Developer: “Lack Of Trophies Is Probably The Single Biggest Turn-off For Most Gamers”

Futurlab’s critically acclaimed Velocity doesn’t come with standard OS-level trophies, but studio head James Marsden wishes it did. Although the developers put their own achievements into the game, they don’t contribute towards your overall PSN trophy count.

And sadly, for some, that’s enough to put buyers off.

[drop2]”Lack of trophies in minis is probably the single biggest turn-off for most gamers,” said Marsden to TheSixthAxis today. “At least that’s the impression we get from feedback on our games.”

And it’s not the only thing missing from minis, the PSP/PS Vita/PS3 cross-platform range of smaller, cheaper but no less valid download titles that have included some of the purest gameplay experiences out there.

“The second most asked for feature of minis is high scores / networking ability,” James said.

“Also demos,” he adds. “If all three of these things were included in minis, it would make sales rocket, as there are some gems on minis, and perfect for the PlayStation Vita.”

We ask whether Futurlab have asked that Sony change their policies with regards to the somewhat crippled capabilities of the platform. “Yes,” he replies, “but account managers only have so much say on the direction of the platforms they operate on.”

Would they patch up their games to include online play and trophies if SCE changed the rules?

“Definitely.”

“In my opinion,” adds Marsden, “MotorStorm:RC is the first example of what a PS Vita game should be, as it suits a portable device and is able to use the connected features to its advantage.”

“If there were any developments made to the minis platform, it should be toward the mold of what MotorStorm:RC achieved.”


Update: our full interview is now live.

41 Comments

  1. Trophies dont bother me much… But i cant see minis ever supporting them, or network functionality. Part of the minis philosophy is to cater for small developers by lowering the cost of entry onto playstation platforms. Adding those functions would increase the cost of devkits considerably i would have thought…

  2. Trophies are a bonus to me. They don’t determine whether I buy a game or not.

  3. Personally I don’t play minis as I don’t see the point in playing casual games on a home console, and on Vita I still prefer the more ‘hardcore’ experience. Whether they had trophies or not would not – I think – change my mind.

  4. I wish they would just remove the trophy feature. I always get the feeling that I’m missing something when playing games without a trophy guide and even if I have one around it feels half assed because I keep looking up every next step so I don’t miss anything. Trophies are the reason why people don’t play games the way they used to play them anymore…

  5. I’m still waiting for some minis to support local multiplayer/co-op splitscreen, but trophies are always welcome.

  6. People wont buy a game because it doesn’t have trophies, what in the world? !

    I really don’t care about them, and wish they didn’t even have them really, it puts me off when one pops up in the corner.

  7. True, I never buy minis exactly because of lack of trophies. I don’t mind buying PSP games, but that’s a bit different.

  8. I think trophies would make me pick a game up but the lack of them wouldnt make me put it down.

    Does that make sense?

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