Shuhei Yoshida: A Vita 2 Can't Exist in This Video Game Climate

Well, crudsicles. Shuhei Yoshida, during EGX 2015, revealed that there may not be a successor to the Vita thanks to the exploding mobile industry. According to the President of Sony's Worldwide Studios, the current video game climate just isn't healthy enough for a Vita 2 to exist thanks to the advent of mobile game development and the rise of the free-to-play model.

When asked about the possibility of a successor:

"That's a tough question. People have mobile phones, and it's so easy to play games on smartphones. And many games on smartphones are free, or free to start. I myself am a huge fan of PlayStation Vita and we worked really hard on designing every aspect. Touch-based games are fun--there are many games with really good design. But having sticks and buttons makes things totally different."

He raises an extremely valid point. On a personal standpoint, I am not fond of complex smartphone games that require "controller-like" controls on a touchscreen. I don't like the nonexistent feel (vibration doesn't count for me as "feeling"), but prefer the physical, raised buttons of a controller. That said, there are some good games on mobile (i.e. Terra Battle) that utilize the touch screen, but for games like mobas, RPGs, fighters... it just doesn't work. And yes, I could go buy an adapter for a controller, but a lot of games don't support the controller, I've noticed.

Additionally, my experience with free-to-play hasn't been the greatest. I find the real benefit of free-to-play is the fact that it will stop you after a certain point of playing (if you have the self-control to not shell out the dough), but after so long in a game, the model gets tiring. Free-to-play games just do not captivate me well enough to keep going (except for Terra Battle, once more, but again I don't play it as often as I used to)--for me, it's a one-and-done kinda deal.

Continuing onward, Yoshida further comments:

"So I hope, like many of you, that this culture of playing portable games continues but the climate is not healthy for now because of the huge dominance of mobile gaming."

For now, he mentions... wonder if that could be permanent? I hope not. I really do love the Vita, hardware and all. There's just a sense of charm to these types of handhelds. With all this said, I wonder how Nintendo is feeling about the 3DS.