Like it or not, the Vita is failing to live up to Sony’s high expectations. Despite the handheld having a stellar launch lineup, sales for the Vita have failed to impress, and now with such a thin lineup of upcoming titles, the future doesn’t look particularly promising.
One of the main reasons for this has been the lack of third-party support for the platform, an issue that Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida addresses in the September issue of PlayStation: The Official Magazine. While Yoshida notes that they’re “very happy with the hardware and platform [they] created”, the lack of support from outside developers has really hindered the success of the platform.
Because of the growth of the social/mobile sector, lots of opportunities are being presented to publishers to choose from, and because the social/mobile side is the growing sector in terms of the business now, they are very quickly shifting their development resources to be part of that growing market.
[We’re] having a more difficult time than [we] had anticipated in terms of getting support from third-party publishers, but that’s our job.
When asked by the outlet whether or not the SOCOM series is officially dead, he replied: “It’s not done. We never definitely retire any franchise. It’s sometimes great to have a fresh look at the classics that we have.” Yoshia also spoke to the possibility of acquiring Quantic Dream, saying that they first want to “develop a trusting relationship” before purchasing any studio.
[Via]
