The Vita is a bit of a cult hit. Those who own it seem to love it, but it’s been far from the success story that Sony would have hoped. A bevy of exclusives, from Uncharted: Golden Abyss to Gravity Rush, have slowly but surely dried up, with Sony’s first party studios unconcerned with the PlayStation handheld.
It’s not a pretty story, and it doesn’t look like it’ll be getting a happy ending. Shuhei Yoshida, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, has stated that the climate for a PS Vita successor is “not healthy.”
Speaking at this year’s Eurogamer Expo, held in Birmingham in the UK, Yoshida was asked about a possible successor to the PlayStation Vita. “That’s a tough question,” he replied. “People have mobile phones and it’s so easy to play games on smartphones. And many games on smartphones are free, or free to start.”
“I myself am a huge fan of PlayStation Vita and we worked really hard on designing every aspect,” he added. “Touch-based games are fun – there are many games with really good design. But having sticks and buttons make things totally different.
“So I hope, like many of you, that this culture of playing portable games continues but the climate is not healthy for now because of the huge dominance of mobile gaming.”
Published: Sep 26, 2015 10:38 am