Sony: The economics of AAA games on PS Vita 'simply don’t work with the traditional process'

mikeyp

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The sad truth as we've all known for quite some time - as reported on PocketGamer.

Sony: The economics of AAA games on PS Vita 'simply don’t work with the traditional process' | PlayStation Vita news | PlayStation Vita | Pocket Gamer

Let's hope the steady flow of quirky Japanese stuff continues.



According to Sony the economics of getting AAA games on to the PS Vita just don't make sense at the moment.

Replying to comments on a PlayStation Blog post about the US launch of the PS Vita Slim, Don Mesa, Sony Computer Entertainment's product planning and platform software innovation director, had the following slightly depressing things to say about the lack of big budget games on the shiny handheld

"The economics simply don’t work with the traditional process. We have to do something different to get AAA games on Vita."

"We accomplished it to a certain degree by making PS4 games work on Vita via remote play. PS Now will be another way, streaming PS3 games on Vita."

"I can’t wait until PS Now is out on Vita - I hope you’ll try out the experience and let me know what you think."

So there you go. It looks like the Vita might be becoming a pretty expensive PS4 peripheral that you can also play a lot of incredible indie games on.
 
So there you go. It looks like the Vita might be becoming a pretty expensive PS4 peripheral that you can also play a lot of incredible indie games on.

Fine by me :smashin:

But mine was only £100, which i don't consider expensive (in the same realms as premium mobile phones, headsets or trainers) so cost vs value is actually really good IMO.
I was certainly getting annoyed at iphone and ipad games. £500 device, but the games are 98% rubbish. And while there are some standout games, most are indie devs, and not from AAA studios.

So on balance, i think the Vita is providing what i need. Unfortunately i'm not profitable enough, as the mainstream must have different requirements...
 
I wonder how profitable the console is for everything other than so called AAA titles. Mid-tier stuff like Rayman etc.
 
HORSESHIT!!!
 
Not enough people buying AAA titles then, makes sense, but i wonder how killzone did for guerrilla?
With so few AAA, releasing a big game would surely sell really well with no competition and people desperate for something to play.
 
What sort of AAA games are people hoping to play on the Vita?
 
I wonder what percentage of Western Vita owners buy most if their big ticket games second hand (reducing the overall sale numbers).
 
What sort of AAA games are people hoping to play on the Vita?
any kind of decent COD would clean up, assassins creed, I'm thinking big name FPS/TPS are classed as AAA
Ive just been hammering street fighter x tekken since i got mine, love hotline miami, but struggled with killzones controls.
After the using the wii Us gamepad the vita isn't very well designed.
 
any kind of decent COD would clean up, assassins creed, I'm thinking big name FPS/TPS are classed as AAA
Ive just been hammering street fighter x tekken since i got mine, love hotline miami, but struggled with killzones controls.
After the using the wii Us gamepad the vita isn't very well designed.
Well that's not really a fair comparison. They are suited to different things. Vita is a handheld first and compliment to PS4 second. Although the direction of that seems to be changing a bit, it was still not their vision to be a wholly complimentary piece of kit.

I actually loved Killzone and thought they got the aiming and movement pretty freakin perfect considering the small sticks.
 
What sort of AAA games are people hoping to play on the Vita?
I got my Veets to play the same sort of stuff as I play on my home console. So mainly 3D action adventure games, open-world or otherwise (Infamous, Enslaved, Batman, AC, Uncharted), and stuff more towards the adventure end of the spectrum with puzzle-solving and some 3D platforming - eg Sherlock Holmes, early Tomb Raider. A decent new Final Fantasy style game would be great too.
 
I wonder what percentage of Western Vita owners buy most if their big ticket games second hand (reducing the overall sale numbers).
I hardly ever buy second-hand, but I always sell my games on. I often wonder what the average number of owners per physical game is, but yeah that's a relatively new development that eats into profits.

And of course a lot of people say "I'll wait for it to come on PS+".
 
i wonder how killzone did for guerrilla?
Well, if you believe vgchartz it's sold ~400k worldwide so far (does that include digital - dunno). Can't be a profit in there though can there? And that's one of the more successful Vita games!
 
Well that's not really a fair comparison. They are suited to different things. Vita is a handheld first and compliment to PS4 second. Although the direction of that seems to be changing a bit, it was still not their vision to be a wholly complimentary piece of kit.

I actually loved Killzone and thought they got the aiming and movement pretty freakin perfect considering the small sticks.

Thats true, its designed to fit in a pocket i suppose, but a properly competitive COD would be hard to play for me with those little nubs :(
 
Thats true, its designed to fit in a pocket i suppose, but a properly competitive COD would be hard to play for me with those little nubs :(
That's what she said...
 
If the vita becomes a dumping ground for student projects I'm gonna be annoyed.
Not really impressed with the remote play because the controls don't quite work (touch pad for r1/r2 is just messy, sticks are ridiculous for competitive play in a FPS vs a ds4) only one half decent FPS and most AAA are just poorer versions of already existing games.

Give us a decent COD/BF, Gran Tourismo type game, i didn't buy my vita for indies I could play on my phone or weird japanese RPGs.
 
Yeah with big hitters and games hyped a lot like Killzone ; that no doubt cost a lot, selling so poorly probably just turns Sony off from spending more money on games for it.

RPG's like exploration games are perfect for Vita , that's why I'm desperate for Ni No Kuni.... 3D shooters are awful with the sticks
 
400k for KZ is disk (cart) only they dont include digital
 
Right, the more I think about this the less sense it makes to me. At first it felt so obvious that there's little development of AAA-type games that this seemed obvious. It mustn't make economic sense otherwise we'd have a load more full size games to buy. I thought that part of the design of the Vita was with one eye on making porting titles over from PS3 pretty straightforward. In which case we'd be overrun now with loads of games like Need For Speed, good quality games just slightly dialled down from the home console counterpart. That's clearly not been the case but if its simply down to economics how come the 3DS has had plenty of games come out? And the 3DS was dying on its arse when it first came out and didn't have anything like the install base it has now. Didnt stop Nintendo making games for it. Aside from Uncharted, LBP and KZ Sony haven't really put their weight behind AAA games. Surely if there were games like a full size, Vita only Ratchet and Clank, Gran Turismo, pay for a Final fantasy/ Monster Hunter/ Pokemon, more people would buy, the install base grows, the economics do work? It just feels that at some level Sony haven't had the uptake they hoped for early enough and decided not to invest in game development to the level that could drive sales.

Anyone who's read my posts will know I'm more than happy with my Vita and have a tonne of games I'll probably never get through but it would still be nice to have more that I could impulse buy in a sale :)
 
I want more games like Everybody’s Golf. Replay value, easy to pick up and put down, slicker than something you would see on a tablet and making use of the proper controls. An Elder Scrolls game would make my year.
 
Yah, I want another EG game... but I want skill points you can level up your toon with. Not just new clubs/balls... although that part of it is fun too.
 
SOB.

Although I don't really think this is entirely true. I still think it'll have third party support from JRPG makers because Japan buys them up like mad and it doesn't take much to localize a game. So in that sense I'll still be happy. Also I think they'll port some more PS3 games to Vita because it can play them. Borderlands has its issues but it's far from unplayable and is quite fun.

I just bought myself a 3dsXL so if there is ever a lull in my JRPG's on ma Veets then I have a backup. Just a shame I hate Nintendo's network and ecosystem.
 
I wish FROM would stop pissing about with Souls games, and spend some time doing a new Armored Core: Formula Front :devil:



Anyone know of any good mecha on the Veets?
 
Isn't there a transformers game on the veets?

Although not sure that's what you're looking for. I do think there are some mech games on the 3ds. Like some mech flying one I can't remember the name of.
 

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