Sony On PlayStation Vita: 'We're In This For The Long Term'Sony's gearing up for the launch of its PlayStation Vita in the US next year (February 22) and the company is putting its full weight behind the portable. While the PSPgo was seen as somewhat of an "experiment," the Vita is getting Sony's full support, starting with its top franchise, Uncharted. IndustryGamers spoke with Sony at a recent PlayStation holiday showcase event in New York.
Victor Harris, producer on Uncharted: Golden Abyss, told us that Sony's looking to demonstrate its commitment to the fans with Vita.
"We wanted to show the fans the commitment we have to the new hardware. We felt having Uncharted available on launch day would provide consumer the satisfaction to know that we're in this for the long term. This is not just something we're trying out as an experiment. The Vita is a platform that we fully plan on supporting and we're bringing all of our triple-A titles to it," he said.
Harris noted that while Uncharted looks great, it's only the beginning. "We're already achieving near PS3 cinematics on the Vita, and this is a first generation title. As the lifecycle of the Vita advances you're going to see far better looking titles," he said.
Derek Pardo, designer with San Diego Studios on ModNation Racers (another launch title), agrees. "I think there's a lot of room for developers to take advantage of Vita's power," he said, adding in comparison to other platforms like smartphones, "I think it has a wider breadth of options for developers."
Pardo added that on ModNation Racers they only had to spend a little under a year on development and the tools for developers to use on Vita are "a lot friendlier" than Sony's previous game platforms. "The support Sony gave us during development was really good this time around," he said.
Vita certainly plays great and looks great, but questions still remain about how successful dedicated portables can be in this new smartphone infested marketplace. We'll be watching Vita closely next year.
