Shuhei Yoshida, President of Sony Worldwide Studios has recently hinted that Indie and third-party gaming will become the main focus for the PlayStation Vita.
In an interview with Polygon, Yoshida spoke about the new vision for the PlayStation Vita and how it would fit alongside the indie gaming explosion. “It’s very fortunate that the indie boom happened, and they are providing lots of great content to Vita,” he said. “Gameplay, game-mechanic wise, people want to spend 10 minutes, 15 minutes getting in and out. … Instead of watching big stories or cinematics.”
Switching from a focus of first-party/AAA games is a bold strategy for Sony but one that has a strong possibility of paying off. Recognition that handheld gaming is not tied in the same way to console titles, away from long story driven adventures to quick ‘pickup and play’ games such as “Hotline Miami” and “Floating Cloud God Saves Pilgrims in Hd” shows intelligence from Sony. They have seen a market which can excel on the PlayStation Vita and clearly aim to letting it do so.
It can also only provide encouragement to the indie world that such a big developer is prepared to commit their product to this scene. Believing they can produce the quality to continue the popularity of the Vita.
When speaking about the “Remote Play” feature on the PlayStation Vita, Yoshida reiterated that if a player is looking for a graphically stunning experience they can do so through this feature. Announced in 2013, all PS4 titles that could utilise the feature would do so. It falls to developers to integrate it into their titles and to consider players that would be using it.
Sony clearly has a plan in mind for the Vita, one which has the console sticking around for years to come. We see the machine integrated more and more into PlayStation products as Sony continue to build it as a companion device but also they have not forgotten its standalone potential.
