Sony had last month said PlayStation Vita would not have a sequel and the company would focus on the PS4 as there was no market for the handheld console as mobile gaming had largely taken over. The forgotten console has now had the final nail in the coffin with Sony confirming that it is no longer developing first-party titles.
In an interview with the Japanese site 4Gamers, Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE), senior VP, Masayasu Ito said that “Currently, first party studios have no titles in development for PS Vita. Since third parties are working very hard on PS Vita, SCE’s own strategy is to focus on PS4, which is a new platform.”
He did state that third party developers are working hard on developing titles for the console and fans need not worry about the console and the company is still working on a strategy to target younger audience with coming up with new hardware colours.
This does not come as a surprise that Sony is focusing its developing prowess on the PS4 – the popular gaming console on the market instead of the handheld system which despite of its great hardware had to struggle to fight competition provided first by Nintendo and then mobile gaming.
And now with Nintendo jumping to the mobile game bandwagon, the handheld console is slowly going to fade into oblivion and be a thing of past.Although, you know, touchscreens don’t make for the best gaming experiences, so handheld consoles will have a market until smartphone makers figure out what to do about that.