Sony disappointed by lack of third-part support for the Vita

By: Moses Abaortae

  |   October 2nd, 2012   |  

Uncategorized

The second generation portable PlayStation console, the PS Vita, has struggled for content from third-parties since its release and although Sony is disappointed it does sympathize with the reasons behind it.

The president of Sony Worldwide Studios, Shuhei Yoshida, admitted that Sony was struggling to gain third-party support for developing new titles for the PlayStation Vita. This is a big worry for Sony for a number of reasons.

Firstly, the sales of the PlayStation Vita console are struggling at the moment. Even Sony admitted that the figures, although not disastrous, were below expectations.

Secondly, Sony has remained steadfast on their stance that sales will pick up when more content is released on the console, something that a lack of third-party support does little to fix.

Lastly, in the long run, Sony may lose these publishers to other portable devices, especially the smartphone market which has seen growth at an exponential rate over the past few years, leaving the Vita with only first-party support for content.

Yoshida admitted that the lack of support from non-Sony studios during the launch period was a worry, “One thing that was surprising and disappointing to us was the number of third parties to come out after launch.” Before going on to explain the possible reasons behind the move.

“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 many years ago.”

That is because consoles now have to compete with smartphones and tablets which are slowly taking over the PC and entertainment market with their combination of power and portability.

In fact, even Yoshida conceded that the manufacturer was losing ground to the new mediums emerging and although he did not mention any of them specifically one could sense he was hinting towards Smartphones, tablets and Social Media gaming, such as titles on Facebook.

He said, “There are limited resources that third part publishers have, and they have to diversify into new areas constantly; that’s a challenge to get the support that we want.”

One can expect Sony to get more support for the PlayStation Vita, however, that is not happening until the sales of the console pick up and for the time being that seems unlikely. Having said that, the end of 2012 and the opening few weeks of 2013 could change all of that with titles such as Killzone: Mercenary, Tearaway, Assassin’s Creed: Liberation and Black Ops: Declassified set to hit the console.

But what do the readers think; can the PlayStation Vita attract third-party developers now, or does it need to boost its sales first? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.