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DerNebel on 27 September 2015
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Chief said:
DerNebel said:

No, just no. Sure that would have sold a couple more Vitas, but at what price? An exclusive Rockstar game? Do you have any idea how expensive that would have been? Naughty Dog isn't even interested in handheld development and you can't just set up a studio you don't own to make a game they don't want either (RAD). And neither and exclusive Bioshock game nor a multiplat Borderlands 2 would have been significant system sellers.

Sure Sony didn't help it, but the Vita was put on a road to failure from the beginning and these investments you talk about would have done nothing but potentially put the PS4 in a worse position.

As I said an exclusive Rockstar Leeds game wouldn't cost nearly as much as mainline GTA games, as they could have just made new story with new gameplay elements in GTA IV's Liberty City, would have cost less and sold systems. ND is owned by Sony so they can do whatever they want to do with them, they could have just made TLOU with some obvious concessions on Vita and it would have still been an awesome game. If RAD wasn't willing to do a new GOW game they could have made Santa Monica do one on it like put Ascension on Vita and not PS3. An exclusive BioShock game would have made a difference with these games not on its own. And GT would have sold systems.

As I said they would have end up gaining money rather than losing it with these games, at the cost of a weaker PS3 lineup for 2013.

They would have lost money.

Ever heard of opportunity cost? It's the cost of the loss of other alternatives when one alternative is chosen. That's what they would have need to pay Rockstar Leeds. Why should they dedicate their time to a Vita game when they can make a game for other platforms that would sell significantly better?

And simply forcing a decision like that on ND is exactly what Sony has been avoiding to do for ages now, tons of ND top talent could just walk and be hired by every other dev in the world, that's why they have this degree of freedom. Sony is not just going to tell them to make a handheld game when ND has no experience with handheld development, it would have just slowed down the whole process as well as compromised their vision of the game. It didn't even run smoothly on PS3, how do you think this would have worked on the Vita? Besides the game would have sold significantly less on Vita and a simple remaster for the PS4 that would still look impressive would not have been possible in the short time it took them either.

GoW Ascension didn't even sell especially well on PS3, what makes you think it would have saved the Vita?

An exclusive Bioshock game would have been a drop in a bucket. In the big picture an exclusive GT would have been as well.

This argument is the same that we've heard about the Wii U for ages before people accepted its fate. "Oh it just needs these games and it will be fine". And now look at it, when the core idea of a system is flawed then getting a couple big profile games is not going to save it and that is exactly the problem of the Vita.