with Vita so far Worldwide studios boss Shuhei Yoshida says there are plenty of new games on the way
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Yoshida said the lack of Vita talk at E3 was solely to keep the conference short
by Michael French
PS VITA got short shrift during Sony’s E3 presentation, but don’t mistake that for a lack of energy behind the new handheld. According to Sony, the firm focused on just three big brands heading to Vita –Assassin’s Creed, Call of Dutyand YouTube – to prove the device’s star power, and also to silence critics of SCE’s typically long presentations.
But there was plenty more new games on display at the expo itself for the four-month- old device. “We had 25 PS Vita games playable on the show floor, some of which are really great titles I’m very excited about,” Sony’s Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida told MCV. “We could have spent more time talking about those, but we had a very clear intention this year to make the total press conference shorter, because we’re notorious for holding lengthy ones.
He added: “I hope we accomplished that with this year’s conference – which I think lasted about 80 minutes – but
In retrospect, we should’ve spent more time showing and talking about our PS Vita titles.
“ Shuhei Yoshida, Sony
from the perspective of people who are waiting for more information on Vita titles, we weren’t able to provide that. “I got lots of tweets to my account complaining that there weren’t many PS Vita games being talked about. In retrospect, we should’ve spent more time talking about our PS Vita titles. “I’m hoping that journalists are looking at the games on the show floor and getting the word out that way.”
Read the full interview with Yoshida on page 20.
NEW IDEAS WILL REIGNITE THE MARKET I’VE LONG believed – and have fittingly bored my colleagues to tears with this theory – that the market slump is really caused by general apathy towards the decreasing variety in the games market. I’ve only now shared that view in MCVas who am I to say that my boredom with RPG Follow-Up 4 or Sports Entry 2013 is consensus? But, yes, I felt pretty relieved – and smug – that this view was shared not just by my media peers but the industry itself at E3 last week. Every new IP, original idea, or fresh reboot was praised and pointed to as the bright spots; stand-out moments amidst a sea of slick violence, random sexism and stilted press conference autocue scripts. Beyond, ZombiU, Last of Us, Dishonored, Quantum Conundrum, Unfinished Swan… On this rare occasion, the cliché is honest: the list really does go on. There were plenty of new, ballsier ideas to look at than the usual franchises and sequels. The clever-clogs answer to any ‘new IP’ debate in this climate is that originality can be found in its droves online. But those games still don’t, with rare exceptions, hit the jackpot that big boxed games do. They will eventually, of course. But until then, it was a relief to see so many fresh games on show at E3. It was even more a relief to hear key people from Ubisoft and Sony acknowledge how important those games are to the market.
WII-L U JUST GET ON WITH IT? NINTENDO seems to have taken too much criticism to heart when it comes to presenting the Wii U.
It’s become conventional wisdom that it ‘botched’ the console’s reveal last year. 12 months later, in response, Nintendo had to host three separate events to promote its line-up at E3. One for the Wii U GamePad. One for Wii U software. And a final one for all the neglected 3DS stuff. But frankly (and yes, I’m aware of the irony here) Nintendo needs to ignore the press and go back to being the firm that had confidence in its vision.
Without question, Wii U is a delightful, feature-rich device. It’s a GamePad. It’s a TV controller. It’s apparently also a fitness device, a website browser, a photo album… and the answer to social ills. But we’ll discover that in time. That’s the joy of new hardware. Nintendo and some key third-party partners have held back talking about more launch games to let some sink in. However, I’d prefer they barraged us with info about the bounty of games in the works. That might just drive more anticipation around this important hardware launch.