Out with the Old, In with the New: Ports are Harming the Vita

Mark Reece of SpawnFirst writes: "If the fact that, approximately two years after it first launched, the Vita is still struggling to get a foothold and make any meaningful waves in the industry is news to you, then it would be remiss of me to not congratulate you on waking up after a prolonged coma that must have been quite stressful for your loved ones. I’ll send them a fruit basket."

[porkChop]

Not just ports, but it's mostly old ports of games that people have likely already played.

The Vita needs ports of newer games or simultaneous releases if they're going to do ports at all. Really though, devs/pubs need to take a chance with completely new games.

[sinncross]

while I agree that ports are not the way to go, I am going to admit that ports are at least better than having zero support for the device.

Granted, if the port just flat out sucks then yeah... that hurts the port angle of the device.

[Agent_hitman]

Why?, don't you want to play Borderlands or Bioshock infinite on Vita?.. Me, personally I would like to see FF13 or Resident evil 5/6 on vita if it's possible.. Old game is not a problem imo.

[porkChop]

I would rather play a new Borderlands or Bioshock game. The Bioshock game for Vita that Ken Levine has been trying to get greenlit for example is an entirely new game specifically for the Vita, it isn't a port.

[hulk_bash1987]

Correction: Great ports of great games are welcomed. Half-assed ports for a quick buck can GTFO

[Anon1974]

Couldn't agree more. A good game is a good game no matter when it originally came out. Like any platform, half assed ports aren't doing anyone any favors (other than a quick buck for the publishers). But there's absolutely nothing wrong with a well done port. Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath was a game I missed the first time around and right now it's one of my favorites on the Vita. I'm so glad I had a chance to play it via PSN+. There isn't a damn thing wrong with that.

Quite frankly, I feel this article misses the mark. If someone wants to port a title over to the Vita, as long as the quality's there it's no skin off Sony's nose to allow that to happen. It's not like Sony's own resources are being eaten up porting these games over for the most part. So what's the harm?

[kB0]

Crap ports ruin Vita, Good ports further port people over from consoles;)

I think there a lot of games out there that I'd rather play on the go. I'm so happy that Persona 4 and Disgaea came over to Vita...same with MGS series... I mean seriously I have no problem for ports if they are done properly!

That doesn't mean I don't want anything new, but I won't condone any1 for porting games over.

Just don't buy them...simple.

Crap ports:

Ratchet and Clank (the dumb one), Jak (1 at least), Spiderman (though still fun:P), there are others too but to lazy.

[prodg52]

If it's a bad port, then yes, BUT, I've picked up a few games that I didn't get to play on PS3 on my Vita and it's great! I plan on getting any future PS3 releases on Vita also if they're released that way so I can make the transition to only PS4/Vita.

[CyrusLemont]

Borderlands 2 will hopefully be awesome, but will it have all the same content plus all the released DLC to date?

Also, the PS Vita is quite capable of handling console titles with obviously not as great graphics but still exceptional (Although Killzone Mercenary looks stunning!). Yet when games like the Lego series come out, it gets the crappy 3DS port. Why? This isn't a low powered device like the 3DS. Open world New York, Middle Earth, Gotham City etc. is what the device should be doing. We do get full ports on occasion, but I'm yet to see an 3D open world RPG like Skyrim/Mass Effect on the device which it really needs. It's much closer to 360/PS3 hardware capabilities than the 3DS I believe. Correct me if I'm wrong though!

[cluckey07]

Im thinking it's going to have added content. It's not a quick port so I hope it gets some exclusive content. I'm still playing it on PS3 and I can't wait to play it when I'm on the go with my Vita.

[aquamala]

I just can't play shooters on Vita with these little sticks, I can play sports games, platformers, RPGs, and games like Sounds Shapes, Virtue's Last Reward, but not shooters.

[GUYwhoPLAYSvideoGAME]

you play killzone mercenary for atleast an hour or so and i promise you'll be able to do slow panning, and headshots, i promise, it just takes time to get used to like everything else that's new

[CalebZachary8411]

I find certain games to fit the vita MORE than a console. I would have NEVER played P4G had it not been for the vita. As well as YS Memories of Celceta, Tearaway. And I will definitely get Borderlands on it. Ports are welcomed, as long as they are done great. If I haven't played the game, I will pick it up.

[DEATHxTHExKIDx]

Do u not have a PS2? u can still buy Persona 4 from Amazon for like 17$. I was tempted but I would rather play the superior version.

[CalebZachary8411]

Nah. It was a game that never would have appealed to me on the PS2 when I had it. I don't keep older systems usually.

[Armadilo21]

I just don't know how turn the PSVita around,.... let's see what happens next year

[TongkatAli]

Marketing that simple. Sony needs to learn from Nintendo on how to market games.

[GUYwhoPLAYSvideoGAME]

NO, i don't want to be fed nostalgia bs

[arbitor365]

nintendo markets their handhelds primarily to children. the vita is not a kid's console at all. they will never be able to market it the same way.

[InTheLab]

Nintendo has an army of children out buying the 3DS. Got my boys two of them after watching an episode of TMNT and pretty much everything they watch because Nintendo has all the Disney and Nick channels on lockdown.

[DEATHxTHExKIDx]

Sonys pretty much done everything. Except release games that made the PSP popular. No GTA,No FF, No MH(Nintendos now), No GoW, No GT,etc..

Now there trying to rely on Remote play to make it a seller which I already know is not going to work.

I guess at best we might have a better picture when PSvitaTV/Slim come stateside and, when PS4 releases in Japan. I dont think we will see much improvement tho.

[arbitor365]

it makes perfect sense to port PSN games onto the vita. games like minecraft, spelunky, and terarria deserve a good handheld version. they need to get games like journey, unfinished swan, pixeljunk sidescroller, scott pilgrim, and dyad on there.

[VR-4nic]

I couldn't agree more with this article. PS3 ports are great and all but VITA exclusives are what sell systems, not old ports that can be had on a PS3! The VITA is by far my favorite hand head and it's just crazy that more people don't even know about it, which I do believe could of been avoided if the VITA would of been named the PSP 2. More exclusive made games like LBP Vita, Killzone Mercenary, Tearaway, Soul Sacrifice and Uncharted GA will be the only way the truly save the VITA from mediocrity.

[Dannycr]

I'm incredibly glad that they ported Muramasa to PS Vita. That is a game that deserved to be in HD. Even when I played it on my Wii it looked amazing, but HD was seriously needed for this jewel.

[Fasttrack76]

I so want borderlands for mine

[Dinoegg_96]

Nope, the lack of WESTERN EXCLUSIVES is harming the Vita. The good ports are welcome, but we need more western exclusives.
Don't get me wrong, I love all the japanese games we are getting, but those games won't sell as much units as a GTA or a CoD (in America and Europe).

[cluckey07]

It's hard to take too many of these opinion articles seriously. Considering just a few months ago they all claimed console gaming was dying and mobile gaming was going to replace it. Then boom all of a sudden console gaming is stronger than ever and mobile gaming is dying. Keep up the good journalism. lol