will still respond to these big budget portable titles. If Nintendo is any indication they should be ok. Super Mario 3D Land is one of the best selling mobile games in the company’s history and for the Mario franchise.
