Speaking to MCV, SCE’s UK Managing Director, Fergal Gara, has spoken quite candidly about the Vita’s future and the areas in its past where it didn’t do quite so well.
It’s no secret that the sales of the handheld have been underwhelming, in spite of the obvious underlying quality of the machine itself. Gara takes some time to address this directly, saying “I think we haven’t quite hit the spot with the killer software just yet and I have every reason to think that will happen in the next few months.” That’s a hugely encouraging statement with quite a refreshing honesty about the handheld’s current catalogue which, in my opinion, is reasonably strong but simply doesn’t have a mass-appeal “killer app” yet.
The hope is that tentpole releases in the final quarter of this year will provide some of that mass appeal. Call of Duty and FIFA are perennial best sellers on all formats and the extra work and attention Ubisoft is putting into the Assassin’s Creed III spin-off Vita title, Liberation is as encouraging as it is fascinating.
Gara goes on to say that the big focus this christmas for the PlayStation 3 will be Book of Spells, further enforcing the notion that they’re going to chase the casual market hard as the console enters the autumn of its life. While it’s clear that signing anything in the Harry Potter franchise as any sort of exclusive will have plenty of pull, as a gamer, it’s not really what I want to see the company focus on but it’s not a surprising shift of focus at this stage and if it gets a wider install base for the hardware, that can only have a positive effect.
The interview contains some nice insights about how Sony works with the PSN and its retail partners, as well as Gara’s thoughts on the recent troubles faced by Game Group PLC. It’s well worth reading the full interview.
Source: MCV
bmg_123
I don’t see a problem with the PS3’s casual focus this Winter, since we’re getting The Last of Us, Beyond and hopefully something from Sucker Punch next year. Sony exclusives generally come out in the first two quarters of a calender year anyway, so this doesn’t seem majorly different.
Kivi95
Don’t forget God Of WAR!
Tuffcub
I dont get why everyone is complaining, we didnt get games released every week on PS3 until it was at least 2-3 years old.
sparkyscrum
And some of the games we’ve had are gold (Wipeout, Rayman etc).
More and bigger are coming, LittleBigPlanet, new Rayman and others mentioned in the story.
KeRaSh
New Rayman? What are you talking about. Legends is a Wii U exclusive for all we know.
Sympozium
bueno