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DerNebel on 06 September 2015
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Kresnik said:
DerNebel said:

I don't know, I think the fact that all those studios have now moved on to the PS4 almost entirely (I'm sure Sony Japan is still doing some Vita stuff), gives a good indication that they would have had a place even without the Vita. And even as support studios they could have done great work.

If Cambridge had done support on KZ Shadowfall the game might have turned out a lot better (I keep hearing that Mercenary was the best Killzone game after all).

With Bend as a support studio UC4 might have not missed its initial release date.

But you've said it, it has been years since Bend has released a game and Sony is apparently still giving them the time to finish their project now, I think that is enough indication that they'd still be in the business even without the Vita. And Guerilla Cambridge seems too efficient of a studio to be let go, they've managed the jump from Vita to PS4 VR in 3 years after all.


I think you mis-understood what I was saying a bit.

There was a period, not too long ago, when SCE weren't in such a good place.  PS3 had never been much of a success although they had turned things around from the disasterous launch - we all knew PS4 was coming, but we had no idea how much of a success it would be.  In that period, devs like Cambridge; Bend; Japan Studio; Studio Liverpool & Zipper worked on Vita.  Had Vita not been there, what place would they have had?  Sony clearly didn't want to commit massive resources to PS4 at launch, and they were already giving PS3 a load of back-end support in 2013 (GT6; Beyond; GoW; Ratchet etc.)

Vita was a good place for them to work in that period.  Had it not existed, Sony's options were - more PS3 games (but schedule was already ridiculously packed for a console on its way out) - PS4 games (like I said, for whatever reason Sony didn't want to go full-in on PS4 from the beginning it seems) - or close the studios.  Judging by the way SCE were behaving in 2012/2013, I'd imagine the answer would've been close them down.

Bend are probably allowed to keep this PS4 project going for so long because the PS4 is a success, that's what I'm saying.  It's okay because the console is selling well.  But if they'd been stuck in this weird development limbo before PS4 came out (i.e. Vita hadn't existed), they'd just have been shut down with the others.

At least that's how I see it.  I think you're forgetting what a culling spree SCE were on during that period (they also terminated a number of partnerships like Lightbox Interactive; Eat Sleep Play; Superbot Entertainment etc.)

No I get that, but we're talking about a potential scenario here anyway. Had the Vita not existed, how much R&D would they have saved? There are quite a few things that would have changed without the Vita, so it's kinda misleading to look back to 2011-2013, scratch out the Vita and assume that everything else would have stayed the same.

I mean I think it's pretty reasonable to assume that the reason SCE wasn't in a good place at that point in time, even though things had been looking up for the PS3 for a couple years already, was because the Vita existed and was eating into them, so cutting out that piece of history would have changed the whole picture quite a lot. I for instance believe that it would have led Sony to concentrate the Vita funds into making sure that their one remaining source of gaming income (home consoles) stays successful and that the PS4 would become as well supported as possible to really ensure its success.