PlayStation Europe CEO Jim Ryan on the future of Playtation Vita

Key Sony executive on how Vita can become a profitable playground for other publishers and the future of the PS3.

[Protagonist]

Thanks for a great Interview. PlayStation Europe CEO Jim Ryan did a great job with the PSVITA and PS3, what a show it was.

[BrutallyBlunt]

I liked the interview too, he seemed to be quite honest.

Some highlighted quotes
Question aksed -"I just wonder what's happened to the casual market. It feels like it has left the traditional games business.

Answer -Well we still have a significant PSP business in many markets, which is something that tends to be forgotten. But I think a certain amount of that market has found its way onto smartphones and tablets."

At least they acknowledge the trends happening and see more markets have risen because of it. People DO play games on smartphones and tablets so of course some potential Vita sales will have to deal with those consumers even though they don't buy tablets and smartphones just for games. Ask yourself this, now that PS1 games are on smartphones and tablets are they now not considered real games?

"Yeah the development environments are rather different. PS Vita is a more PC-based environment whereas the PS3 is a more bespoke development environment. So the cross-over between both is rather limited."

That was bound to be the case. The Playstation 3 came out years ago and Vita was a different direction for Sony. They wanted Vita to be a more friendly system for game developers. So you have two different architectures and two different experiences. This is why comparing the PS3/Vita combo to the Wii U doesn't make much sense and why cross game play and buy one get both versions will be limited.

"there are so many platforms for games that these publishers have to place bets carefully. It's the job of the platform holder to explain why betting on their console is good business."

This is true and why we won't be seeing too many games that make full use of the hardware. 3rd party publishers focus more on selling to as wide of a userbase as possible. It's the same reason why things like the Playstation Move get very little support from them. If Vita sales do well then expect those publishers to take more chances. Trouble is you need unique experiences to get consumers to buy that particular hardware. That's the job of the 1st party and games like Tearaway are a great example.

"I think Nintendo is always a competitor"

Of course they are. That's why it was ridiculous of Jack Tretton to dismiss the DS and 3DS crowd like that.

Question asked "And there was no mention of the new PS3 either and-"

Answer "-Which new PS3? [laughs]"

Almost sounds to me like they are waiting for the official price of the Wii U and release date to try and counter it and take some of the headlines away. Not a direct competitor but if they can get consumers still on the fence to buy a much cheaper slimmer PS3 then why not?

"Also I would say, and certainly for the next five years, that disc-based distribution is going to be the norm."

The flip side to that is there are some Vita games that can only be bought digitally just like some Playstation 3 games. They are the smaller titles but they can still be good ones. Sound Shapes and Journey come to mind. So we are already in the transition phase of buying digital only. Big titles will remain disc based and will also offer a digital version too. Those titles have a much larger investment so they want as many people to have access to them as possible. So you have a trade-off of having digital only and getting all those resources back by cutting out the used market/piracy/and the middlemen retailer but also limiting your customer base or a wider audience but more costs for shipping, loss of revenue through used game sales and piracy.

[Blankman85]

I'm just glad people are no longer lying to themselves and saying Vita does not need saving (looking at you GrGr) 2.2 million is indeed worrying for a product that was meant to sell 10 million for the year.
Bright side is that from here it can only get better.

[HarryMasonHerpderp]

2.2 million in 6 months isn't all that bad, it's not great but this time next year I expect the Vita to of shifted at least 10 million.
It just needs more marketing especially TV ads I haven't seen one in the UK and more third party support from developers will help a lot more. People are genuinely happy once they have one so it's a great system it just needs more games and stronger advertising. People doubted the PSP and thats sold 53 million units.

[THESONYPS3]

Actually the PSP has sold 74.96 million units.

[dark-hollow]

It IS bad!

When your system is going neck to neck against the dreamcast launch sales then you know something is wrong.

[Blankman85]

Except it's been out since December, that's 8 months. It has sold only 400k in the last 4 months.

[chela]

you cant say that on sonyboy's site

[Xperia_ion]

Burn lol

[chela]

see? u just cant...

[remanutd55]

what a great interview, this is one of the few interesting articles on this site anyways, if it were up to me i'd put every ELITE studio to work on simultaneous projects on psvita and ps4 launch line up, i'd put Sucker Punch, Evolution Studios, Naughty Dog, Sony Santa Monica, Polyphony Digital, Japan Studios, Guerrilla Games, Media Molecule and more to develop new original games on the vita ( in other words i'd bring the best to give me the best) just like Mm and GG proved it at Gamescon, i'd take an aggressive marketing approach, instead of marketing games by themselves i would create psvita on the go entertainment ads (showcasing vita games, features and applications), i would take a little more emphasis on casual gamers.

price cut is coming but after the holidays but i would bundle a 16 gb memory card with the system and lower the price on all memory cards, i would get rid of the 4 gb memory card and create a 64 gb one at a reasonable price.

[joeorc]

"But how can PS Vita appeal to the more casual audience? What does it have?"

A: Well, the games we create for the PlayStation Mobile initiative are compatible with Vita and we see Vita as being one of the primary devices for that content. We have a lot of Vita network games that are lighter touch but are priced accordingly. So I think there's a reasonable amount of things now that will appeal to that side of the market.

Many people said Sony has not learned about, the past mistakes about the mobile gaming space and that Sony need's more unique Pick up and Play games to cater to the casual crowd for the PSVita to be viable.

Well i think this interview show's that Sony has learned and they are doing exactly that, and that is going forward to provide both types of game play offering's for the consumer, i think that is what most would agree would be a good thing. Why not have both type's of content. what does it hurt to have both.