Sony: Economics for AAA games 'don't work' on PS Vita

The PlayStation Vita is awesome and it has lots of great games in the pipeline -- particularly on the indie front. But it's still selling poorly. And console-quality experiences like Killzone: Mercenary and Uncharted: Golden Abyss are few and far between.

"The economics simply don’t work with the traditional process. We have to do something different to get AAA games on Vita," Don Mesa, Sony Computer Entertainment's product planning & platform software innovation director, explained in response to a fan's inquiry regarding the lack of big budget Vita games.

"We accomplished it to a certain degree by making PS4 games work on Vita via remote play," Mesa continued. "PS Now will be another way, streaming PS3 games on Vita. I can’t wait until PS Now is out on Vita – I hope you’ll try out the experience and let me know what you think."

Well, that's unfortunate. The Vita may be struggling, but tethering it to the PS4 doesn't see like the answer. The Vita is a fantastic system in its own right -- not some $200+ peripheral. Perhaps the current install base is underwhelming and can't support the development costs of grandiose projects, but things won't change if nothing's ever done.

http://www.destructoid.com/sony-economics-for-aaa-games-don-t-work-on-ps-vita-274678.phtml

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:( ... at least try harder to make it work... -_-"

Nope, they don't.

But what Sony don't seem to realise is that there are at least 3 tiers between AAA and indie, and that's something they've barely tried to tap but really, really should.

Case in point: Tearaway. Neither AAA nor indie. Fantastic game though, one of the best reviewed for the system and a great example of the type of stuff they should be pushing out.

Sadly, it was just a blip on the radar rather than part of an overall shift in development for Vita and thus couldn't do much on its own. Sony should have more of their studios just having 20-or-so person B teams to develop games for the console in that vein.

But no. Remote play and PlayStation Now to the rescue! Vomit.

 I'm actually trying to think of a solid B games developer but can think of none.. Did they like died or got swallowed up by bigger devs?

The only reason they dont work is because theres such a small install base that even optimal sales would leave the publishers with little or no profit. (for exclusive games)
Vita also isnt good enough for PS3 ports and games on PS3 are struggling as they are so on vita they would be unplayable.
Theres hope for the next handheld though since PS4 games are either 1080p and/or 60fps so the resolution and frame-rate can be sacrificed and still leave the next Sony handheld with a decent version of the game. They just need to take there time and not price the majority of the market away from it.

Pretty much. They all got dragged into an AAA or bust cycle and killed themselves. Japan is the last place left with any real "B" developers.

That said, Activision's main output is B games, it's just that besides having a low budget, they're usually just tied to a license and completely suck (see latest Fast and the Furious game).

I don't actually need AAA games on Vita (though they have been nice so far), I just want high quality software. Indie games generally tend to look like full fledged titles on Vita anyway. We just need more indie games experimenting with 3D and mechanics. Maybe Unity will start making that more possible.

Sony's biggest problem is that they pumped out a couple of AAA high budget releases right at the start of the systems life and then particularly in the US, just took all their developers completely off it to make PS4 software. Like Kres said, a few of their developers working on less demanding and intensive projects like Tearaway would go a long way. They can't cost much more to make than these HD ports they're pumping out anyway and would gain a lot more attention for the system.

Tearaway might have been a fantastic game, but it was also likely a financial failure, that's what probably finally put Sony off from trying to develop original games for the Vita in the west, it wasn't even a hit with the few Vita owners out there, which really begs the question what the 5.35m non Japanese Vita owners are actually doing with the thing.

So, honestly financially not investing too much in western game development is really the best thing they can do now, new exclusives western Vita games would be a huge money sink and the probability of them making money off of them, or of them starting to help the Vita gain traction are small to say the least.

The Vita is destined to stay the "indie-port-machine" in the west.

I seriously doubt that there'll ever be a next Sony handheld and I'd honestly doubt Sonys sanity if they tried to release one.

The middle fell out of gaming when THQ died, B Level titles barely exist anymore.

The economics worked for that game?

Anyway the Vita was nothing more than a waste of time and waste of a lot of money...

If the Vita never existed they could have made/invested/moneyhatted in a new Legend of dragoon, Breath of fire, Dark cloud, Valkyria Chronicles, Star ocean (where is that one?), Ape escape, Wild arms, Grandia for PS4.... than again who cares for those games...Remot play is so much more important :(..

SCEA had already decided not to develop Vita software. The last exclusive Vita title they made was what, Unit 13? Tearaway only had a dev team of 15 so it was much lower budget than the end product would have you think. It will have sold over half a million units. I'm pretty certain it broke even at the very least.

SCEE are still actively pursuing Vita software (Shahid is SCEE). But I think they've decided to try and get 3rd parties/indies doing the development side and them coining it rather than internally using many resources.