I'm Really Not Excited About The Vita Being "The Indie Platform"

On 08/25/2013 at 08:36 AM by gigantor21

Sony's Gamescom presentation continued a central theme that's driven the game division's approach for a while now: "Sony <3 Indies!"

Continuing from their E3 presentation, which had several indie developers on stage playing their games for the world to see, Sony highlighted more indie efforts during the show. In particular, they focused on the Vita's indie lineup, stating it's a natural fit for the platform as indie devs make more on the Vita than smartphones. Sounds pretty cool, right?

Well the whole "portable indie machine" angle left me cold.

I didn't buy the Vita to play smaller indie titles. I was mainly attracted to the bigger titles--Gravity Rush (which I didn't really like much upon playing), Soul Sacrifice, Dynasty Warriors: Next, Killzone, and so forth. I was also looking forward to seeing portable iterations of key first party IPs like God of War, after seeing the amazing work companies like Ready at Dawn did on the PSP. I also expected to see more in the way of ports of PS3 titles I could play on the go.

Yet on all three of those fronts, Sony came nowhere near delivering. We didn't hear about any new big first-party titles; the biggest port we heard about was Borderlands 2, which came out over a year ago; and third-parties offered little in the way of their own big Vita titles.

Capcom still has zero interest in bringing MH4 to Vita, and has been cagey about bringing any new or existing fighters. Ubisoft has the AC:L team working on AC:4. Namco has been cagey about bringing Tekken Revolution to Vita. That Koei is bringing Dynasty Warriors 8 XL to Vita excited me more than anything Sony showed at Gamescom.

Beyond that...to be quite honest, I'm not really that big on indie titles to begin with.

I like the idea of giving developers the freedom to put out their own stuff on their own terms. But in practice, the indie scene hasn't offered much more interesting fare to me than the big publishers have. I don't have much interest in "Neo-16bit" 2-D platformers, RPGs, or puzzle games. And I rather like the scale and scope of big publisher AAA titles. I'd much rather see more variety there--alongside saner budgeting and more mid-range titles--than have the risktaking outsourced to smaller devs who can't offer anything of that size.

With the (long overdue) price-cut on the Vita, my hope is that we see sales pick up enough for publishers to put more big titles on the platform. Not holding my breath though... :(

Homelessrook

08/25/2013 at 08:48 AM

Ive been a little put off by this too. I am looking forward to the new KZ and Ys. I want to play Black gate, mostly because it is Batman.

gigantor21

08/25/2013 at 03:00 PM

Really looking forward to KZ and Blackgate, too. Still need to get Dragon's Crown, as well, but I'm broke as shit. :(

asrealasitgets

08/25/2013 at 01:55 PM

Hopefully it will push sales of VITA and bring in more gamers who were turned off by the device, and a popularity growth will attract more game devs. I think gamers have grown accustomed to the idea that small indie games are better as portable games as opposed to "console experience" games on portables. We tried console gaming with PSP and it didn't work. Most gamers don't want a console experience on portable. They want cheap 2D games to fill their memory cards.

They really do need to put Gran Turismo, God of War, etc. on VITA! I hope Killzone VITA is good!

08/25/2013 at 03:01 PM

Those games should've been out by now, or at least announced.

And I think console-sized games can work really well if they're designed with portable use in mind. Soul Sacrifice and Dynasty Warriors Next are perfect in that regard.

ThatKidOverThere

08/25/2013 at 02:02 PM

I think that they're trying to appeal to the hardcore pc gamer group, which isn't neccesarilay a bad thing. Even they want to play games on the go every now and then!

08/25/2013 at 04:53 PM

Great exclusives would do a better job of getting people to buy one. Hell, the price-cut makes a much better case IMO.

NSonic79

08/25/2013 at 02:58 PM

That's a bummer. It makes me wonder if Sony is just trying too hard to win over indie developers given the fallout that happened back at E3 on the Xbox One. I never tired out the indie offerings on the PSP store so I don't know if it would be a good or bad thing for more idie titles to be offered on PSN, be it for the PSP or the PSVita. I just wish they offered demos to see if the game would be any good. Sure the indie titles are cheep but a cheep, bad indie title is still a cheep, bad indie title.

08/25/2013 at 03:04 PM

I don't think they have a choice as far as the Vita is concerned. Unlike the PS4, most third-parties have gone AWOL--it's been as bad as the WiiU for well over a year now. They need some kind of conduit to prove that there's interest and value in the device from a developer standpoint.

Vice's Assistant

08/25/2013 at 08:21 PM

Considering I really only use my Vita as a web browser and where I can watch You Tube in legit HD, I'm with you there. Plus is the only think that's keeping me from saying this was kind of a waste. I love the little thing but there's not a lot of indies I want to play. The only two I can think of is Yagadratsu/The Legend of Raven and Guacamelee. Minecraft on Vita sounds cool...but I'm sure it will be really gimped versus the PC verison. Really, the only good thing for Vita to come out of Gamescom was price cuts, especially on the memory cards.

08/25/2013 at 09:35 PM

Pretty much. Can't wait for Yatagarasu--the game is great on PC. Other than that, though, I went into E3 and Gamescom excited about Killzone, FFX and Batman: AA...and still pretty much feel that way after both showings. I've heard more exciting announcements outside of Sony's conferences for the Vita (Yatagarasu, new Dynasty Warriors) than during them.

And the 32GB card is still WAY too expensive. Even at $50 it'd still be a ripoff, frankly, but I'd still be willing to pay that.

Super Step Contributing Writer

08/26/2013 at 08:40 PM

Yeah, I can see how "quirky" indie titles might not be the most appealing things in the world, when you want more AAA big-budget titles.

08/27/2013 at 08:29 AM

It's Sony's damn fault for pushing the thing as a "console in your pocket". :p

Casey Curran Staff Writer

08/27/2013 at 10:26 AM

Yeah I feel the same way. I enjoy an indie game if it's really good, but most of them are not that good. And trust me, as a reviewer I play a lot of indie games, the market doesn't put out as many Hotline Miamis as we think it does. Honestly though I'm not sure if this is its future or if it's a cheap way to keep interest until Sony pulls the plug on it.

08/27/2013 at 11:41 AM

I suspect it's a cheap way to show that there's still developer interest outside Japan. It'll likely be Japanese devs who end up providing most of the bigger releases. It was the same for the PSP--only it didn't happen nearly as fast on that. :/

transmet2033

08/27/2013 at 10:41 AM

I like the idea of having a portable indie gaming machine. I will say that indies are not the reason that I would buy a VIta especially since they tend to be nice and short. Indies are perfect as a palate cleanser between AAA titles.

Indigo

08/27/2013 at 12:47 PM

I don't think you need to worry too much about Sony bringing 1st party support to its handheld. I think the ratio of first to third party playstation games is pretty high.

They have already proven they will be giving portable love from a lot of staples like: Uncharted, Metal Gear Solid, Katamari, Assassins Creed, Bioshock, Dead or Alive, Street Fighter, Final Fantasy, God of War, Gran turismo...etc.

Personally, I'm really excited that these huge companies are showing support for a more "homegrown" approach to development. A basement dev today could be working on a triple A title tomorrow.

And as far as the quality of indie games... you mentioned you didnt have fun with Gravity Rush, despite having plenty of polish. Hotline Miami is my personal contender for game of the year and featured distorted 16bit graphics made by a tiny team.

aaaaaaanyways.
I've been considering a Vita, would you reccomend one and why?

PixlBit