If you’re hoping that Sony will introduce a successor to the PlayStation Vita anytime soon then you might want to lessen your expectations. Sony Interactive Entertainment Global CEO Andrew House recently talked about the handheld marketplace, the success of the Nintendo Switch, and why the Vita wasn’t as successful as Sony wanted. There’s a lot here to unpack out of just a few sentences.
“The Nintendo device is a hybrid device and that’s a different approach and strategy,” House told Bloomberg in a recent interview. “We have not seen that as being a huge market opportunity [outside of Japan and Asia].” House went on to state that “there was not a huge demand” for “the Vita experience was that outside of Japan and Asia.” Despite the success of the Nintendo 3DS, House says that the determining factor behind the Vita not being a success was “the lifestyle shift toward the dominance of smartphones as the single key device that is always with you.”
As one can guess from the previous quote, House and Sony are high on using smartphones for gaming. That’s why they’ve established a studio, ForwardWorks, specifically for making mobile games, and have introduced a line of PlayLink titles like That’s You! and Hidden Agenda. Speaking about the Switch, House doubled down that Sony wants to create a “connected gaming experience” that players could enjoy. “That draws me to the conclusion that they’ve really been additive to the business in the last year or so,” said House. “The folks at Nintendo have their strategy and that’s great. We remain focused around a highly connected gaming experience and also coupled with having a great range of other entertainment experiences so you can reach multiple people on the big screen in the household.”
Do you agree with Sony’s strategy? Would you like to see a “PlayStation Switch” device? Let us know in the comments below.
[Source: Bloomberg]
