During an appearance today at Europe’s EGX gaming event, PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida made comments that suggest a successor to the PlayStation Vita may not be in the cards. Asked about a PlayStation Vita 2, Yoshida said the current video game climate is “not healthy” for such a platform to exist due in part to the rise in popularity of gaming on smartphones and tablets.
“That’s a tough question,” he said when asked about a potential PlayStation Vita 2, as reported by Eurogamer. “People have mobile phones and it’s so easy to play games on smartphones,” Yoshida said. “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 make things totally different.”
He added: “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.”
Also during the talk, Yoshida was asked about the possibility of a new Wipeout game coming to market. Though developer Sony Liverpool is closed, Yoshida said Sony has a “never say never” attitude about bringing Wipeout back someday; the same can be said for other dormant Sony properties, he said. Another fan asked about the possibility of a Killzone remastered bundle for PlayStation 4, not unlike Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection. He didn’t rule it out, but said Sony would need to find the right partner to make it happen, if it ever does.
He also estimated that only about half of current PS4 users owned a PlayStation 3. Remastered bundles are a good way to catch them up with franchises they may never have played, Yoshida explained.
Watch the full interview below, which also dives into the past 20 years of PlayStation.
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