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Sony struggling to recruit third parties for PS Vita

"We're having a more difficult time than we had anticipated in terms of getting support from third-party publishers [for PS Vita], but that's our job." - Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studio president Shuhei Yoshida.

Eric Caoili, Blogger

August 9, 2012

1 Min Read

"We're having a more difficult time than we had anticipated in terms of getting support from third-party publishers, but that's our job."

- Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studio president Shuhei Yoshida admits that the company has had trouble convincing publishers to create games for its struggling PS Vita handheld. Launched just eight months ago, PS Vita has had little success gaining momentum -- its software rarely cracks the top sales charts, and the poor performance of its hardware recently forced Sony to slash its portable sales forecast for the fiscal year from 16 million units to 12 million. A common criticism levied against PS Vita is that the system has few compelling games on the market. If lacking hardware sales and these difficulties recruiting third-party support continue, there seem to be few opportunities for Sony to turn around PS Vita's sales outside of a major price cut. With the exception of Ubisoft (Assassin's Creed III: Liberation) and Activision (Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified, for which there's little information about), hardly any major publishers have pledged to release potential blockbusters as exclusives for the handheld. Yoshida, though, previously pointed out to Gamasutra that Sony has managed to attract independent studios to PS Vita, as we've seen with games like Queasy Games' Sound Shapes and Nifflas' Knytt Underground. But will those games be enough to convince consumers to start buying PS Vitas?

About the Author(s)

Eric Caoili

Blogger

Eric Caoili currently serves as a news editor for Gamasutra, and has helmed numerous other UBM Techweb Game Network sites all now long-dead, including GameSetWatch. He is also co-editor for beloved handheld gaming blog Tiny Cartridge, and has contributed to Joystiq, Winamp, GamePro, and 4 Color Rebellion.

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