The Playstation 4 may be the industry’s console of choice, but Sony hasn’t forgotten the Playstation Vita. The company seems to be well aware of the handheld’s struggle to find an audience outside of its native Japan, a problem it attributes to an unhealthy climate for handheld gaming as a whole.
Since its launch, the system has seen a variety of first-party exclusives come and go, most of which have found their way onto PS4, such as 2012’s Gravity Rush. With no more triple A games in the works for the system, the chances of it finding a successor are slim, or so Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida muses.
Speaking to Eurogamer at EGX 2015, Yoshida cites the Vita’s problems as a product of competing with the rise of free-to-play mobile gaming:
“People have mobile phones and it’s so easy to play games on smartphones,” Yoshida said. “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. Touch-based games are fun – there are many games with really good design. But having sticks and buttons make things totally different.”
Though he takes pride in the Vita, Yoshida remarks that the climate for portable games in general is not great at the moment:
“So I hope, like many of you, that this culture of playing portable games continues, but the climate is not healthy for it now because of the huge dominance of mobile gaming.”
Tell us, do you own a Playstation Vita? If so, are you still using it frequently? Sound off below and let us know.