Vita Will Only Act as PS4 Controller for Specific Games

The PlayStation Vita is slowly becoming the perfect add-on device for Sony’s next-generation PlayStation 4. To the platform's credit, a healthy software lineup and support for dozens of intuitive apps make it a piece of hardware worth owning all on its own, but the addition of cross-buy functionality and remote play puts the Vita over the top for any PlayStation fan. However, while we were initially led to believe that the handheld would act as a PS4 controller for all future pieces of software, it has now been confirmed that support will need to be added to the particular game for this feature to exist.

This comes from Sony Computer Entertainment president of Worldwide Studios and Twitter fiend, Shuhei Yoshida. When asked a question about the functionality that will allow the Vita to act as an expensive controller for the PS4, Yoshida added the caveat that it will be up to the specific developer to include this feature in order for any of it to work.

"@InsideEddie Hey BRO! In a normal sense, no. Unless a game is specifically programmed to allow such use of PS Vita," he tweeted.

This is a big different from the reports that we heard before the whirlwind that was E3. At the time, the general consensus was that it wouldn’t take any additional engineering to allow for his type of conversation between the two Sony consoles, but with so many months separating us and the release of the PlayStation 4, plenty of the messaging could change.