noshten said:
It's not only the abandoned Portables it's their investment into VR which in the current format was always doomed to be a niche product in Japan. If the same investment was made into the Vita they could have probably prolonged its life in Japan, maybe retaining exclusivity for some AA games. The only Sony-published game on the Vita after 2014 was Minecraft. They published around 30 games on PSVR between 2016-2019 WW, which means at least a decent investment from their end outside of the hardware R&D. For comparison on the PSVita according to Gameslibrary has 25 games that SCE published. I understand that Sony probably felt that VR better aligns with their media strategy, but it's basically what I felt replaced their portable gaming line and wasn't even as successful as the Vita, let alone well aligned to their third-party partners in Japan. This is why in the near future we might see smaller devs completely forsake PS5 versions of their games, simply put since 2015 Sony's strategy is in a different direction - the fact that they disbanded Sony Japan also probably cost them a bunch of relationships build and fostered over the years. |
The VR side is aligned with the Ps4 focus and helped, strengthen the brand. But the cost is abandoned the portable scene.