Sony isn’t a liar per se. It’s more like a careful user of the truth. The PlayStation Vita was in fact only $250 when it released in February, and it played gorgeous games that are amongst the most technically impressive on any portable gaming device with the exception of high-end laptops. The low price came with the caveat that you had to purchase a wildly expensive memory card as well, and as for those games, well, there just wasn’t a whole lot of original material for Vita. Where are the killer games? Where are the beautiful games available on both the Vita and its big brother PlayStation 3? MLB The Show and Motorstorm RC are not enough!
Those games are coming apparently, and not just in the form of pretty re-releases like the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection and Mortal Kombat. Sanzaru Games, the team behind last year’s Sly Collection, announced on Friday that it’s upcoming Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time will be available for both Vita and PlayStation 3 come fall. The games will be identical across both platforms and saved games can be played on either system for seamless play.
“The portable version will contain all the same awesome Sly Cooper action you will find on the PS3 along with cool Vita-specific features that incorporate the front and rear touchscreens and motion controls,” said Sanzaru president Glen Egan.
Putting aside for a moment how cool the Vita-specific features may or may not be—let’s not forget the abysmal gyroscope stuff in Sony Bend’s Uncharted: Golden Abyss—Sanzaru’s announcement is promising indeed, as it’s a strong indicator of what Sony may have to show people at this year’s E3. While it seems that, with the company’s big announcements like God of War: Ascension and PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, Sony may not have too much exciting to show off at the event, Sly 4 proves that the big message won’t be on console games like those, but games playable on both Vita and PlayStation 3.
This is the promise of the Vita realized, but it’s also an indicator of Sony’s greater role in the console business going forward. Considering the company’s recent catastrophic losses, releasing a new console like PlayStation 4 in the near future would be foolhardy and expensive. Meanwhile, the company has two products that it can leverage to demonstrate how its goods are comparable to new hardware like Nintendo’s Wii U. If Sony plays its cards right, the Vita could give the PlayStation 3 more than the ten year lifespan Sony wanted. Now it just needs more games like Sly to sell the system.
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