It should be no surprise hearing that Sony is trying its hardest to make the PS Vita the elite system for indie titles. For weeks leading up to, and during PAX East and GDC, Sony has been tweeting left and right about the ease of developing for PS Vita, PS Mobile and the newly announced PS4.
Learn more about the benefits and advantages of PS Vita development in our #GDC session today at 11am: bit.ly/12R229Z
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) March 28, 2013
In 2013 alone, tons of Indie ports have been announced for PS Vita. They aren’t just any old Indie games either, they’re some of the biggest hits of this generation. It all started at the beginning of February when Frozen Synapse Tactics was announced, and then just shy of twenty days later, Hotline Miami, one of the biggest successes of 2012, was also announced to be coming to the powerful handheld.
Things went a little dark after that, but PAX East and GDC both brought forth a resurgence of Indie port announcements. Games like Limbo, Thomas Was Alone, Lone Survivor, Spelunky and, just revealed today, Terraria are all set to be coming to the Vita. While the Vita is a little sore from the lack of AAA titles, it seems to be nothing short of thriving in the realm of indie titles. It all makes complete sense, too.
Think about it. The Vita has been a download-centric console since it was released just over a year ago. Every game that is released for it is required to be downloadable on it’s day of release in addition to being sold on a card. Further pushing the download-only trend, every single Sony published game, and some third party titles, are discounted a few dollars if purchased on the PlayStation Store.
Gamers were promised console quality gaming on the go and it is truly unsurprising that Sony is trying so hard to deliver on this promise. Nobody wants to have a huge carrying case full of game cartriges that are small enough to lose, it defeats the purpose of the console being portable.
However, console quality games on a handheld pose a few problems. For one thing, the main place people play their Vita is supposed to be on the bus or train during the commute to work, so having a game that isn’t broken up into chunks that are short and to the point sometimes causes the loss of coherence. Some developers like the ill-fated Nhilistic have tried to counter this by breaking up their games into bite sized missions, but they ultimately failed. Indie titles, however, pose an extremely strong solution to this problem.
Take Terraria, for example, a game that much like Minecraft relies heavily on its sandbox style gameplay and lack of a story to provide endless fun. This concept is perfect for the Vita because gamers could theoretically jump into their game, mine some items, build a house and have a true sense of accomplishment by the time their ride to work is complete.
Another game that feels built to be played on the Vita is Hotline Miami. Way back in October when the game was released, the second my hands touched the keyboard, I knew it would be a perfect fit on the system. I couldn't stop thinking about it, so in December I went so far as to ask the developer to port it.
@hotlinemiami Please put this on Vita. I can't get enough I want to play it everywhere.
— Jimmy Champane (@jimmychampane) December 9, 2012
The reason that it would work so well is because the game was built around it
s bite-sized missions and score-based rewards. The game has Steam Acheivements already, so switching those to Trophies would provide for even more replayability.
To push the fact that the Vita is the perfect place for Indie titles even further, imagine playing the critically acclaimed PC title FTL: Faster Than Light on the Vita. Managing your very own spaceship on the way to work, or even just sitting on your couch would be awesome. If this game gets announced for Vita in the near future, I know I wouldn’t be surprised.
Many developers have tried porting their console games to the Vita, but many of them have ultimately failed to provide a compelling reason to chose the Vita version over the console release. Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 Plus, Need For Speed: Most Wanted, Mortal Kombat and Sly Cooper: Theives in Time all took serious graphical hits just to get the games working at an acceptable framerate. Indie titles would almost assuredly stop this issue dead in its tracks. I accidentally left Hotline Miami open on my PC while playing SimCity last week and the footprint on my processing power was so small, I didn’t even notice until I quit SimCity. If these indie titles feature Cross-Save, gamers will finally be able to truly have the exact same experience on the go that they have on their couch.
The final, and possibly most important point I’ll argue in the Vita’s defense is price. When these titles came out on Steam or the Console Stores they were already cheap to begin with. Hotline Miami is only $10.00, as are Terraria and Limbo. Spelunky only costs $5.00 more at $14.99. What more could a gamer ask for at that point.
After a troubled generation of competition with Microsoft, Sony finally seems to be figuring things out. The PlayStation 4 is being touted as “The Gamer’s Console,” and the PlayStation Vita is receiving the blockbuster hits that it finally deserves, as well as a slew of indie titles that will hopefully help sales skyrocket as much as, or even more than the price drop in Japan did. After a troubled first year for the little handheld that could, it finally seems like brighter days are upon us. I’m highly confident that the PlayStation Vita will soon find its legs in the heavily saturated world of $.99 cell phone games and that it will finally become a worthy competitor against the Nintendo 3DS.
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