Sony’s Yoshida: “We’ve been surprised by lack of third-party support for Vita”

Attributes this is greater competition in mobile arena

Chris KempSeptember 29, 2012

The PS Vita has been on rocky footing since launch, with lackluster sales and a game lineup that has been slow in gaining momentum.

Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida has said that he has been surprised and disappointed by the lack of third-party support for Sony’s struggling handheld.

“One thing that was surprising and disappointing to us was the [lower] number of third parties to come out [in support] after launch,” he said.

He attributes this largely to the wave of mobile gaming platforms which have emerged, creating a lot of competition for the attention of developers.

“In retrospect, there are so many options for publishers now that we cannot take it for granted that our new platform would be supported by third parties, like [it would've been] many years ago,” he said.

“There are limited resources that third party publishers have, and they have to diversify into new areas constantly; that’s a challenge to get the support that we want.”

According to Yoshida, the key is to streamline the focus of the Vita, and figure out what exactly is best played on the console, in order to garner more support from developers looking to create the kind of experience the Vita can cater to.

“As we can expand our install base and articulate what works really well on the platform as compared to others, it will get easier for us to be able get support from third parties,” he said.

With the 3DS also suffering poor sales until a big price cut, it could be that mobile platforms are facing too much competition from the likes of smartphones and tablets.