Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide president Shuhei Yoshida spoke in earnest about the future of the PlayStation Vita, as well as Sony’s future with portables.
Yoshida said that he enjoyed working on the Vita. He also defended the platform’s characteristics, pointing out that touch based games are fun, and that using sticks and buttons makes for a different experience.
He also talks about the ease of playing games on smartphones, especially given that many games are free. Interestingly, Yoshida uses a term the late Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata coined, free-to-start. Both are console game developers, and so Yoshida may share’s Iwata’s sentiments that free-to-start is a more honest term for the free-to-play model.
Ultimately, Yoshida says he hopes dedicated portable game consoles will thrive, but the climate is not healthy for them now due to how dominant mobile gaming.
What’s also interesting is what Yoshida did not bring up – the proprietary Vita memory cards, which many fans point to as an unnecessarily inflated investment. The negative vibe surrounding the cards was enough to discourage many gamers from getting a Vita, esp when Sony has a unsavory history with their proprietary media.
While the temptation remains strong to compare Sony’s portable efforts to Nintendo’s, Sony’s ambitions with the PlayStation Portable and Vita always went beyond games, and closer in line to Apple’s vision with the iPod and iPhone.
There is no lack of articles comparing the two companies and products, but perhaps the most salient observation is how Sony failed to innovate before Apple, and how their efforts were undermined by division between their departments.
Do you own a Vita? What do you think about your console? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.
