Sony: AAA Economics Don’t Make Sense On Vita

Sony has seemingly completely squashed the hope for a Bioshock port for the Vita, following 2K’s statement. In their latest official blog post talking about the Vita, they have clarified that, in fact, it is not economically feasible to bring AAA productions like it to the console.

This came from SCEA’s Director of Product Planning & Platform Software Innovation, Don Mesa, who gave this statement in reaction to a comment from a fan from said thread. The commenter pointed out that fans were waiting on the promise of console-quality games for the console. He namedropped Killzone: Mercenary and Uncharted: Golden Abyss, and pointed out that the latter was not even that good a game.

Here’s Don’s statement in full:

The economics simply don’t work with the traditional process. We have to do something different to get AAA games on Vita. We accomplished it to a certain degree by making PS4 games work on Vita via remote play. 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.

The Vita does continue to receive games with high development values in Japan, as Sony’s portables seem to receive perennially, but in many ways this is not exactly the same thing. If you would be satisfied with using PS Now or Remote Play on Vita to play AAAs, then perhaps this would not be an issue for you. However, of course, not everyone can afford – or for that matter, has access to – these products and services even though they have a Vita. Overall, Sony’s Playstation division seems to be unable to make the Vita meet its full potential, as their attention is drawn now to PS4 and Project Morpheus. However, with all the 1^st party games, indies, Japanese games, and other services, Vita owners will not be lacking for games at all. It’s simply time to scale expectations and appreciate the platform for what it has now.