PlayStation Boss Defends Vita, Slams Social Gaming 147
donniebaseball23 writes "Sony Computer Entertainment America boss Jack Tretton has come out swinging to defend the lackluster response the games industry has seen with the PS Vita. He deemed the sales level for the portable as 'acceptable' so far, and he brushed off any notion that social and free-to-play games are putting huge pressure on the portable and dedicated consoles market. 'I think the opportunity to be in the console business is greater than ever before,' he said. '[Social and free-to-play] is a business I think a lot of companies are learning is difficult to sustain for the long term. It's an adjunct or it's an add-on, but it's not where gaming is headed. It's an additive diversion. There's a place for social and freemium, but it's not going to replace the business models that are out there.'"
The company is having a hard time getting third-party developers interested in the Vita platform.
Then why did you cancel our PS Vita game??? (Score:1, Interesting)
3 months from being done, Sony cancelled the game we were developing that would run on PS3 and Vita. Guess the lack of titles on the Vita isn't a problem for them.
Re:That's a shame (Score:3, Interesting)
So did the PS3, until they killed the Linux use of it. Now it is only Sony blackbox hardware. I'll never buy from Sony again!
Re:It's amazing how many business people.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Which is not what he said.
He was defending himself against the accusation that the PS Vita is a flop and should be terminated. He's saying that people SHOULD have choices..... both free on the phone and professional-level games on portables like Nintendo DS and PSP/Vita.
I think the real problem here is trying to overcome Nintendo's dominance. Atari tried. Sega tried. Wonderswan tried. Sony tried (with PSP and then Vita). Nobody's been able to do it because Nintendo has a lock on portable game machines. Maybe because the primary audience for portables is kids (riding on buses, in cars, etc) and that is also Nintendo's primary audience.