Sony: Vita a Natural Habitat for Indies

Remember when the PlayStation Vita was being touted as a home console experience on the go?  Although games like Killzone: Mercenary have managed to bring popular genres and properties to the small screen, Sony’s high-tech handheld has morphed into what seems like the perfect home for indies. It’s a role that’s given the Vita new life, and senior business development manager at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Shahid Ahmad, has come out to discuss the difficult challenge of remarketing the brand.

“About a year ago, shortly after I took on the challenge of bringing games to Vita, it seemed like a difficult challenge. But it does seem like a natural habitat for indie developers,” Ahmad said to GameIndustry International. “It is an incredibly versatile device. That screen is amazing. It kind of suits that intimate experience. A lot of indies are making very intimate experiences and completely new types of game.”

Hits like Spelunky, Limbo, and Fez all just seem to make sense on Vita, and while they aren’t exclusive, Ahmad argues that they’re often best on the OLED screen.

“I think one of the interesting things for me was that if you weren't going to necessarily get games first on Vita that when they appeared on Vita they were going to be best on Vita,” he continued. “And more and more people – not just me [laughs] – thankfully are coming to that conclusion, and that's really gratifying.

“It's fulfilling the ambitions of a lot of independent developers and I'm really excited about that. I think everyone at PlayStation is excited about that.”