Playstation Vita:Year One: 2 Old 4 Gaming

2 OLD 4 GAMING
DELUXE EDITION
PlayStation
Vita:Year One
The unofficial story of the PlayStation
Vita’s launch and first year
Sandeep Rai
001
002 Playstation Vita: Year One
PlayStation
Vita: Year One
005
The Story
033
Interviews
108
Library
003
INTRODUCTION
I have
In this book, I take a look back
at the launch of the Vita and the
games released in its first year on
been a
the market. The Vita was labelled
a failure just months after its
launch. There were many reasons
gamer for
for this and I intend to explore the
highs and lows of the Vita’s first
year and how its performance
most of
and the negative reputation it
obtained, continued to define
the Vita for its life. You can’t talk
my life.
about the Vita’s launch without
also discussing Nintendo’s
3DS and how a series of smart
decisions from Nintendo (coupled
with some bad decisions from
Sony) sunk the Vita early on.
Despite the poor sales of
the Vita, it continued to have
games released for the system
for over 6 years after its launch.
I have fond memories of sitting Expectations don’t always pan
in front the TV and playing my out. The PlayStation Vita failed
NES with my brother, but as an to meet expectations at its
adult I’ve found handheld gaming launch but continued to defy
just suited my life more. The expectations of an early demise
PlayStation Vita, with its varied for years.
library of games and portability,
has been my device of choice
when it comes to gaming. The
Vita struggled to make an impact
on the video game market but it
found its audience of loyal fans
(including myself) that continued 2 Old Sandeep Rai
to support it long after Sony 4
Gaming 2 Old 4 Gaming
stopped releasing games for the
system.

The Story
006 Before Vita
008 The NGP
010 Building the Hype
012 The First Cracks
016 Failure to Launch
020 Go West
024 Year One
005
1980s–2010
1 Before Vita
n the 1980s nobody expected of Sony’s drive to challenge Nintendo’s

I Sony to become a major player
in the video game industry.
domination of the video game market
with the release of the PlayStation in
The video game crash in the 1994.
early 1980s destroyed most of The Game Boy and Game Boy Advance
the US video game companies but the were two of the most successful video
industry was reinvigorated by Nintendo. game machines ever released, selling
By the end of the decade, Nintendo 119 million units and 81 million units
dominated the home console market respectively. But Sony’s announcement
with the Nintendo Entertainment System of the PlayStation Portable (PSP) in
and the portable games market with the 2003 sent a shockwave in the industry.
Gameboy. Sony was arguably the biggest The PlayStation had significantly
consumer electronics brand in the world, outsold the Nintendo 64 (N64) with
famous for the Walkman and their range its reputation for being a device for
of TV sets. Sony attempted to partner mature gamers. Nintendo was already
with Nintendo to release a CD-based seen as more difficult for third-party
system compatible with Super Nintendo developers and publishers to work with,
games, but Nintendo snubbed and so Sony’s friendly approach to working
embarrassed Sony publicly by partnering with developers led to more third-party
instead with Philips. This was the start games on their system. Where the N64
cartridge-based system was restrictive
in terms of capacity and ability, the
PlayStation allowed games of better
In the 1980s nobody graphics, sound and complexity to run
and with cheaper disc manufacturing
expected Sony to costs. Continuing into the PlayStation
become a major 2 generation, Sony had already secured
brand loyalty and continued to maintain
player in the video good relationships with developers and
game industry publishers that meant many big name
games were exclusive to the PlayStation
2, despite the console being less powerful

than Nintendo’s GameCube.
The PSP was an extension of the
design and mantra that led to the
PlayStation 2’s (PS2) success. More
powerful than the Game Boy Advance,
with mature games and with the ability
to play music, watch movies and surf
the internet. Nintendo was caught off
guard by the announcement. Their
own (seemingly knee-jerk reaction)
announcement of the Nintendo DS in
November 2003 could not assuage the
rumours that Nintendo would no longer
rule handheld gaming.
In 2004, the PSP was revealed. The
sleek, black system with a large, colourful
screen made Nintendo’s plastic grey DS
look even more childish. Where Nintendo
showcased mini-games to justify the
existence of the touch screen on the
DS, Sony showed games from popular
PlayStation franchises like Metal Gear
and Wipeout.
Although the PSP was announced
earlier, Nintendo launched the DS in
Japan and North America in 2004,
whereas the PSP only launched in Japan
in December 2004 and 2005 in North
America and Europe. Both systems
sold well at launch but despite the
positive buzz surrounding the PSP, the
DS exceeded the first week sales of the
PSP. It was the first indication that the
Nintendo DS might not be as doomed as
first expected.
The PSP went on to sell over 80
million units, making it one of the best-
selling video game systems of all time.
The DS sold considerably more with over
Some of Sony’s pre-Vita 150 million units, but the sales of the PSP
machines, from top to bottom:
the PlayStation 1; the PlayStation were enough for Sony to justify launching
Portable; and the PSP Go another handheld – the PlayStation Vita.
Before Vita 007

JANUARY 2011
2 The NGP
ollowing months of rumours on the device and third-parties showed

F and speculation, Sony
announced the successor to the
off tech demos of popular games like
Call of Duty and Metal Gear Solid 4. NGP
PSP. The system, codenamed games would even support trophies – a
the Next Generation Portable fan favourite feature on the PlayStation
(NGP), was revealed at an event in Tokyo 3 where players earn virtual trophies for
in January 2011. It featured a 5 inch achieving objectives in games.
organic light emitting display (OLED), The reception was positive. The PSP
multi-touch front screen, back touch pad, had very few games being released
motion sensors, front and back cameras towards the end of its life so a new Sony
and, most importantly from a gaming
perspective, dual analog sticks. The
NGP would use small game cartridges,
dropping support for the PSP’s universal
media disc (UMD) format.
Sony showed off its biggest franchises The announcement proudly showed
off the NGP‘s sleek design, and the
like Uncharted, Killzone, Wipeout, range of games shown gave a hint of
LittleBigPlanet and Resistance running the machine‘s power

handheld that could play first-person Warfare. The promise of a Call of Duty
shooters with 2 analog sticks, replicating game being playable on a handheld
the console experience, was exciting. with dual analog sticks was exciting
Media outlets praised not only the stylish for gamers and the wider industry. This
and comfortable design, but also the tech feature had been requested since the PSP
inside the system. The low power, high had been revealed and PSP fans were
performance ARM Cortex A9 processor excited that Sony was finally launching
meant that the NGP was significantly a device that could deliver the console
more powerful than current smartphones gaming experience on-the-go that had
and tablets but used similar architecture been promised of the PSP.
allowing ease of development. Nintendo had officially announced
With the variety of control inputs, the 3DS just six months earlier. The
it seemed like Sony were appealing to glasses-free 3D system with two screens
both the core gaming audience and also had a generally positive reception at
those that play touch screen games on its reveal. However, the announcement
mobile devices. The NGP was designed of the NGP just a month before the 3DS
to compete with both the 3DS and launch took the wind out of Nintendo’s
smartphones. There was apprehension sails. Suddenly the 3DS looked more
on whether it could truly compete with like a device for children, except parents
mobile devices but it seemed to be a were told that children under 6 years of
foregone conclusion that the NGP would age could damage their eyes by playing
outperform the 3DS. games in 3D. Coupled with a launch
The dual analog sticks were a library lacking Nintendo’s biggest
particularly important addition. The franchises, resulted in the 3DS launch
Call of Duty series was the best selling sales underperforming globally compared
gaming franchise at the time with to its predecessor, the DS. The stage
millions of copies sold of each game seemed to be set for Nintendo to lose its
released since Call of Duty 4: Modern crown as the king of handheld gaming.
The stage
seemed to be set
for Nintendo to lose
its crown as the
king of handheld
gaming
The NGP 009

JUNE 2011
3 Building the Hype
3 2011 was Sony’s big push and the mainstream media, however,
E for their new portable and by
all accounts it was a success.
was the NGP – now officially named the
PlayStation Vita.
Sony had a lot to prove at Sony revealed that the Vita would be
E3 that year. Not only were launched in 2011 and would cost $249.99
they launching a new system but the for the Wi-Fi only model and $299.99
PlayStation Network had recovered for the 3G/Wi-Fi model – which was
only a month earlier from a hack that well below industry predictions. The
resulted in 23 days of network outage. Vita would be the successor to the
Sony’s press conference opened with PSP, which had sold well but had been
a well-received apology from Head of eclipsed by the Nintendo DS. Sony didn’t
Sony Computer Entertainment America, want to take any chances of history
Jack Tretton, as well as footage of repeating itself and so priced the Vita at
hotly anticipated new PS3 exclusives the same price as the 3DS, aggressively
such as Uncharted 3 and Resistance 3 challenging Nintendo’s domination of
(as well as introducing a new 3D TV the handheld market.
set). The news that stole the headlines Sony demoed games that would
in both the dedicated gaming press be available for the Vita, including
Despite the Vita being

sold at a loss, Sony
were upbeat about its
prospects, predicting
it would outsell its
predecessor, the PSP

E3 2011 brought news of the Nintendo showed off Luigi’s Mansion,
NGP‘s official name, as well as the a new Kid Icarus game, Mario Kart 7
announcement that 100 games
were in development and Super Mario 3D Land, all scheduled
to launch by the end of 2011. However,
these announcements couldn’t put to
rest rumours that the 3DS was failing.
After selling 3.6 million units in the first
5 weeks of release, the drop in sales was
Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Resistance: massive, resulting in less than a million
Burning Skies, Modnation Racers: Road units being sold in the three months
Trip, Wipeout 2048, Ruin and many more. from April to June 2011. With the Vita
There was even an announcement from priced the same as the 3DS, Nintendo’s
Ken Levine, creator of Bioshock, that newest handheld was looking more and
there would be a brand new entry in more like a flop.
the Bioshock series made for handheld. Prior to E3 2011, analysts predicted
In addition, Sony showed off how the Vita would be priced over $300,
PlayStation 3 games could be streamed potentially $400 – therefore Sony
and played on the Vita, via Remote Play surprised the industry with the $250
(demonstrated with Killzone 3). Sony price tag. Sony’s Kazuo Hirai (who
informed the audience that there were would later go on to be the global CEO
100 games in development. The news of the company), stated that Sony did
was nothing but positive. not expect to make a profit on the Vita
Nintendo’s 3DS also had a good for the first three years of its life – each
showing at E3, but up to that point the unit would be sold at a loss with games
games launched for the system had sales expected to eventually recoup the
been unimpressive. In those first few losses (Kazuharu Miura, an analyst for
months, the biggest games for the SMBC Nikko Securities, estimated Sony
system were ports of previously released would be losing 5,000 yen, approximately
titles (for example Star Fox 64 and Street $65 per unit). Despite this, Sony were
Fighter IV). A remake of The Legend of upbeat about the Vita’s prospects,
Zelda: Ocarina of Time was scheduled with predictions it would outsell its
to launch just 2 weeks after E3 and predecessor, the PSP.
Building the Hype 011

SEPTEMBER 2011
4 The First Cracks
f the Vita had launched just started looking a lot less attractive.
I after E3 2011, its fortunes might
have been radically different.
The price drop was seen as not
only a response to the Vita, but also to
Sony had a successful showing compensate for the declining handheld
and although the price of the market due to smartphones. When the
memory cards was yet to be revealed, the DS and PSP were launched, smartphones
buzz for the Vita was overwhelmingly were still years away from becoming
positive. The 3DS meanwhile was seen as mainstream devices. In 2011, phones
a subpar system with a 3D gimmick that could be used to surf the internet, watch
no-one wanted and very few worthwhile movies, listen to music, play games
games. Nintendo recognised the 3DS was (that were far cheaper than those on the
in trouble and they did something about 3DS) and of course make phone calls.
it – in July 2011, just over a month after The market had moved on between the
the Vita’s price was revealed, Nintendo DS and 3DS launches, with analysts
dropped the price of the 3DS by around questioning whether dedicated gaming
30% (from $249 to $170) and even handhelds could succeed at all now that
compensated early adopters with 20 free smartphone gaming had become so
retro games. Only a month earlier, the popular. The sales of the 3DS between
Vita made the 3DS look overpriced, but February and July 2011 supported the
now the tables had turned – the Vita argument that dedicated gaming
handhelds were unnecessary.
Up to that point, Nintendo was not
having a good year. 3DS sales were well
Only a month earlier, below expectations, the company had
made a loss for the financial year and
the Vita made the the reveal of their new console, the
3DS look overpriced, Nintendo Wii U, left consumers confused
and unimpressed. The 3DS price cut
but now the tables was welcomed by the industry and more
had turned importantly by consumers. Sales went
from around 800,000 units (from April
to June 2011) to 2.2 million (from July to

September 2011). The outlook was even The Nintendo 3DS’ price drop,
more positive for the rest of the year coupled with the high price tag
on the Vita’s memory cards,
when Nintendo would launch its biggest knocked what could’ve been a
brand name, Mario, with 2 new games strong launch off course
for the system – Mario Kart 7 and Super
Mario 3D Land would be released before
Christmas 2011. Coupled with the cheaper
price tag, the 3DS’ fortunes seemed to
have completely changed.
This change in fortunes seemed
to come at the Vita’s expense, as the
outlook for Sony’s handheld was on the
decline. Despite the fact that the Vita
was already priced at a loss for Sony,
the 3DS price cut sparked rumours
and expectations of a similar price cut
from Sony. The analyst Hideki Yasuda,
from Ace Securities, stated: “Gamers
are increasingly anticipating Sony to
lower prices, especially after the 3DS
cut.” Sony’s Head of Worldwide Studios,
Shuhei Yoshida, told Eurogamer in
August 2011 that Sony were happy with
the Vita’s price and had no plans to
cut it – however, the damage was done.
Where once the Vita’s price was seen
as a positive of the system, it was now
seen as too high compared to its nearest
competitor, the 3DS, leaving Sony in a
difficult position. The Vita was already
priced at a loss and dropping the price
further was not financially feasible, but
maintaining the price made the 3DS a
more appealing proposition. The gaming
media’s outlook of the Vita was still
overall positive but more bad news was
on the way.
In September 2011, Sony had
another strong showing at their Tokyo
Games Show (TGS) press conference,
announcing big games coming to the
Vita, including remakes of franchise
The First Cracks 013

The announcement of franchises such
as Final Fantasy, Zone of the Enders,
and Metal Gear Solid coming to the
Vita temporarily buoyed opinion
entries Final Fantasy X, Metal Gear Solid with the cheapest memory card costing
2 and 3 and Zone of the Enders 1 and 2,200 Yen ($29) and the most expensive
2. There was also the reveal of Japan’s costing 9,500 Yen ($124) – around 40%
26 game launch line-up and confirmed of the Japanese price of the system and
support for digital PSP games. The PSP not far from the price of a 3DS in the
support in particular meant that there US. While the official prices for memory
would be hundreds of games playable on cards for the US and Europe hadn’t been
the Vita at launch, which was important announced, the damage was done. Not
as Nintendo’s 3DS offered backwards only was the Vita $70 more expensive
compatibility with their DS console. The than the 3DS, but now it looked even
company also revealed that Vita’s battery less competitive when you factor in the
life would last 3-5 hours which was seen memory card – which was mandatory
as disappointing, but it was at least in for some games. Comparatively, the 3DS
line with Nintendo’s 3DS. However, the used SD cards, which were significantly
most shocking announcement came 2 cheaper. In an effort to limit piracy on
days after the presentation. the Vita, Sony damaged the reputation
On September 15, a Sony press release of the device permanently – even years
revealed the price on the Vita’s memory after the system launched, it was still
cards in Japan. It was already known that criticised by many for the overpriced
the Vita would use proprietary memory memory cards, which are cited as one of
cards (in an attempt to curb the piracy the main causes for the console’s failure.
that had ravaged the PSP), however In an interview with the Japanese
the price had been a mystery up to that site Impress Watch, members of the
point. Sony confirmed memory card device development team stated that
sizes would range from 4GB to 32GB, Sony chose to use proprietary memory

cards to ensure players wouldn’t have to effectively forcing players interested in
worry about the various read/write speed trophies to buy all games new. This later
of SD cards and also ensure security turned out to be untrue, and trophies
of the device. However, this did not could be easily earned on second hand
justify the lack of storage on the Vita games with a few simple steps, but it was
itself and therefore forcing consumers another demonstration of Sony’s poor
to buy the overpriced memory cards. To messaging of the system in the lead up
make matters worse, it was revealed to its launch.
that only one PlayStation Network September 2011 was an eventful
account could be assigned to a memory month for Nintendo also. The company
card – if players wanted to use a second announced a 3DS accessory (that
PSN account on their Vita, they would would be called a Circle Pad Pro in
need a separate memory card and the west) which was an attachment
then would need to perform a device to the console that gave it a second
reset to set the Vita up again using their analog stick. Nintendo was criticised
other PSN account. The PlayStation for announcing the accessory only
3 allowed players to set up and swap months after the 3DS’s launch – it was
between multiple PSN accounts with tantamount to an admission that the
ease, which had the advantage of 3DS should have had a second analog
allowing users to buy digital games from stick at launch, but the reveal of the first
different territories. It was yet another game to be compatible with the Circle
disappointment for potential Vita buyers. Pad Pro was the bigger piece of the
Trophies were a big selling point of news. The Monster Hunter games were
the Vita to those gamers invested in the incredibly popular in Japan and up to
PlayStation brand, but more bad news that point they had been synonymous
came in December when a manual for with Sony’s PSP, with the most recent
the Vita stated that trophies could only entry (Portable 3rd) shifting nearly 5
be earned by the first user of a physical million copies in the region. However,
game. This indicated that players could Nintendo reached an agreement with
not earn trophies for second hand games, Capcom and secured exclusivity on the
3DS for the next portable Monster Hunter
game – Monster Hunter 3G – a remake
of the Nintendo Wii’s Monster Hunter 3.
The overpriced The game was announced to be launched

in Japan in December of that year – just
memory cards are still weeks before the Vita’s release date. In
cited as one of the just three months, Nintendo completely

turned around the 3DS’ fortunes –
main causes of the between the strong line up of upcoming
Vita’s failure games and the price drop, consumers

were seeing the value of the 3DS, and
sales reflected this.
The First Cracks 015

DECEMBER 2011
5 Failure to Launch
n October 2011, Sony confirmed Nintendo also – Mario Kart 7, Monster

I that the Vita would launch
in the US and Europe on 22
Hunter 3G and Super Mario 3D Land all
launched that month in Japan over three
February 2012, allowing them consecutive weeks in the lead up to
to focus on the Japanese the Vita’s launch. All three games sold
launch on 17 December 2011. 25 games incredibly well and were the 2nd, 4th
would be available at launch for the Vita, and 1st best-selling games respectively
including established console franchises in Japan for the year despite each
(Uncharted, Disgaea, Ridge Racer, etc.) being released in the last month of
and brand new IPs (Little Deviants, Army the year. From a rocky start, the 3DS
Corps of Hell, etc.) The launch line-up was now selling over 300,000 units a
was impressive in terms of its variety of week and upon the release of Super
genres and number of titles, but it was Mario 3D Land, it crossed 4 million units
also criticised for not having a ‘killer sold in Japan. Nintendo’s strategy of
app’ – that one game that was so good launching its three biggest 3DS games to
that it alone justified the purchase of the counteract the Vita’s launch proved to be
system. Despite this, Sony were confident extremely effective. Consumers could buy
the Vita would be a success. a 3DS with all three games for the same
Two days before the Japanese launch,
Andrew House, President of Sony
Computer Entertainment, told reporters
that pre-orders had exceeded their stock
allocation. He didn’t reveal numbers, but The launch line-up
it was reported in the Japanese press
that Sony had shipped 700,000 units –
was impressive in its
500,000 of the more expensive 3G model variety of genres and
and 200,000 of the Wi-Fi only model.
Nintendo had shipped approximately
number of titles, but it
400,000 3DS’ for its launch and had sold was also criticised for
371,000 units. Sony was betting on far
better sales of the Vita.
not having a ‘killer app’
December 2011 was a big month for

price as a Wi-Fi Vita with the smallest as expected. It seemed Sony’s decision
memory card. The decision to cut the to over-supply the Japanese market
3DS price had paid off for Nintendo and with Vitas had back-fired as half of the
with quality games being released for units shipped remained unsold after the
the system, they used this advantage first few days on the market. Worse still,
to effectively kill the Vita’s momentum Sony had bet on the more expensive 3G
before it had even been released. model being the more desirable product,
The Vita sold 325,000 units in its first but this was not the case – potentially
two days on the market, almost double due to price, the cheaper Wi-Fi model
the number of units of its predecessor, was more in demand (it was reported
the PSP. However, many gaming media that the majority of the shipped Wi-Fi
outlets saw the launch numbers as sub- models were sold compared to less
par based on the Vita selling 40,000 less than half of the 3G models). Consumers
units than the 3DS had sold at its launch complained about not being able to find
and also due to images of the Vita being the Wi-Fi model in shops and so chose
left on store shelves – suggesting there not to buy a Vita at all rather than buying
wasn’t as much demand for the product the 3G model. Sony pushed the Vita’s
connectivity features as a selling point,
but it appeared that portable gamers
primarily cared more about affordability
than anything else.
When a new system launches, games
are expected to also sell well. However,
The Vita’s connectivity was a big at the Vita’s launch, only 4 games
selling point, but the cheaper Wi-Fi appeared in the Japanese Media Create
model being more in demand and weekly sales charts – just two of which
harder to find meant customers
chose not to buy a Vita at all rather (Uncharted: Golden Abyss and Hot Shots
than getting the 3G model Golf: World Invitational) were in the
Failure to Launch 017

top 10. Hot Shots Golf was the highest Poor game sales reflected the low
selling Vita game, shifting 61,000 copies, adoption rate of the Vita, and unit
sales dropped accordingly
however this paled against the sales
of the 3DS’ three big games which all
shifted over 120,000 copies. Even the 3DS
itself had higher sales numbers than the expected to have a sales drop off in the
Vita on the week of the Vita’s launch. weeks after launch, however the Vita’s
Nearly all new game systems are sales fell to just 73,000 and 42,000
units in the second and third weeks
respectively and no Vita games made
the top 20 sales chart in those weeks.
It was a disastrous This was perceived as a disastrous start
to the system’s life. Even the PSP sold
start – even the PSP more than the Vita in the weeks after its
sold more than the release, assisted by the fact that it was
still seeing more new software releases
Vita in the weeks than the Vita. All eyes were on the
after its release Western launch to determine if Sony’s
newest handheld could find the audience
it desperately needed.

019
FEBRUARY 2012
6 Go West
hile the Vita may have failed to

W make a huge impact in Japan,
Sony was still optimistic about
the Western release. Uncharted:
Golden Abyss was the biggest
game to launch on the system and
the series was far more popular in the
West than in Japan. With the release
of Uncharted 3 on the PS3 just months
earlier, it was hoped that having a new
Uncharted game on the Vita would drive
sales due to new gamers discovering
the series on home consoles. However,
Uncharted: Golden Abyss was far from
the only noteworthy title available
day one, as more than 20 games were
showcased alongside the hardware. This
included new entries from existing big
console franchises like FIFA, Wipeout
and Motorstorm, ports of console games
like Blazblue Continuum Shift, Ninja
Gaiden Sigma and Ultimate Marvel vs
Capcom 3 as well as indie games like
Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs and
Plants vs Zombies. The launch library
was heralded as very impressive with
multiple gaming media outlets praising
its variety. The games covered a range of
genres from AAA games that replicated
home console experiences alongside
The Vita’s launch library included, from
smaller and cheaper experiences – the top to bottom, Uncharted: Golden Abyss;
variety in the price was also seen as a Plants vs Zombies; and Rayman Origins

plus point for the system, as gamers on a of memory cards and announcing a
budget would be able to buy smaller titles robust line up of games certainly helped
like Escape Plan or Super Stardust Delta. in that respect. Sony also demonstrated
Due to the size of the launch library, the its commitment to the Vita with an
range of genres and prices and the mix of advertising campaign across TV, movie
new and familiar gaming IPs, the Vita’s theatres, billboard, magazines and
launch line-up was considered at the YouTube. It even announced various
time by some critics in the industry as bundles and special offers for the Vita,
the best for any videogame system.
Leading up to the Western launch,
Sony announced the prices of memory
cards outside of Japan and to the surprise
of many, the prices were cheaper than
The launch library,
expected. They were still overpriced which included entries
compared to standard SD memory cards,
but they had at least been reduced
in existing franchises
compared to the prices seen in Japan. as well as indie games,
Sony had an uphill struggle to change
the reputation of the Vita ahead of its
was very impressive
Western release and reducing the price
Go West 021
including giving away 8gb memory Hot Shots Golf was the
cards with purchases of the Vita from highest-selling game upon the
Vita’s launch in Japan
select retailers or offering Wipeout 2048
in the UK free when players added £5
credit to their 3G data plan. In the US,
Super Stardust Delta and a free month
of 3G internet were offered, although from bad (Little Deviants) to excellent
this turned out to be yet another (Lumines: Electronic Symphony), however
poorly implemented plan as there was for the most part the games were
an unclear restriction to the offer – considered good but not essential. Cited
purchasers of the more expensive 3G Vita by many gaming sites was the lack of a
were forced to buy a month of data first killer app in the launch library. Games
and could only qualify for the free month like Uncharted and Escape Plan looked
and game after 30 days. Having to wait very impressive in trailers and demos
a month to play a game on your newly but the games didn’t quite live up their
bought console that you expected to be promise. Launch games tried to make
receiving on day one was not exactly use of the Vita’s various control inputs
seen as a consumer-friendly move. but rather than adding to the immersion
Despite the strong push from of the games, they felt gimmicky and
Sony, the gaming media was still not forced – for example using the camera
convinced that the Vita was a worthwhile to find a light source and decipher clues
investment. The Vita itself wowed critics in Uncharted: Golden Abyss or using
– the sleek and stylish system was the back touch pad to imprecisely move
impressive and comfortable to play but objects in Escape Plan. This wasn’t the
ultimately the games were the make or case for all games, but it added to the
break factor. The Vita had a varied line up confusing proposition of the Vita – core
of games and the review scores ranged gamers wanted to play games without

all the unnecessary touch controls and media – its games were reviewed and
people that enjoyed playing games on compared to console games and were
smartphones were used to cheap or even priced similarly to PS3 titles despite the
free games that only required a touch Vita being a handheld, leading to sites
screen. In trying to incorporate the Vita’s like Digital Foundry analysing Uncharted:
various control features into games, Golden Abyss and comparing it to the
they took away from the experience of home console title Uncharted 3 despite
playing some of the games. There were the huge gulf in power between the two
some novel uses of the Vita’s features machines. At the same time questions
like using the front camera to take a were raised around who would want to
picture of the players face for online play console games on the go.
races of Wipeout 2048 or using the On 22nd February 2012, the Vita
front touch screen to perform attacks launched worldwide. Sony touted the
in Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3, but queues at midnight openings as proof of
these were additive features rather than a successful launch, however, sales did
revolutionary improvements. The best not reflect this. At the time, the PSP had
games at launch were those that focused the most successful system launch in
primarily on the gaming experience the UK, selling 185,000 units at launch –
rather than how to demonstrate the eurogamer.net reported that the Vita only
features of the Vita. managed to sell 61,000 units at launch –
Sony’s big marketing slogan just over half of the 3DS’ sales in its first
was ‘console experience on the go’, 2 days on sale and less than a third of
but this came to be seen as a negative the PSP’s launch sales.
when it came to reviewing the games. Between the first week of its Japanese
While the Vita was capable of running and Worldwide launches, the Vita sold
some impressive games for a handheld, 1.1 million units. This was less than both
the claim that it could play console 3DS and PSP – which sold 1.26 million
games was not always considered as a and 1.24 million respectively in their first
positive. The Vita seemed to be in an weeks – but not significantly so. By the
impossible position with the games end of February 2012, Sony announced
that they had sold 1.2 million units,
which was considered to be a positive
figure. The Vita may have been selling
The weeks and months less than the PSP, but the Vita was
launching in a very different gaming
to follow would be landscape. The Vita was competing with
a true indication of not only the 3DS but also smartphones

and iPods – selling 1.2 million was
whether there was a considered a good start. The weeks
market for the Vita and months to follow would be a true

indication of whether there was a market
for a powerful handheld gaming system.
Go West 023
APRIL–DECEMBER 2012
7 Year One
ver the 8 weeks following the games, but had the Vita debuted with
O global launch, only four games
were released for the Vita in
less games and instead released a new
game every week, perhaps its reputation
the West. Despite the console would not have been so negative. The
having one of the biggest Vita was a learning experience and not
and most varied launch libraries of any just for Sony – the launches of the PS4,
gaming system at the time, the lack of Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch saw
releases in the weeks that followed led all three companies provide a constant
to a reputation that the Vita was never trickle of new smaller indie games to
able to shake – that it had “no games”, build their game libraries between the
followed by claims that the Vita was bigger AAA releases.
“dead” just weeks after its release. It When the PS3 had launched, there
became a self-fulfilling prophecy – the were very few games and this was
muted post-launch lineup led to a considered acceptable at the time,
perception of it having no games and but the Vita was competing with
this led to lower sales and publishers smartphones which had dozens of new
cutting back support, which of course games releasing daily, which were far
led to less games being released. With cheaper than the Vita’s titles and in
hindsight, it’s easy to point out Sony’s many cases free. Players wanted and
errors. They launched with over 20 expected more than just a handful of
games every two months.
April was filled with bad news of the
Vita selling poorly, hitting new lows in
The lack of early sales in Japan and even being outsold by

its predecessor the PSP and the ageing
releases led to Nintendo Wii. Despite this, the Vita did
the unshakeable have some big games for owners in the

four months after its global launch. Unit
reputation that the 13 was the first big release developed by
Vita had ‘no games’ Sony’s internal studio, Zipper Interactive,

who made a name for themselves on
PlayStation’s systems with the SOCOM

E3 2012 was a big opportunity franchise. The game was featured
to boost the Vita’s fortunes, but extensively in Sony’s advertising in
despite a strong lineup of games in
the pipeline, Sony dedicated less the lead up to the Vita’s launch and
than 15 minutes presentation time set itself apart by being one of the first
to Vita-specific announcements portable shooters to take advantage of
the Vita’s dual analog sticks. The game
was broken into a series of missions of
varying length, making it perfect for
a on-the-go play. A port of the third
entry in the Disgaea series came out in
April, followed by Mortal Kombat in May,
which was an almost perfect console
port with additional features and a
new game mode exclusive to the Vita.
Resistance: Burning Skies, the first true
dual-analogue portable first-person
shooter, released at the end of May and
Gravity Rush was released in June. Aside
from Resistance, the games had positive
reviews (particularly for Mortal Kombat)
but the Vita was still being criticised for
not having a killer app that truly justified
its purchase.
One month before E3 2012, Sony
announced that the Vita had sold 1.8
million units globally up to the end of
March. This was an overall positive story
as the Vita had sold 1.2 million units
at the end of February. 600,000 Vitas
sold in one month was good continued
progress (1.8 million sold in two months
even compared favourably to the 3DS
that sold 2 million units in the first
three months of 2012). However, it did
not seem possible for Sony to achieve
its target of 10 million Vitas sold by
March 2013. Additionally, of the 600,000
sold in March, only 52,000 were sold in
Japan – which had traditionally been a
more handheld focused market – which
painted a bleak picture for the console
domestically.
Year One 025

E3 was a huge opportunity for Sony Gamescom saw promising
to show gamers that the Vita was worth progress for big-name titles
including Tearaway; the Vita’s
owning and that games were coming, entry in the Call of Duty franchise;
yet despite having a strong line-up of and Killzone Mercenary
big name games planned for release
later in 2012, Sony barely dedicated
any time to the Vita. Less than 15
minutes of the one and a half hour
conference was spent on Vita-specific in the massively popular first-person
announcements – more time was spent shooter series, exclusive to the Vita and
on the announcement of the long that it would be released by the end of
forgotten PS3 peripheral, Wonderbook. 2012. Despite being planned to launch
The event was lacking in Vita game in less than 6 months, no footage was
announcements and instead spent more shown and Sony did not even reveal who
time talking about features of the system was developing the game. It was a cause
and the upcoming PlayStation Mobile of concern to have so little information
initiative. Among the Vita content that about a game launching so soon.
was shown – a debut trailer was revealed Sony also dedicated some of the
for Assassins Creed 3: Liberation, remote conference to talk about PlayStation
play would be patched in allowing Vita Mobile, an initiative that would allow
owners to play the PS3 games God of War PlayStation Network users to buy games
1 & 2, Ico and Shadow of the Colossus on PlayStation certified mobile devices
on their Vitas, and PlayStation All Stars and on Vitas. It would be a new market
was being ported to Vita and would place for games on select Android phones
release alongside the PS3 version. One and tablets that would avoid the over-
of the most important announcements saturation of low quality games on other
was the reveal of Call of Duty: Black Ops: mobile app stores. It was a promising
Declassified which was a brand new entry idea that provided the promise of more

games coming to Vita – hopefully to launched, but at least the Vita had a few
dispel the ‘no games’ myth! The Vita weeks of selling more than the PSP.
announcement that drew the most August was the month of the
cheers however was the reveal that Gamescom show in Germany and Sony
PS One classics would be playable on again held a press conference. The
the Vita in the near future and that all previously-announced Vita Killzone title
previous PS One classic purchases would was revealed as Killzone Mercenary, as
be transferable to the Vita – among the was a trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops:
games showcased were Final Fantasy VII Declassified, finally showing off some
and Tomb Raider. Although there were gameplay. The biggest announcement
some welcome announcements, E3 did was the reveal of Tearaway, a brand new
little to assure Vita fans that new games game developed by Media Molecule, the
were coming. creators of LittleBigPlanet for the PS3.
Some positive news was finally It looked to be a charming and unique
coming out of Japan at the end of June title that made use of all the Vita’s
with the release of Persona 4 Golden, a various control inputs such as front
remastered release of the PlayStation 2 and rear touch. It was a well received
classic RPG. Vita sales more than doubled announcement and went some way to
for the week of its launch and in that demonstrate Sony’s commitment to the
one week, Persona 4 Golden became the Vita by having one of its big first party
system’s best selling physical game, with studios working on an exclusive game for
137,000 copies sold (Persona and Hot the system.
Shots Golf were the only 2 Vita games During an investor call in August,
to sell over 100,000 physical copies in Sony had more bad news in terms of the
Japan by that point). However, this did Vita’s performance. The Vita had sold
not compare well to the 3DS which had 2.2 million up to the end of July. Only
multiple million sellers already and more 400,000 Vitas were sold in the three
on the way. The week after Persona 4 months between the end of April and
Golden’s release, Vita sales fell right end of June, which compared very badly
back down as Pokemon Black & White to the PSP which had sold 1 million
units in the same period. This was the
last time Sony would reveal the Vita’s
sales on their own – going forward they
E3 was a huge would only announce the combined
sales for the Vita and PSP. Sony also
opportunity for revised down their forecasted sales for
Sony to show gamers the Vita and PSP from 16 million to 12

million, but interestingly in an interview
that the Vita was with Gamesindustry International, Sony
worth owning Computer Entertainment of America CE

Jack Tretton, stated again that Sony still
expected the Vita to sell 10 million units
Year One 027

by the end of March 2013. This seemed September started off positively, with
like an incredibly optimistic goal given remote play enabled for four classic
it had sold just over 2 million units five PlayStation games, allowing Vita owners
months after its global release, and it to stream and play God of War 1 & 2, Ico
seemed Sony were pinning their hopes and Shadow of the Colossus from their
on a strong finish to 2012, with a number PlayStation 3s. There were hopes that
of big name franchises to be released this would be the start of a slew of PS3
between September and December. games being available to be played via
Sony’s recently promoted CEO, Kaz Hirai, remote play, but this wasn’t the case. Vita
told Reuters in August that the Vita was owners had to wait for the PS4’s arrival
selling mostly in line with expectations. to truly make use of remote play.
He compared it to the PS3’s poor launch September saw the release of two
sales and how the system was now big name games: LittleBigPlanet, which
considered successful and noted that became one of the highest rated games
success should be judged 5-10 years after for the system, and FIFA 13, which
a system has launched. was one of the lowest rated games.
More disappointing news came LittleBigPlanet was a brand new entry in
in August with the closure of Sony’s the LittleBigPlanet series that brought
first party studio, Sony Liverpool, the cute puzzle platforming to the Vita and
developers of the Wipeout series, allowed users to create levels and share
including Wipeout 2048 for Vita. Sony them for others to play. It was praised
Liverpool was not the only first party for its graphics, music, its use of touch
studio that was closed after releasing controls and the functionality for users
a Vita game, as Zipper Interactive, to create whole games in the palm of
developer of Unit 13, and Bigbig Studios, their hands. FIFA 13 on the other hand
developer of Little Deviants, were also was slammed in nearly all reviews – FIFA
closed shortly after completing their Football (or FIFA Soccer in North America)
Vita titles. Sony as a whole seemed to be was released alongside the Vita’s global
going through some financial difficulties launch and was received positively.
at this point, which was taking its toll on FIFA 13 was essentially the same game,
their dedication to the struggling Vita.
August ended on a positive note,
with PlayStation One classics support
arriving on the Vita. Dozens of games
were available, including Final Fantasy
Sony still expected
5-9, Metal Gear Solid, Crash Bandicoot 10 million Vitas sold
1-3, Resident Evil 1-3, Wipeout and many
more. Between the games developed
by the end of March
natively for Vita, PS One classics and PSP 2013 – an incredibly
games, the Vita had a catalogue of over
400 titles – however, it still could not
optimistic goal
shake its reputation for having no games.

system would be bundled with some of
the big releases to add value for new
buyers. He also admitted there would
be a Vita price cut in 2013. It seemed a
strange admission to make in the lead up
to the Vita’s first holiday season and may
have given potential buyers less of an
incentive to buy the system in 2012.
September saw two big releases – October started with the launch of
LittleBigPlanet and FIFA13 – that would PS Mobile – Sony’s marketplace for
become among the highest and lowest
rated on the Vita, respectively smaller game experiences that were
compatible with the Vita and PS Mobile
certified devices. Nearly 20 new games
were released, ranging in price from
US$0.49/£0.40 to US$7.49/£5.89. PS
Mobile did not seem to take off as
just with team rosters and kit colours Sony would have hoped and was shut
updated. It was a lazy, deceptive release down in September 2015. The video
from Electronic Arts and reviewers game market was in an unusual place
punished the game with low scores in 2012, with analysts predicting that
(although this didn’t seem to be reflected the next generation PlayStation and
in sales). Xbox consoles would be the last of their
Poor messaging seemed to be kind to be released and the future of
synonymous with the Vita throughout gaming was in mobile phones. PS Mobile
its launch and first year. In an interview was one of Sony’s attempts to future
with Eurogamer, Fergal Gara, Managing proof itself from the potential death of
Director of Sony Computer Entertainment console gaming, which turned out to be
UK, stated that there would be no price unnecessary when the PS4 launched
cut on the Vita in 2012 and instead, the to record sales numbers. Still, it brought
Year One 029

more games to the Vita which was
welcomed; however, they did not support
PlayStation trophies which was seen as a
major omission.
Still, the handheld trucked on and
Vita’s holiday line-up was impressive:
games from the big third party
publishers, including Street Fighter X
Tekken, Need For Speed: Most Wanted,
Assassins Creed: Liberation, FIFA 13 and
Call of Duty: Black Ops: Declassified
landed, providing a wide selection of
titles to play. Sony themselves released
PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, their
answer to Super Smash Bros which
received negative attention due to the
fact it seemed so similar in design
to Nintendo’s fighter. Street Fighter X
Tekken, PlayStation All-Stars and Need
for Speed: Most Wanted were almost
straight ports of the console versions -
Street Fighter X Tekken had new features
added and even included the ability to
have online matches with PS3 players
while Need for Speed: Most Wanted was
an impressive port and although it was
noted that the graphics were downgraded
from the console version and some
traffic had been removed, it still reviewed
favourably. Assassins Creed: Liberation
was probably the jewel of Vita’s holiday
lineup and was an ambitious new
entry in the long-running franchise – it
featured a new protagonist in an original
story and the traditional open world
gameplay that the series had become
known for. However, it suffered from
technical issues, including slow downs
Despite a large and steadily growing roster and crashes that resulted in less than
of games – including Street Fighter X Tekken, shining reviews.
PlayStation All-Stars, Persona 4 Golden, and
Mortal Kombat – the Vita was never able to With other titles releasing in a more
shake its reputation for having no games disappointing state than expected,

a lot of hopes were pinned on Call of have had the sales success of Call of
Duty to reverse Vita’s fortunes. The Duty: Black Ops: Declassified, but it found
biggest gaming franchise in the world a dedicated audience on the Vita and
on a handheld system that could play those buyers would go on to turn the Vita
first-person shooters with two analog into one of the best systems for niche
sticks should have had a huge impact Japanese games.
on the Vita’s fate, but it turned out to Black Friday in the US is traditionally
be a rushed game with poor enemy a time for discounts on gaming systems,
intelligence and a lack of content, leading to massive sales numbers. The
meaning that it could be finished in one Vita sold 160,000 units, which Sony
hour. Reviews were merciless and Call of again claimed was a success, but with
Duty: Black Ops: Declassified became the the Nintendo 3DS and its predecessor,
lowest scoring Vita game on Metacritic the DS, nearly doubling this number, it
for many years. The game did sell was again taken as another indication of
well despite the reviews but the Vita’s the Vita under-performing.
reputation was again damaged. 2012 was a year of ups and downs for
November 2012 had the lowest scoring Sony’s newest handheld and although
Vita game on Metacritic and also the the negative stories tended to outshine
highest scoring. One week after Call of the positives, releases like Persona
Duty: Black Ops: Declassified released, 4 Golden and the support for PS One
Persona 4 Golden was released in North games staved off the feeling of regret
America. The title had been a highly for Vita owners. Another positive event
praised RPG on the PlayStation 2 and the was PlayStation Plus (PS+) support that
Vita remaster gave it a chance to shine launched for the Vita in November 2012.
again and gamers loved it. It seemed PS+ was a subscription service that gave
like the Vita had found its killer app, but subscribers a range of free games each
given the title’s niche appeal and the month – to kick off the launch of PS+
fact it appeared so far from launch meant on Vita, subscribers could download and
it was too late to fix the Vita’s damaged play Uncharted Golden Abyss, Gravity
reputation. Persona 4 Golden may not Rush, the indie gem Mutant Blobs Attack
Between Vita games,

PS One classics, and
PSP games, the Vita
had a catalogue of
over 400 titles
Year One 031

and North American PS+ subscribers also 2012 was a rough year for the Vita –
received Wipeout 2048, Jet Set Radio and but against all odds, it lived on thanks
to a loyal and dedicated fan base
Final Fantasy Tactics. Even if a subscriber
didn’t own a Vita, they could still redeem
the game on their PlayStation Network
account, allowing them to download it
later if they did eventually buy a Vita.
The launch of PS+ may not have had a audience was not interested in console
huge initial impact on Vita sales but it gaming on the go (although this was
was an on-going incentive for loyal PS+ later disproved by the Nintendo Switch).
subscribers to eventually pick one up and But 2012 wasn’t the end of the Vita’s
play all the Vita, PSP and PS One games story. It may not have sold huge numbers,
they had redeemed. but Vita owners had a reputation for
Sadly, by the end of 2012 it turned out buying games (in 2013 Sony stated the
that many of the negative predictions Vita had an impressive attach rate of 10
about the Vita had come true. Mobile games per system). Many assumed the
gaming had significantly diminished the Vita would be discontinued soon after
market for dedicated handheld gaming release but it defied its admittedly low
devices and, in general, the gaming expectations and continued to grow an
audience of gamers that supported both
the system and the developers of Vita
games. The Vita was never able to sell
By the end of 2012 even close to the levels of the PSP but
the Vita’s first year set the trend for the
many of the negative system that lasted through its life – low
predictions had come install base but enough games sold on

the system to make it worth developing
true – but it wasn’t the games for it. Independent developers in
end of the Vita’s story particular found success on the Vita for
years after its launch despite the low
install base.

Interviews
034 Honeyslug
046 Grapefrukt
050 Queasy Games
054 Fun Bits Interactive
070 Limited Run Games
074 Tarsier Studios
088 Sony Studio Liverpool
100 Evolution Studios
Showcase 033
INTERVIEW Ricky Haggett
& Richard Hogg
Honeyslug

Of all the games published by Sony in 2012 for the Vita,
Frobisher Says stands out from the rest for being a quirky, party
game full of a variety of mini-games. It was a perfect demonstration
of all of the Vita’s features. It was developed by Honeyslug, who
also released Super Exploding Zoo and Hohokum for the Vita.
Ricky Haggett (Lead Developer) and Richard Hogg (Lead Artist)
share some of their experiences and memories in developing
and launching Frobisher Says.
RICHARD Frobisher Says was actually inspired by the Vita. We were asked
by people at Sony to pitch an idea for a Vita game. It was before the
Vita had come out. They were looking for people to make games that
would be a cross between a game and a demo app that would highlight
the key features of the Vita.
RICKY There’sa group within Sony called Strategic Content, run by

Shahid Ahmed. Those guys contacted independent developers looking
for people making interesting stuff. Before the Vita was announced,
they gathered a load of developers for a one day presentation and they
spoke to us about all the features the Vita was going to have.
RICHARD We were actually trying to pitch Hohokum to Sony at the time.

When we went to the presentation we thought we were going to
be pitching Hohokum. We even had a demo of it ready. This is back
in early 2011. A few weeks after the presentation, we were in San
Francisco for GDC. I remember we had the deadline for coming up to
pitch a game for the Vita. We went off and we sat in a cafe in San
Francisco, near Chinatown, and we brainstormed ideas. We came up
with Frobisher Says while we were out there. We wrote the actual
pitch document while we were on the flight on the way back. We were
basically thinking they had this device that had all these features.
It had front and back cameras. It had front and back touch. Its got
We went off and sat in a

cafe in San Francisco and
brainstormed – we came
up with Frobisher Says
while we were out there
Honeyslug 035
voice recognition. Its got face recognition. Its got all these interesting
features and our idea was to make a game that makes use of all these
features in quite a stupid way. Our big inspiration was Bop It. We were
basically thinking, lets make like a really stupid Bop It style thing
where you basically have to use all these interesting interactions from
the Vita in quite a random way where a man is shouting at you the
whole time, like the Bop It guy. A man is just shouting at you telling
you “look in this camera” or “touch the back.” That was the beginning
of the idea. Would you agree with that Ricky?
The Vita’s got all these

interesting features and
our idea was to make a
game that makes use of
them in a stupid way
RICKY Yeah.
Another way of putting it, the Vita felt like this confusing,
muddled thing and so we made a game that really made the player feel
confused and muddled (laughs). You have to explain where Frobisher
came from.
RICHARD Frobisher came from a crap in-joke from me and the people
that I shared a studio with at the time. I shared the studio with two
people, who incidentally got married later on. He’s a painter and she’s
a graphic designer. We had this running joke about a character called
Frobisher, this kind of naughty voice that tells you to do bad things.
Me and Roger had been sharing a studio for years and years and
then Anna moved in and she kept, kind of, breaking the rules of our
studio. Rather than telling her off constantly we invented this naughty
character that would tell her things like: “Frobisher says, leave the milk
outside the fridge so it all turns to cheese for the next morning.” It was
like our passive aggressive way of telling Anna to put the milk back in
the fridge, or to remind her to turn the lights off. Stuff like that. In the
style of this character called Frobisher. It was a shit in-joke between
the three of us.
RICKY And this joke went on for a year or so.

RICHARD Yeah, it became like this on-going thing. We didn’t know what
the guy looked like. It was just this voice. This very distinctive voice
that sounded a bit like Kevin Eldon, from Fist of Fun. The voice was
loosely based on him. For the design, I was literally trying to channel
what that voice sounded like. He was like a strange, little, snotty-nosed
man-child. It was very much me thinking about the voice and thinking
about what the character might look like. Some spoiled, nasty child in
the body of a man. Kind of creepy the more you think about it.
RICKY We managed to get Kevin Eldon for the voice of Frobisher. It was
amazing, when we did the voice recording with him he just instantly
got it. It took 10 seconds for him to get Frobisher’s voice.
RICHARD We wondered, “could we actually get the real guy who this
voice is based on? Could we get Kevin Eldon?” He’s quite a big name
comedian. He’s in lots of Hollywood movies. We were worried he’d be
really expensive, and he was actually quite expensive, but we managed
to find the budget for it. We realised the voice being good was really
really important to the game.
RICKY Sony were really up for it too. They were really encouraging about
it. In fact all of the foreign Frobishers, I think there were 13 languages,
were similarly big names in their own countries. I think one of the
Scandinavian ones was the host of one of the biggest games shows in
that country. In all the territories they cast really good people and did a
really great job.
RICHARD I know a fun fact: the German Frobisher is the voice of Sheldon
when they dubbed Big Bang Theory into German.
RICKY We should talk about the art as well.
RICHARD So the other game that was a big influence was Rhythm
Tengoku. One thing that we really liked about that game is that it
has a very diverse art-style where all the mini-games look like they
could have been made by different people. You play Rhythm Tengoku
and you probably think there are 10 different artists working on this
game. Theres no attempt to tie all the art-styles together or make it
consistent. Its like they didn’t give a fuck really! Like they thought:
“lets just have all these silly art styles for all these different things.”
We liked that and we wanted to have something a bit like that, but we
also wanted to make it more interesting. We came up with this idea of
Honeyslug 037
asking loads of different artists to contribute to the game.
RICKY At the time we were doing a bunch of talks about how we work,
how Richard didn’t have a background working in the video games
industry and the benefits of video game studios collaborating with
artists outside the industry. This just felt like a really good opportunity
to put our money where our mouths were. We thought: “hey, lets just
go and find lots of artists from all different backgrounds and who have
never necessarily made a video game before.” We wanted to get them
to work on all these different games. There were something like 20
different artists and a bunch of animators. Each artist probably did 2 or
3 games. For some it was really quick and easy just based on the game
and sometimes it was much harder. It was a strange, random process
but it was really fun.
RICHARD I filled in and did a lot of art too. I ended up taking more
than the other artists mainly for the games that involved a lot more
animation. I think I ended up doing 10 of the games or something like
that. We had artists that were complete nobodies. People who had
literally just finished a degree and I knew them because I had taught
them or I met them at a show and asked them if they wanted to make
art for a video game. Then we had people who were a bit like with
Kevin Eldon, people who have been heroes of mine for years and years.
Like Johnny Ryan, the comic book artist. He’s a massive underground
comic artist and someone who I’ve loved the work of since I was a
teenager. I just emailed him out of the blue and asked him if he wanted
to do this artwork for a game and he said, yeah sure. He didn’t want
much money, he did it super quick and he didn’t give a fuck about the
game at all. He didn’t need much direction. I sent him big, long emails
of exactly what I wanted and he said “yeah, I’m not going to read this”
(laughs). Absolute legend. He was so good on it. Years later I had to
email him about something else. I mentioned that I was the guy that
There were something like

20 different artists, each
did 2 or 3 games – it was
a strange, random process
but it was really fun

asked you to do that video game stuff and he just said “oh yeah, that
was fun.” No interest at all. (laughs). Probably never played a video
game in his life.
We came up with most

of the mini games in
one day – we sat in a pub
for 6 hours and made
a massive list
RICKY We came up with most of the mini games in just one day if I
remember. We sat in a pub for about 6 hours and we made a massive
list of games. We didn’t necessarily know what the game was going to
be. A lot of the game ideas were just the title of the game, like “poke
the otter with a stick.” Later on we’d have to figure out what that
meant. A lot of the mini-games were thought up by thinking “whats
a funny thing that Frobisher could tell you to do” and then we had to
work out how we can make that into a mini game that could last a few
seconds.
RICHARD Some of the ideas were from the Vita pitch. In the pitch we had
a lot of ideas that deliberately played to the strengths of the Vita. So we
had “Frobisher Says: show me something blue.” Which shows you that
the camera can recognise colours. A lot of those ideas come from the
features of the Vita and us making this demo app of all this weird stuff
that the Vita can do. Like Ricky said, we thought about what funny
things can the game ask you to do, rather than whats the gameplay.
The gameplay was kind of the secondary thing.
RICKY We knew it was going to be a party game where you can pass the
vita round. it’s a way of saying, “hey I just bought this new thing and it
can do all this cool stuff.” You could show people that you know what it
could do in the context of Frobisher Says. Theres some amazing videos
online of people playing with their kids or their parents.
RICHARD Theres a video of a guy that filmed his mum playing Frobisher
Says. It was brilliant.
Honeyslug 039
RICKY Ittakes her like 4 minutes to finish one game! (laughs). In
particular the AR (alternate reality) stuff was magical. The Vita
has the camera at the back, but we could overlay images on top of
what the camera sees and we used it in a really simple and effective
way. It’s a game that you could give to somebody that’s never played
a video game before because all they have to do is hold this thing
and move it around. We purposely kept all the controller parts of the
game really simple. Whenever you have to do a traditional video game
thing its always just the bare essentials. You never have to press
multiple buttons at once. It’s all really easy. Very much from the point
of view of giving it to an audience who have never played a video game
before.
RICHARD The other thing about Frobisher Says, and this was never
official, is that we always conceived it as a drinking game. Its the sort
of game you’d play when you’re sat round with your friends in a pub.
RICKY Interms of developing for the Vita, really early on we got a weird
dev kit thing which was like the bits of the Vita but stitched into a
really cheap plastic shell. It was much bigger and it was a weird shape
that was awkward to hold.
RICHARD It was like a bad bootleg of the Vita.
RICKY We were there super early with the hardware. We hired an

amazing programmer, called Caspar Sawyer, who used to work at Sony
and was really familiar with all their tech. We made the game from
scratch in 8 months. It was super quick. Sony were still working on
the SDK (software development kit). Some of the other games didn’t
work until later in the development. They literally hadn’t made the
code work yet, but Caspar was amazing at making the tech work. We
prototyped the game in Flash, partly because we had hardware but
Richard and the artists weren’t able to see progress without having
the dev kits. Since we were working with Flash, we could prototype
the game quickly as a Flash file. We kind of sketched the whole game
out on PC in Flash. When it came to porting Frobisher Says to the
Vita hardware it was quite a quick process. When I think about all
those mini-games now, I’m not sure that Sony knew for sure what
they were going to get. I think their initial idea was that we should
have something on here that just demonstrates the Vita. We probably
could have got away with making something much simpler and more
conservative than this crazy, party game but they said yes to it, and

we ran with it, and we did it. I’m really happy with it. Its a cool thing.
The last period of it was a bit stressful, but I don’t remember it being a
complete nightmare the whole way through.
RICKY My favourite memory from making Frobisher Says was just being
in a studio with Kevin Eldon. Just being able to get him to say any old
stupid shit that I wanted. (laughs). Some of the script we came up with
in the studio there and then. We were like “now say this, now say that.”
It was amazing. I really enjoyed it.
RICHARD Yeah and he was such a professional. Everyone likes to think

that they’re funny and everyone does funny voices but to be in a studio
for a day with someone who is an absolute professional at being funny.
Ive never experienced that before. To actually work with someone
who’s a professional comedian and get an insight into how their brain
works and how they achieve that was absolutely amazing.
My favourite memory is
just being in a studio with
Kevin Eldon. Just being
able to get him to say any
stupid shit that I wanted
RICKY The first time I saw a Vita I was really happy with it. I remember
thinking, here’s a handheld that had all the controls that you want
from a controller and with a really, really nice screen. I was less
bothered by the AR, accelerometer, back touch stuff. It was just nice to
have a thing where the screen was that beautiful. It looked really really
nice. Especially the first version of it with the really nice OLED screen.
I played tons of independent games on it in the first 18 months. I really
liked it. By the time the Vita came out here there were already a bunch
of people that we knew, that were making cool things for the Vita. For
me it was like, oh this is how I can play a load of great indie games.
RICHARD I remember when I first saw an actual Vita. I’d been used to this
bootleg version that we’d been sent as a dev kit. Then to see an actual
one and see what a nice object it was, was exciting. For me, it appealed
Honeyslug 041
because it had actual controls. Like proper console game controls. It
allowed me to play games that would only really work with twin analog
stick controls. The game that I played more than anything else on the
Vita was Hotline Miami. I played Hotline Miami on the toilet for weeks
and weeks and weeks and I never got bored of it. I couldn’t imagine
any other device at the time that would have worked on. The only thing
that came near that was playing Geometry Wars on the (Nintendo) DS
where you use the touch screen as a second analog stick but it wasn’t
the same thing really. I also found lots of things frustrating about the
Vita. I remember thinking that the interface design that we had on the
dev kits, that that was some kind of terrible place keeper that hadn’t
had a lot of thought gone into it. When I got hold of an actual Vita
and powered it on and saw that it was going into production with that
user interface, I was amazed that they stayed with that style. So that’s
a negative thing from me. I wouldn’t say I was a massive user of the
Vita. We made the game Hohokum and I always thought that it looked
great on the Vita. It was a good way of showing it to people. I don’t
know to what extent people played Hohokum on the Vita but I can tell
you people are still playing it on the Vita. Yesterday we got a royalty
statement and its got the Vita numbers from the last quarter and some
people are still buying it. It’s worth pointing out that from a financial
point of view, we weren’t relying on sales for Frobisher Says.
RICKY It
was a work for hire gig. It was a free game with some paid DLC.
We never did it worrying that we needed to make money back from the
development.
The first time I saw a

Vita, I thought here’s a
handheld that has all the
controls you want and a
really nice screen
RICHARD So we weren’t wringing our hands going “this thing better do

well because otherwise we’d have lost loads of money.” That’s one of
the problems with a new product, with new hardware. As a developer
you’re not only taking the risk of making a new game and worrying

if that will be successful or not, there’s also the risk of whether the
platform you’re making it for is going to be successful. In which case
no matter how good your game is, if its unsuccessful (the platform)
then you’ll go down with it. That’s why people are reluctant to make
interesting new stuff for new platforms until they get some kind of
The game I played more

than anything else on the
Vita was Hotline Miami –
I played it on the toilet
for weeks and weeks
momentum. I guess with Frobisher Says, Sony were doing a smart thing
by going out to people like us. Trying to get us to make stuff for the
console that was going to be given away free. It was a nice way to make
some interesting content for the Vita. That’s what that bit of Sony, like
Ricky said: Strategic Content, that’s what they are there for. I guess
every time theres a new PlayStation platform their job is to find ways of
getting people to put interesting content on it. It was nice that we had
the opportunity to make something quite frivolous and cheeky.
When we were showing Frobisher Says at press events, I remember
journalists being a but bemused by it. Like “what the fuck is this
thing?” We were in the Vita area at Gamescom and I remember that
there were other PlayStation Vita games next to us. We were this
kind of weird thing that feels almost like an antagonistic kind of
game. I remember a lot of journalists bouncing off it and not really
getting it.
RICKY When it came out we got some lovely reviews.
RICHARD Yeah, we did have good reviews. A lot of times when you’re
at one of those Gamescom things, a lot of the journalists there have
a very mainstream focus where they are there to talk about the
big AAA games like God of War. And Frobisher Says was met with
“yeah, whatever.” Then we get the odd person and it captures their
imagination and its great. I remember at Gamescom they showed the
Frobisher Says trailer in this massive screen in the hall.
Honeyslug 043
RICKY Not just once. It was part of a trailer reel.
RICHARD I think it was part of the reel that was maybe 20 minutes long.
All the other trailers on the reel were conventional, conservative video
game trailers that were just about the game and the Frobisher Says
trailer was a live action, low budget trailer with a lot of people in a park.
RICKY That was my favourite trailer of any game I worked on.
RICHARD Yeah, it was a good laugh making it. It was good to see it in
amongst all those other games like Uncharted, Unit 13 and Escape Plan.
I quite liked Uncharted on the Vita. It didn’t feel like they compromised
it at all.
When you get an email

from somebody who really
enjoyed the game, that
means more to me than
any game site review
RICKY It was good to see the positive reviews. I was really happy.
RICHARD It’s always nice too to get positive comments from individuals.
That one guy on YouTube whose mum was playing it or there was
another video with some kids on a bus playing it.
RICKY OccasionallyI search Twitter for “Frobisher Says” and look at what
people are saying to each other about the game.
RICHARD Every now and again you get an email from somebody
who really enjoyed the game. Stuff like that means more to me
than any game site review. Stuff like that makes you realise it
was worth making. To know that you made somebody’s day. Made
somebody happy enough that they felt the need to get in touch
you. How often have you done that? I’ve never randomly emailed
somebody to say I love the game that you made. So for someone
to do that is amazing.

045
INTERVIEW Martin Jonasson
Grapefrukt

PlayStation Mobile was Sony’s intriguing initiative to build its
own store for indie games and PlayStation classics that could be
played on both the Vita and certain Android devices. Unfortunately
it never really took off and was shuttered less than three years after
its launch. One of the best games on the service, Rymdkapsel,
was developed by Martin Jonasson of Grapefrukt studio. Martin
spoke about some of his memories from launching Rymdkapsel
on PS Mobile.
Rymdkapsel launched on PS Mobile (including the Vita) in 2013

and later on other mobile devices. What made you decide to
launch on PS Mobile first?
Rymdkapsel was originally made with the iPad in mind. Earlier I had
been in touch with Sony about putting another game I was working
on on the PS3, but that never panned out. As I posted the first teaser
for the game I was approached by my contact there asking if I would
be interested in making it for their new PSMobile initiative. Long story
short, they funded the entire port which took maybe eight months to
do and the game launched on the Vita first, and then iOS and Android
a couple of months later.
How difficult was it to develop for PS Mobile?

PSMobile was mostly fine to develop for, the tools weren’t super mature
and there definitely were strange behaviors to be on the lookout for. It
was also so new and untested in many areas that once you did find a
problem, it was likely that you were the very first person to run into it.
Luckily for me Rymdkapsel isn’t all that complicated technology-wise,
so it was a fairly smooth operation.
How did you come up with the idea for the game?
The very first seed for the idea was this scenario I imagined where
you had a space station, and you’d have a hull breach that would blast
your crew into space. The concept of little flailing people in space suits
seemed funny to me. So I got started on a prototype where you’d build a
space station, figuring that I’d get to the hull breach and little
people later. As it turned out, the actual building of the station was
so much fun I never got to the later bits.
Rymdkapsel had such a unique look and style. What was your
inspiration for the look of the game?
It’s a combination of many things. Most of my early game development
experience and also creative output in general was using Flash.
Grapefrukt 047
That brought the influence of the sort of vectorized flat shaded look.
Secondly came hardware limitations, I wanted the game to run well
on the 1st generation iPad, meaning I had to be very restrictive about
fancy effects and such. That’s what brought the more old school
pixel art graphics. Then there was the fact that I needed to be able
to make all the art myself, I do both code, design and art myself, so
it’s important to pick something that’s fairly time efficient. So, in the
immediate sense, there it was born from mostly technical limitations.
Visually, if I ever was lost for ideas, I’d just put on 2001: A Space
Odyssey until I managed to figure something out. That’s probably not a
surprise.
The Vita seemed like

such an odd device, but
the promise of a ‘proper’
portable gaming device
seemed great
I realise you probably can’t go into specific numbers, but how did
you find it sold on PS Mobile compared to other platforms?
Due to some issues with the sales reporting I’m actually not entirely
sure how many copies the game did sell, but it’s definitely the smallest
platform of the ones the game was on. (Windows, OSX, Linux, iOS, and
Android).
Do you remember the first time you saw/held a Vita? What did
you think of the device?
The first time I saw one was at a fellow developers office, it was an
early dev kit (one that only worked tethered to a PC I think). It seemed
like such an odd device, especially the touch-back. But the promise of a
‘proper’ portable gaming device seemed great.
By the time Rymdkapsel launched on PS Mobile, the Vita was

already being criticised in the gaming press for its low sales. Did
this worry you leading up to the game’s launch?
Not as much, seeing as the port was already being funded regardless.
The Vita kept that selling-but-not-really-selling thing going for what

felt like most of its lifespan, once I released my game I didn’t really pay
all that much attention to it to be honest.
Were you surprised when Sony decided to shut down the

PS Mobile service?
No and yes. It seemed clear that it was going to happen, seeing as
the service itself essentially stopped evolving far earlier. In a way I’m
surprised they kept it up for as long as they did, because it felt like the
decision had been made far earlier than the actual plug-pulling was
announced.
Some of the issues often cited with PS Mobile were the lack of
online multiplayer and lack of trophies. What was your view on
the service looking back and what do you think Sony could have
done to make it more successful?
I don’t think online multiplayer would have made much of a difference,
it’s such an incredibly complicated thing to build for smaller teams,
(which PSMobile was for) so that felt like a reasonable feature to
cut. The service never could have had the “regular” trophies without
completely changing the economics of them, so I also think not having
those was a good call.
I think the service could have been more successful had it been
given a more integrated spot in the store, guiding people to the buttons
to press to buy Rymdkapsel was a common support issue for quite some
time.
Did you ever consider re-releasing Rymdkapsel as a native

Vita title?
Yes and no. It feels very strange to have had made a port for a system
and then have it go away, so it’s definitely something I wanted.
But, tallying up the sales numbers compared to the amount of work it
would take to re-port it, seeing as it would take a complete do-over of
the port work, it just didn’t make any sense financially.
Grapefrukt 049
INTERVIEW Shaw-Han Liem
Queasy Games

Shaw-Han Liem (better known as the musician, I am Robot and
Proud) was a co-creator of Sound Shapes. Shaw-Han brought his
years of experience of writing and recording his own albums to
developing sound of Sound Shapes. He also wrote the musical
loops for two of the albums in the core game. Here he answers
some questions about the game’s development.
Can you tell me a bit about how you and Jonathan Mak came up
with the idea for Sound Shapes?
We were both musicians and wanted to make a game that could give
that moment of joyful creation to players. When you’re messing around
with a few chords or a set of notes and all off a sudden you hit upon
some combination of notes that goes from your ears to your brain and
makes you think, “Wow, that sounds good.” Most musicians use some
kind of musical or harmonic training and theory to achieve this, but we
wanted to see if we could create a game that would allow beginners to
do the same thing. We spent about a year creating prototypes in a few
different genres before settling on the idea of a platformer where you
create music by collecting ‘coins.’
What made you decide to develop for the Vita?

We were shown a fairly early prototype of the Vita, and we liked what
the hardware could add to our design. I think the fact that it had both
touch screen input and traditional ‘game controls’ (d-pad and physical
buttons) meant that we could create an intuitive touch-based ‘creation
mode’ while also supporting gamers that were interested in a more
traditional platformer.
Each album in Sound Shapes had a unique style and sound.

What were the inspirations behind each album?
Each album was a collaboration between a musician and an visual
artist and that’s where the creative inspiration came from. So for
example I worked with Vic Nguyen of Capy Games for the first album,
and I used his cute/pastoral imagery as inspiration for how the music
was going to sound. Similar with Beck and Pyramid Attack – the songs
were delivered and the Pyramid Attack artists responded.
The game was predominantly a platformer with musical notes

and beats placed as if on a music sheet. What came first, the
music, with levels crafted around the notes, or were the notes
placed around the platforming?
We didn’t have a rigid process for this – we treated the album
Queasy Games 051

creation process as a collaboration between the visual artist, musician
and level (gameplay) designers. So one level may have started with
almost a completely composed song, which the artists and level
designers would respond to visually (the songs contributed by Beck
are an example of this). For other levels, they may have started with
visuals or gameplay ideas, that musicians then created musical ideas
to complement.
The main game was challenging at times but generally quite a

chilled experience. Death Mode was the complete opposite! What
was the inspiration and thinking around it?
I think the idea was to see how far we could push the ‘hardcore
platforming’ aspect of the game.
Do you remember the first time you saw or held a Vita? What were
your reactions and thoughts?
I remember the first time we saw the Vita was at the Sony Santa
Monica studio, but honestly it was such an early prototype that it didn’t
resemble the final hardware at all. It was actually a giant computer
with some controls sticking out of it. You really had to use your
imagination to visualize how it might work.
We were both musicians

and wanted to make a
game that could give
beginners that moment
of joyful creation
Sound Shapes was heavily featured in Sony’s marketing of the

Vita. How did that make you feel? Did it add pressure knowing it
was a highly anticipated game, or was it motivational?
For a small team such as ours, it was a huge boost. When a new
console comes out (especially one that has a new or novel control
scheme), I think that’s the most exciting time to be making stuff for
it. no one quite knows what the ‘formula for success’ is, and so people
are more willing to take risks, or take a chance on a game or genre
they usually wouldn’t. I think being part of the Vita launch meant

that people viewed the game with an open mind, and that was really
motivational.
Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently

with the game?
For almost all of us involved, Sound Shapes was our first experience
making a game on this scale. So of course looking back, there a lot
of things we could have done differently simply because of our lack
of experience. But that lack of experience also works in your favour
to a certain extent. if you don’t know the ‘right way’ to do something,
there’s a good chance you’ll come up with something new and
innovative. The issue is that this process of experimentation takes
time, it’s really inefficient because a lot of the time you are ‘re-
inventing the wheel’ so to speak. But we were lucky that we had
Sony’s support to keep trying until we found solutions.
What were your thoughts on community created levels?

Do you remember any that stood out or that you were especially
impressed with?
There were a ton of early creators that we had relationships with,
we actually reached out to a lot of them and featured them on
live streams. Honestly, they were doing things with the creation
tool that we hadn’t even thought of. For example, using gravity to
fall ‘downward’ through screens and creating stop-motion animation
with the sequence of screens. That was something we never
ever considered, and it sort of blew our minds when we saw people
doing it.
Sound Shapes was such a memorable and unique experience.

Did you consider making a sequel?
There are discussions every so often about what a Sound Shapes sequel
might look like – but we have no plans yet to pursue them. We’ve all
moved on to working on new projects that we’re excited about.
Sound Shapes had a very positive reception from fans and

critics. How did that make you feel?
I have a distinct memory of demoing the game to fans and press for
the first time, and it was really an exciting moment to finally put the
game in front of people. This was something we had been working
on in secret for several years, and we really had no idea whether the
somewhat strange idea would come across to the public. Thankfully,
people seemed to get it!
Queasy Games 053

INTERVIEW Chris Millar
Fun Bits
Interactive

Chris Millar is one of the unsung heroes of the PSVita. Not only
was he the director of Escape Plan, one the Vita’s big launch titles,
his team at Fun Bits and project lead Russell O’Heney were also
responsible for porting the Unity engine to Vita, allowing dozens of
games to eventually be brought to Vita. He took some time to talk
about his experiences in developing and launching Escape Plan.
Escape Plan was conceived while I worked at Stormfront Studios.

Stormfront had been around for 20 years at that point. This was around
2005 and they were developing a lot of movie based IPs like The Lord
of the Rings: The Two Towers. They struggled to have a major hit after
Two Towers so we started working with partners like Sony, developing
games under their IPs. We worked with David Jaffe among others.
After a while we decided we wanted to create our own IP, maybe a
downloadable game for PS3 that we could own and drive and make
with a much smaller budget. I was really drawn, at the time, to puzzle
games, character driven games and smaller experiences. I really had
such an inspirational moment from watching the cartoon by Don
Hertzfelt, Rejected. Its an animated short that fans of Escape Plan
should definitely watch. I loved the fact that at the time there were a
lot of flash games with stick figures and I kind of felt that theres a lot
of stuff that could be done with more simplified graphics that could
be a lot of fun. Everything we’d worked on with Sony was big and over
the top, just the scale, size and scope was so grand. I wanted to strip all
that away and do something simple about solving puzzles kind of like
Lemmings. These kinds of games were still fertile ground to make fun,
simple experiences.
So I started working with a concept artist and I really liked the idea of
having characters that died in really gruesome ways. Characters that
were kind of squishy. I liked the idea of them actually being in little
rubber suits so that they were like little water balloons that would
‘splat’ when they died. We kind of honed in on just the characters and
the concept artist drew a handful of guys. Then we thought that over
time as you die you get a number on your chest to count the hardcore
nature of the game. We were just experimenting with ideas for this
weird, quirky game that wouldn’t have a tutorial, that wouldn’t do the
standard things that other games did. As a gamer, I was kind of tired
of the same old shit. Every tutorial tells you what to do and how to
move. How every game had cinematics you cant skip. It just felt like
games were creating the same shit over and over, and I wanted to do
something different.
Fun Bits Interactive 055

So we pitched it to Sony as a small PSN game. We didn’t have an idea
yet of the background or the story but we did have the concept that
we wanted to make a challenging game with characters that die in
horrible gruesome ways and thats how the player learns the game. And
thats how it started.
It was me and Deborah Mars, who was a producer at Sony. We met up

at GDC and I started talking about this idea and even she got excited
about it. It was kind of a cliché moment of drawing stupid shit on
napkins in a bar and we were laughing about all the different ways you
can help these characters or watch them as they bite it and she really
It just felt like games

were creating the same
shit over and over,
and I wanted to do
something different
got it. She really became a fan of the project. So we were talking about
it (with Sony) but contract negotiations kind of stalled out. I just saw
the writing on the wall that Stormfront wasn’t doing well and I knew
that anything I might do, may not see the light of day. I had to make
a move personally. That‘s when I left to form a company in Colorado.
Stormfront owned Escape Plan because I developed it there, which kind
of sucked.
I formed a new company, Titan Studios, and went back to Sony and
said that I have a new idea. I pitched the game that would ultimately
become Fat Princess (FP). So flash forward two years, we finished
up Fat Princess. It hits and it does really well. Its one of the top PSN
games. Half of the team no longer wanted to work with Sony. They
just felt like they wanted to go to PC and they wanted a more direct
connection with their community. I loved Fat Princess and I really
enjoyed working with Sony. I appreciated their ability to promote
something and I wanted that to continue. So Fun Bits was formed
out of me basically saying I wanted to continue working on FP and
continue working with Sony.

I left Titan and formed Fun Bits. it was basically me and three others
that I’d worked with since the Stormfront days and we kind of forged
ahead and said “you know what we’re going to fix a ton of bugs in FP
and we’d love to do a sequel.” There was just a few of us in Seattle but
we said we’re going to make this happen. So I just leapt into starting a
new company. We did a handful of updates to FP and we did the DLC.
We were pitching FP2 to Sony for PS4 and Sony came back and said we
really like the idea of FP2 but we have this new hardware coming up
and we want you to come see it because its going to be a big initiative
for us. So I went down to Sony Santa Monica. It was very early days, late
2009 or early 2010. They had a touch screen piece of hardware and it
looked like a screen you bought from Radio Shack with a printer cable
hooked up to a PS4 dev station or some kind of computer. It had the
touch sensitivity on the back and at the front. I believe they showed
something that might have eventually become Sound Shapes and a few
little tech demos that showed how the responses on the back affected
what would happen at the front. It was really interesting and they
were saying that the unique selling point was the back touch pad, as
it was like using a touchscreen but without your fingers covering the
screen. They didn’t have much more information for us at the time. We
didn’t know if this was going to be a phone or just a gaming device.
It’s an adventure and

puzzle game, and what
better way to do a puzzle
game than with touching
and interacting?
They asked me what I thought about it and I said, well we could do FP

on it or we can do something else and thats when I said “how about
Escape Plan?” It’s an adventure and puzzle game and what better way
to do a puzzle game than with touching and interacting? It really kind
of clicked for me that that was a better idea than what I had been
originally thinking and I was really inspired by the idea that we could
create this brand new IP. Sony bought back the rights from Stormfront
and all the work I had done on it, I don’t know for how much. They
believed in me and they wanted to see what we could do. It was just

a concept, it was an idea, it was a feeling. It wasn’t like I had a full
blown plan of the level design. So it was kind of a dream situation. A
major publisher working with a new team to take a passion project and
make it a reality. Its funny to talk to anyone at Sony Santa Monica at
the time, people had a concept of what they wanted to do and Sony
Santa Monica helped bring that to fruition. They were working with
the Flower team, thatgamecompany, and a handful of small games
like Unfinished Swan. So it was a good kick-off but then it became the
challenge for me of forming a new company while making a new game
on new hardware and unlike the PS3 or PS4 where you had emulators
on PC, we didn’t even know what this device was going to be. We didn’t
even know how we were going to do it.
Unity 3 was around at that point, it was an engine that was of interest
to us but Unity’s business model revolved for the most part around
mobile devices. We had a lot of questions about the device and Sony
didn’t really have a lot of answers at that point but we had to get
going. So we figured that if we can use Unity on PC to at least prove
out gameplay then maybe we can refactor it and build on native code
later or we could potentially work with Unity to port the engine to the
Vita. So that was the approach we took. Sony was on board with us
using Unity and they wanted us to evaluate whether or not we could
port it. Sony helped us get the source code from Unity. When we got
it we realised this was going to be a much bigger job but if we could
port Unity to Vita then we could unlock a lot more developers on the
platform. That would help Sony and it would potentially help Unity if
Vita became a hit. So we signed up to doing a Unity engine port and
making a system launch title at the same time, which i would not
recommend to anybody.
So that was kind of the kick off of the project. We had a couple
of milestones where we thought about some ideas we wanted to
It wasn’t like I had a full

blown plan, Sony believed
in me and wanted to see
what we could do – it was
kind of a dream situation

implement. I would say our first few milestones were very rough. If I
was the publisher, I would have been worried, but it was exciting. I was
really interested in the project. I just wanted to make something high
quality and I think thats what being in partnership with Sony really
helped. Sony was more about quality that just deadlines. Some of my
ideas were very wacky and Sony would put the kibosh on them. I had to
try and build this world that was familiar, but odd and also endearing.
It was a challenge to get the style down. I had an idea back then, that
I really wanted to do augmented reality stuff. I wanted Escape Plan to
be about escaping out of the device and into the real world. I was told
that was too crazy and not feasible. I thought it would be funny if they
escaped out of your device and the camera turned on and they would
be on your desktop or wherever you are. That would have been a crazy
ending and an ‘ah-ha’ moment. But within the restraints of everything
else, Sony was smart to say, ‘hey you have enough challenges’ (laughs).
I thought, lets make this game and if we do a sequel then we can do
that. My ideas were alway bigger than what we were set up to do.
So in terms of inspirations for the characters, I liked that they were two
sad sacks that were endearing. I liked that you had to help them and
that death didn’t really mean anything other than you lost some time.
I wanted them to have unique abilities. I had grown up playing Lost
Vikings, which was designed by my brother, and I was really drawn to
characters having unique abilities that helped puzzle solve. In terms of
story, I really felt like i dropped the ball a little bit there. There were just
so many other challenges. I really just wanted this to be a bizarre world
that they were imprisoned in and they just had to escape. For the story
I wanted something simple like Journey, or Mario or Ghosts and Goblins.
I liked those old SNES or NES style game objectives. You know like save
the princess, get to the end or kill the bad guy. So, I could have done a
lot more on story but I also liked that the player would be exploring the
world rather than having a lot of background information.
For the environments and art style, it was a combination of two people,
Matt Sanders and Arnel Ramac. Matt was a colleague of mine who I
worked with at Blizzard. He was one of the lead environment artists for
World of Warcraft and one of my closest friends. Arnel, who’s our Art
Director now, came from Zipper Interactive and he really helped elevate
the polish and the look. We wanted to build an environment and a
game that was relatable because if everything was wacky and odd then
you wouldn’t even know what you were looking at. The style takes a lot
of what Terry Gilliam had done in the past. I really love how he makes

“I wanted to design characters that
were irreverent, but cute. Initially,
the direction was ‘stickmen in
underpants’, however, I also
wanted a character that could
SPLAT! and die in gruesome, yet
funny ways, and so stickmen
just wasn’t going to cut it. I was
intrigued by the idea of them
actually moving and splatting like
little water balloons and I fell in
love with the character in this shot
enjoying his pizza... he ultimately
became Laarg.”
Initial character discovery

by concept artist,
Michael ‘Rusty’ Drake, 2007
“We began to explore the idea

of numbers on their chest, as
either different versions of the
characters with unique abilities, or
your number of lives/clones spent
during the game. I also liked the
idea of the stark black and white
contrast and wanted to explore
that direction, as if they were all
just rubber water balloons filled
with black ink. We had tried red,
but that felt really violent and not
as humorous.”

“Another concept revision, and
Laarg was born, as well as the
troublesome Minion. But, we
had to do a few more rounds
to create Lil.”
“A final round of various bodies and

proportions, and ‘Little and Big’
or ‘Lil and Laarg’ were alive! The
nostalgia of the classic comedy
duo (Laurel and Hardy, Little and
Large, Baby Huey and Pa) were
also part of my inspiration, and I
wanted to make sure that both
of these characters were equally
featured in the game. At this stage,
I knew I wanted to make a different
type of game, but also make it feel
nostalgic and ‘old’, and so it was a
tough call, but ultimately, I felt that
a game entirely in black and white
would be ideal for the feel we were
going for with Escape Plan.”

“During the kick-off of the game, I had originally intended for there to be
a big reveal at the end of the game, where players would find out that
Bakuki was actually not a bad guy – but an old cantankerous tribe leader
who was doing his best (and getting frustrated) trying to help train all
of his people how to survive on a new planet, Earth... as their current
planet was ultimately doomed, and time was running out. This would set
up a sequel for Escape Plan on Earth (inspired by Toe Jam n Earl). And
so, Bakuki had created dozens of training rooms to test Lil and Laarg
and others how to ‘escape’ various situations. Unfortunately, this idea hit
the cutting room floor pretty early for various scope reasons, but it was
exciting to think about a big and unique reveal at the very end of the
game... possibly leading to an AR version of these characters in the real
world. (inspired by the invisimals PSP game).”

“An exploration by concept artist Alex Laurent,
on how the various rooms might tie together
from the side-facing perspective.”

bizarre and quirky worlds made up of very familiar pieces. I am still
shocked to this day that Sony was pushing our black and white game
on the only device with an OLED screen!
I have a funny story from the development. We actually strapped

on spandex suits and went over to Bungie to do the motion capture
for a lot of the animations in the game. That intermission with the
character dancing like a total idiot, that was our animator Ben Fator. It
was completely improvised on the spot. I don’t think anyone realised
that was actually a guy in a black spandex suit that looks just like
the character, doing that dance in person. It was kind of like a Monty
Python’s Holy Grail intermission. It was random and it doesn’t make
sense but we thought it was funny.
In terms of the Vita, we thought it was a cool and interesting device. I

think our only reservations were that phones were just getting better
and we were concerned whether a single use gaming device could be
successful. Because of that, our launch was very apprehensive because
our entire company was betting on this project. We had rented office
space and we had relocated people from different places in the country
to join us. We staffed up to 12 and we had a handful of contractors
helping out. We were nervous to be frank. We were very nervous. We
were putting a lot of effort into Unity to help Sony get a lot more
developers on board, we were making a new IP and making a new
game on a new platform. Even we were apprehensive about whether
we would buy a new gaming device. I loved my DS. It was disposable, it
was fun, it was a clam shell device that you could throw in your back
pack and not worry about the screen being scratched. There was a lot
to the DS that i liked, but at the time of the Vita’s launch, I was playing
more games on my phone and the console was the premier experience.
That was the place for bigger games. The big games were going to
console and smaller games were going to phone and we really weren’t
quite sure where the Vita fit. If it had been a phone and gaming device
it would probably have given it more legs but that also would have
probably introduced more partnerships and problems for Sony. For us
we just wanted to make the best game we could.
I remember there were several moments in development that were

major breakthroughs for me. It was a very challenging project with
all the stuff we had to do and one of the key moments was when we
actually got rendering on device, on the Vita. I almost cried. Russell
O’Henny, our Engineering Lead, got the characters walking around and

interacting and floating. It was such a breakthrough. The next major
moment that I remember was going home, going to the PlayStation
store on my Vita and buying the game I just made. I played it all the
way through. It was an amazing moment because I truly enjoyed
it, and while I saw all the hiccups and headaches and bugs and
jankiness, that if we had more people we could have fixed, it was still
an endearing experience. I enjoyed that moment, but then I saw the
critic and fan reaction, which was very mixed. We had seen some of
that happening during the press tours.If you sit with the headphones
on and play the game its super fun. We went to a Toronto event where
they were showing the Vitas ahead of the launch. We were sat next to
a DJ booth and on the other side was a Dance Dance Revolution thing
with giant speakers and then there we were with this quiet puzzle
game that you had to wear headphones to hear. People would pick up
the device and they wouldn’t be sure how to hold it. They would be
tapping all over the back and the screen and I was like, oh my god.
I remember going
home, going to the
PlayStation store on
my Vita and buying the
game I just made
They just didn’t get it. Then we went to a New York event. In that event
there were couches and Vitas on the table with headphones and people
could just pick it up and explore stuff on their own. The press there
loved it. They got to just sit and spend as much time as they wanted in
a comfortable environment and those events went really well. So there
was a mixed reception but then CNN said Escape Plan was one of the
top games of 2012. They put us up against the biggest games that were
out there. That felt like a wonderful pat on the back. They were looking
across the board at all platforms and the game reviewers at CNN were
like, this was one of my favourite experiences.
The fans reception was good but the sales of the Vita itself really
bummed us out. Even the press was saying what’s the point of this
device and that was really tough. I didn’t know anyone personally who

bought a Vita. The people that did buy it were really happy and excited
because there were some really high quality games on there, but it
didn’t have that excitement that the PSP had. If you think back to the
PSP launch there was nothing you could hold in your hands that had
a screen like that. There was nothing of that high quality at the time.
It was such a cool, sexy device that you felt good about. When the
vita came out, the iPhone had already had several revisions. Android
It was really bittersweet

to have one of the
top games on a system
that wasn’t the
most successful
phones were getting bigger and everyone I knew who were doing
smaller games were on mobile. Sony put a lot of effort behind it but
it also felt that they were in a wait and see mode. It felt like they just
jumped to focus on the PS4, instead of continuing to support the Vita.
Some of the decisions too like flash memory on Vita was the slowest
memory out there. Games would load slowly and having loading on a
mobile device is just death. We tested ports of Escape Plan to mobile
platforms and the game has no loading, no loading at all. So there were
some steps and decisions that were made on hardware that I think hurt
probably all of the projects. I think also if you think back to the time,
Tom Toms and cameras were dying. Then there’s the Vita, a dedicated
gaming device, and it was questionable whether someone would set
down the money to have another device. It was really bittersweet to
have one of the top games on a system that wasn’t the most successful
system.
So, what would I have done differently? Well, i wouldn’t have done
a port of Unity! I think that was one of the things that went wrong
right off the bat. I was in a very challenged position to create a new
company, create a new IP, port an engine, hire people. There were
so many challenges and we were on a month-to-month milestone
delivery. So it was kind of exhausting and there were just too many
challenges right off the bat. I had really great fortune though in

the people that came to work on the project. Everyone was doing
everything they could to make it the best game they could. I think, in
future, i would rather make games on established platforms and just
have the time to iterate and focus. Thats what we’ve done with Squids
From Space. We pushed out a version a year ago (on Steam) and we’ve
been iterating every week with the community and making it a better
experience. Developing a game where everything is changing was
tough. We had Unity keep changing every month, we had hardware
that kept changing every month, like the physical size, shape and
specs and we had a deadline that wasn’t moving. With all those
parameters, I’m really proud of the work we did and I’m amazed we
got the game done. We got the game done and the DLC was in the
pipeline for future launch. WE were helping Sony with the QA of the
international stores and store purchase.
When it comes down to it, I really felt Escape Plan was kind of, almost
there. I would really have liked to work on it a little while longer. I really
think it needs a sequel and I would love to see more of it. We pitched
the sequel a few years ago but we were kind of under the gun of Fat
Princess at the time and that was growing and getting bigger. I knew
they were doing PlayStation VR and we built a level for Escape Plan in
VR that you could look around and see this bigger world you were in
and actually help the characters go from room to room. It was super
cool. When we finally got it down to Sony Santa Monica, they checked
it out and they liked it. But this was around the time when the Studio
was being hit with layoffs. Sony Santa Monica stopped everything
except God of War. Conversations about the sequel ended there.
I think Escape Plan

needs a sequel and I would
love to see more of it –
I feel that it would be
really fun on mobile
Moving forward, I would like to see if I could get the rights back. I feel
that Escape Plan on mobile would be really fun. We’ve ported it to those
devices and its wonderful. I was encouraged that Sony has allowed for

Flower to be available on the iPhone and they allowed other IPs to kind
of expand outside PlayStation systems, like onto PC. I’m encouraged
that I can maybe go back and do more and get Escape Plan out there
to a broader audience because I would love to have this be a game that
I could show more people. So I’m trying to work on that now if Sony
allows us to do that. I would love to do a VR or mixed reality experience
with it because thats part of where I started with it, where I wanted
them to escape outside of the screen. I would love to see that happen.
but who knows. Theres a lot of things that have to happen to make
something like that a reality.
It was really bittersweet

to have one of the
top games on a system
that wasn’t the
most successful
What do I want the game to be remembered for? I have a stupid

answer: I love the fact that this is the first game that you can actually
squeeze a character and make them fart! (laughs). The fact that I
made something that brought joy and made people laugh, that feels
amazing. Personally I suffer from depression, pretty hardcore, and its
kind of a weird game that shows you even though its kind of dark and
depressing and characters are failing over and over, you still progress.
You still move forward and you can get out of this. Which is kind of
optimistic, in a weird way. At the end of the game its so over the top
and the main character is kind of berating you along the way. In a
weird way its kind of like when your mind beats you up every day. By
moving forward you face tough levels, but you can get through them.
You get through them with persistence. A good friend of mine always
said “tough times don’t last, but tough people always do.”
That quote came from Steven Holcomb, the Olympic Gold and Silver
Medalist Bobsled Driver. He was a big fan of Escape Plan. He loved his
Vita so much and as he was never home it was perfect for a hardcore
gamer to take on the road. He invited me out to watch the races at
the Lake Placid World Championships, and he surprised me when he

pulled into the finish line, and he had already made his own home-
printed stickers of Escape Plan, and had put them on his helmet. It
was probably one of the biggest and most memorable moments of
appreciation of the game, and it just meant the world to me that
someone had made that kind of effort to show appreciation for the
game, my team and me, for visiting the track. We became very good
friends, and it was an oddly unique friendship, because we connected
on how the day-to-day struggles of of being a bobsled driver was so
similar to creating video games. He also suffered depression, and was
a constant inspiration to me. He passed away last year, and it was
devastating to me, and his entire team. He was an inspiration to so
many. His quote “tough times don’t last, but tough people do” has
stuck with me and it’s something that has always kept me moving
forward.
Thats the same with Escape Plan. I hope people find the joy in it but
also see that other level, that with persistence you can get through and
you can solve these puzzles. I even put a skip button in there (laughs),
so that players can see all the content of the game. You can get to the
end just by skipping if you want. I hope that if people look back at the
game they see that theres multiple layers to it that’s not just a puzzle
game, and they enjoy a laugh. I want people to be entertained and
enjoy the things that we create. We’re not just a games company. We
want to create games that bring joy to people. It was a trial by fire, but
it was rewarding. A lot of us had a lot of stress during that time but we
still look back and its one of the most fun times we’ve had working on
a game.

INTERVIEW Douglas Bogart
Limited Run Games

Limited Run Games have become synonymous with publishing
physical copies of independently developed games. Although they
have since gone on to publish Playstation 4 and Nintendo Switch
games, their first release was on the PS Vita.
The Vita did not have a successful launch and its first year sales
were not great. Yet you decided to develop a game for the system
and start a business which began with publishing physical
games for the Vita. What made you choose to do this?
The Vita was a favorite of ours when it launched as we thought it was
a more premium handheld and the ‘Rolex’ of them. When Limited Run
Games started we only had one game approved and out on PSN. That
was Breach & Clear, by our development side Mighty Rabbit Studios.
It was only on Vita and not on PS4. We had been working on bringing
Saturday Morning RPG to PS4 and Vita, but it wasn’t going to be ready
in time and we were running out of money quickly, Limited Run Games
was to be our saving grace. So we took what we had at the time which
was Breach & Clear and released it physically with no marketing on
a ‘dead’ console and it sold out in 108 minutes! We were shocked
and super stoked to see the Vita community was so strong! We had
anticipated that the release would either stay in stock for weeks or that
we would have to bulldoze what was left. This all happened in October
of 2015 and here we are today still going strong thanks to the Vita!
We took Breach & Clear

and released it physically
with no marketing on a
‘dead’ console – it sold
out in 108 minutes!
What were your thoughts about the system, the first time you
picked up a Vita?
The first time I picked one up was at Best Buy. I was a huge supporter
of the PSP and early adopter. I remembering hold the Vita at the store
and thinking “Holy crap, the screen on this is huge and super vivid!” I
also thought this it was crazy that they had an Uncharted game on it!
I remember being freaked out initially though, by the touchscreen and
Limited Run Games 071

touchpad on the back. I had also recently sold my DS and told myself
that Vita would be my next handheld after seeing it.
What is it about Vita fans that make them so loyal?

I think what makes us (LRG) so loyal, and most likely others, is that
despite AAA companies ditching the console in America, we still got
some amazing and unique games. It really felt like the Dreamcast of
this generation. Josh and I both love the Dreamcast and consider it our
all-time favorite console, so being able to find similarities in another
system really made us love it. We got that same sense of nostalgia
from playing it, something we could get lost in for hours. For me, it was
an introduction to a few of my favorite series like Senran Kagura, and
Danganronpa. I think the steady flow of games has helped the Vita stay
strong as well, especially coming from Japan. I remember visiting Japan
and seeing walls of Vita stuff at stores then coming back to America
and seeing a handful of games on the shelf. It was a very jarring
experience and very eye-opening to see. It was like taking a glimpse of
what the Vita could and should have been outside of Japan.
Despite AAA companies

ditching the Vita, we still
got some amazing games –
it felt like the Dreamcast
of this generation
Aside from memory cards of course, what do you think Sony

should have done differently when they launched the system?
I think making everything so proprietary hurt them. They fixed that
a little with the PS Vita Slim by giving it a micro USB charger, but the
memory cards were expensive, the production of the cartridges was
expensive and they didn’t secure an anchor title. PSP had Monster
Hunter, which didn’t help it much here, but definitely pushed sales in
Japan. They needed a Monster Hunter. We saw the same thing happen
with Wii U where third party publishers abandoned it, excet this time
Sony seemed to abandon their own platform too. A Yakuza game would
have helped, or an Infamous. I think the initial price point for the Vita
hurt it too. I think if Sony had been a bit more aggressive with Vita

here, like Sega was back in the old Genesis vs SNES days, they could
have kept the Vita going strong for much longer.
What were your favorite launch games and why?

Lumines Electronic Symphony: This game was very important to me
because when the PSP first came out my friend in class showed me
the PSP while playing Lumines and it’s what sold me on it. So it was a
game I definitely wanted for my Vita right away!
Uncharted: Golden Abyss: Having a AAA game on Vita was a great
sign that the Vita was going to do well, even if that’s not what ended
up happening. It showed at the time that Sony was throwing its
full support for the Vita. It was super exciting to be able to play an
Uncharted game on the go for the first time.
Touch my Katamari: I feel like I shouldn’t even have to explain this
one! I loved Katamari on my PS2, having it portable was the greatest
thing ever for me. It may have been fairly short but it is still a blast
rolling up the world on Vita anywhere I want. Even my wife loves
Katamari, which helped me justify the purchase!
Limited Run Games 073

INTERVIEW Dave Mervik, Henrik Larsson,
Asger Kristiansen,
Sebastian Bastian Claesson,
Matthew Compher
& Jonas Steinick Berlin
Tarsier Studios

Developing the next entry in a popular gaming series can be
daunting but Swedish developers, Tarsier Studios, rose to the
challenge and created one of the best games to be released
on the Vita - LittleBigPlanet PS Vita. Six members of their team
agreed to share some of their memories and experiences from
developing the game.
What was more exciting at the time: developing a game in the

series of one of Sony’s biggest franchises or developing a game
for Sony’s brand new handheld?
DAVE ‘MERV’ MERVIK, WRITER How can you possibly rank those two things?!
If I had to pick, then I think it’d have to be working on LBP. I’d fallen
head over heels for the game from the start but had no idea that
Tarsier was working on the latest instalment, since it was all still very
much under wraps. When I came over to meet everyone and sign my
contract, there was such a weird atmosphere in the room and I didn’t
know why! Obviously it all became clear afterwards, and I couldn’t
believe how lucky I’d been to find a company that I already admired,
working on a game I adored. The voice in my head started straight
away ‘Ok, you’ve had all your good luck for the year, something really
bad has to happen now!’
HENRIK ‘HENKE’ LARSSON, ART LEAD At the time I was most excited to do
something with the PS Vita. We had already worked with the LBP
franchise together with Media Molecule for a couple of years.
ASGER KRISTIANSEN, LEVEL DESIGN For me is was mostly getting a chance
to work on a game in a series of which I was such a huge fan. That
said, getting an early hands on, as well as trying to figure out the Vita
specific design challenges, was also a lot of fun.
SEBASTIAN BASTIAN ‘SEBBO’ CLAESSON, 3D ART Most exciting for me was that
this time we were the main creators, the motherbrains! We could freak
out a lot more and let our own style fuse together with the Sackboy
universe.
We were the motherbrains,

and could freak out a lot
more and let our own style
fuse together with the
Sackboy universe
Tarsier Studios 075

MATTHEW ‘MATT’ COMPHER, LEVEL DESIGN For me personally, it was the
opportunity to work on the LittleBigPlanet franchise. I actually
came from the LittleBigPlanet community, spending my nights and
weekends creating levels and games in the provided in-game editor.
I was initially given a short-term contract to develop LittleBigPlanet
PS Vita as a level designer, given my experience with the game to that
point. It was a metaphorical foot in the door for working in the games
industry. Thanks, LittleBigPlanet!
From my other interviews, it seems like Sony were iterating

frequently on the design of the Vita. What challenges did this
bring to developing the game?
HENKE Being flexible and running with new iterations is something that
becomes second nature in games development. While it’s a bit more
challenging, it’s usually not a big deal as long as you have enough time
left in the project to handle some re-planning.
MATT This definitely posed a challenge, as we weren’t really sure what
the PS Vita was capable of at the time, nor what sorts of gameplay
would be proven fun. It was largely throwing stuff at the wall to see
what sticks. As the functionality of the PS Vita was finalised, things
started to come together, and we eventually arrived at what you see
in the shipped title. Implementing rear-touch puzzles and gameplay, I
recall being particularly challenging because there’s an inherent lack
of accuracy.
We weren’t sure what the

Vita was capable of, nor
what would be fun – it was
largely throwing stuff at
the wall to see what sticks
Does the team remember the first time they saw or held the final
Vita model? What were the reactions and thoughts?
HENKE The first time I saw the Vita was when it was still in it’s prototype
form, which means it was a pile of circuit boards and cables lying on
someone’s desk. While you could pick it up, you would never have
called that pile a ‘handheld’ device. It was really cool at that time to

think how it made the current generation of handheld hardware
look way weaker.
MATT I think the first time I actually held the final model was when I
bought my own! The development models we used are slightly different
from the retail model, although functionally the same.
ASGER I thought it looked really slick and felt surprisingly well
constructed. Considering the somewhat dodgy development Vitas we
used to make the game, the actual shipping model of the system felt
like proper high-end piece of tech.
It looked really slick

and surprisingly well
constructed considering
our somewhat dodgy
development Vitas
What was the inspiration for the story of LBP Vita?

MERV The initial idea came from a very simple place. I saw a
poster for a circus on my morning ride to work and the idea stuck.
I actually hate circuses, but the old-style carnival mythology is
so cool. It felt like a really nice wrapping for an LBP story, because
it lets you keep it as irreverent as ever, but also bringing a bit more
‘weird’ to the mix too, and, of course, as much darkness as we
could get away with!
The characters that Sackboy meets and the worlds were so

unique and out there. What was the inspiration for the design of
the characters, levels and worlds?
MATT I can’t speak to the specifics, but our concept artists, creative
director, and narrative director did some amazing work coming up
with these characters. Our narrative director actually voiced one of the
characters!
JONAS STEINICK BERLIN, CONCEPT ART We took inspiration from vintage
toys, old puppets and marionettes, old stop motion animation, special
effects in old b-movies, animatronics, early 20th century circus and
freak shows, Skrotnisse, Ghibli movies, taxidermy animals, 80s horror
and sci-fi movies.
Tarsier Studios 077

What are your proudest memories of the development or
launch of the game?
MERV For me it was the VO (voice over) recording sessions, where
I helped direct the voice actors, including Stephen Fry himself!
We were so lucky to get such good voice actors and it was an honour
to be involved with their performance of my first proper script.
When it came to the Stephen Fry sessions, I was nervous as all hell,
but it turns out Stephen Fry is already highly experienced at being
Stephen Fry, so luckily he needed very little direction from me.
He did, however, give me a grammar lesson at one point, where he
corrected a sentence that contained a split infinitive. So it was day
filled with both pride and shame! The other cool thing is that the
one thing I made as a level designer made it into the final game.
I actually joined Tarsier as a Level Designer and did that for the
first 7 months before moving over to being the story person. In that
7 months, I made a ‘hall of mirrors’ motif that the others really enjoyed,
and so put it into the main game. They grew to hate this motif,
however, as it caused so many irritating bugs but by this point they
couldn’t bring themselves to kill my darling.
ASGER That we managed to make such a high quality game, seeing how
rocky some of the development was.
HENKE I think being allowed to carry the ‘Community Torch’ that is the
LBP Community forward was an honour. Even something like doing an
internal game-jam with community developers was amazing. Having
them come over and show them the new game we were making and
letting them get their hands on early builds was really exciting. It’s
a unique experience that can only happen when you’re working on a
loved franchise with fans all over the world.
SEBBO When I first played the final game. During the production I was
mainly stuck in my creative bubble and never had any playthroughs
(since I worked on the costumes). But when I first tested the game I
was surprised at how good it was, then I felt very proud over our team
and what we had put together.
MATT For me personally it was when we secretly made a replacement
level for a level we didn’t like. I can’t even remember what the original
level was, but it was in the Coaster Valley theme of the game. For some
reason, it didn’t feel up to our quality standards, but we had no more
time to try something else. A few of the LBP-community designers
started messing about after-hours on a crazy idea for a vehicle level,
and we put together a little showcase. The leads liked the concept, so
we quickly created a full level – and that’s how the 3-wheeled, wall-
riding tricycle level was born!

When our next publisher delivery came along, we pulled a
switcheroo and replaced the old level with the new, and everyone was
pleasantly surprised. I’m particularly proud of this, as it turned out to
be a fan-favorite, and one of our most ambitious levels in the game.
By the time LBP launched, the Vita was already getting

negative press from many gaming sites. Was there any concern
at the time about the impact this would have on LBP?
MATT Oh sure, but the only thing we could do was try to make the
best game possible. I think we all believed we had something special,
so we tended to be more hopeful than concerned.
MERV All we can ever do is make the best game possible and hope
that the players find their way to it. If you start fretting over hardware
and what people may or may not think about it, you’re then going
to risk basing creative decisions on business factors, which may
be financially sensible, but doesn’t make for the most exciting choices.
For us, the hardware was really impressive and gave us all sorts
of new avenues to explore, which is exactly how we felt when it
came to making Statik for the PSVR. I prefer to think about all the
cool things we can do, rather than worry about audience share and
money. I guess that’s why I’m a writer and not a successful
business person!
It was such a big

undertaking, we were
still a relatively unproven
studio and we had to
deliver a full game
HENKE Idon’t recall any worries about this at the time. Around this time
we were really getting the hang of working with the Vita and were very
confident in what could be made with it.
SEBBO Of course it was sad to see that the game almost disappeared
between the cushions (as we say here in Sweden!), but it’s still fun
that the ones who discovered the game seem to like it. That is always
the most important thing in the end (for me anyway, maybe not for the
publishers!).
Tarsier Studios 079

Concept art from the
production of Tarsier Studios’
LittleBigPlanet PS Vita

Tarsier Studios 081
6 years on and LittleBigPlanet Vita is still one of the highest
rated games on the Vita. How does that make you guys feel?
How did it make you feel at the time?
ASGER Proud and very proud.
MERV That people actually liked it was really quite something. I mean,
we’re not talking about some unknown game with no personality
and zero fanbase, this is LBP! It was such a big undertaking for us
and, despite having worked on LBP assets and such in the past,
we were still a relatively unproven studio and we had to deliver a
full game. Luckily it was such a crazy, complicated development
process, there was very little time to sit back and reflect on things
like that. Only when it came close to release day did we start
hyperventilating about what reviewers and the LBP community
would think of it. Getting such a positive response was just
unbelievable.
HENKE I think that’s an achievement and milestone we need to
remember and be proud of. Especially considering it was the fourth
game in a series released within a few years time, and how well the
Create mode was received by fans considering it being a portable
platform is really amazing.
SEBBO I am still very proud and have the game framed on my wall
at home.
At the time, we were

mostly just happy to have
the title shipped – it was
hard to contextualise how
well we’d actually done
MATT Obviously it makes us feel validated that our efforts were

worth it. At the time, we were mostly just happy to have the title
shipped and out-the-door. For many of us, it was the first title
we’d worked on, so it was hard to contextualise how well we’d
actually done. I like to believe that the game’s success opened the
door for future projects. Sadly, we didn’t work on any other
PS Vita titles, but it’s nice knowing we left out own little mark
on the platform!

At what point in its development did you realise that you were
creating a game that would be this special and memorable?
MERV I’m not sure you ever really do realise something like that,
because you live in a weird bubble for so long and it becomes hard
to look at something from the outside. Only when it comes out and
people play it do you get any sense of how you’ve done. Still, there were
times during development where we got a little encouragement that
we weren’t veering completely off course. Like when we had a whole
bunch of players from the LBP community come over for a weekend-
long game jam in the studio. I’m not sure any of them slept, and the
whole building smelled like warm meat, Red Bull and Cheez Doodles on
Monday morning! The stuff they had created though was just amazing,
and they had some great feedback for us too, so that was a huge
injection of energy for the whole team at just the right time.
I’m certain there’s still

creators churning out
levels – I know first-hand
how talented some of the
hobby-creators can be
ASGER When the cutscenes and voice acting started approaching

their final state. This is when the overall experience really started to
coalesce, and the fact that we were actually making a ‘real’ product
became clear.
MATT Heh, I don’t think that point ever actually happened! It’s so hard
to know how well a game will be received when we’ve worked on it for
years; the best thing to do is just try to make the best game in that
moment, and hope that players appreciated it. Add to that the fact
that we were iterating things pretty late in development, it was pretty
stressful (and exciting)! I think that moment of realisation came after
development was finished.
The game had a great reception from the LBP creator community.
Do you know how many levels have been created by fans and
does the team have any particular favourite fan created levels?
MERV I’ve no idea where the level count has got up to, but there is one
Tarsier Studios 083

level that has always stuck in my mind. It’s called 2D/3D by a creator
known as SlurmMacKenzie, and I was just bowled over by that level.
It’s one of those ideas that you wish you’d thought of first, but in the
absence of that, I was at least lucky enough to play it.
ASGER I don’t know what the tally is at at this point, but I expected
people to be impressed by the Creation Tools. They were highly
influenced by having a good handful of community creators as part of
the development team.
Maybe we could do a
special edition like they
did with the original
Star Wars – that went
really well!
MATT Oh man, it’s been a long time since I’ve looked up community
levels, but I’m certain there’s still many dedicated creators still
churning out levels to this day. I used to be a community creator, so I
know first-hand how talented some of the hobby-creators out there
can be. Unfortunately, after 5 years of being a community creator and
several years working on LBP PS Vita, DLC for LBP2, and finally LBP3, I
burned myself out on the LittleBigPlanet franchise. While not actively
involved anymore, LittleBigPlanet will always hold a special place in my
heart. I’m confident that LBP PS Vita ignited the passion for making
games and levels in fans out there, and maybe they’ll follow that
passion into the games industry. Hopefully.
Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently

with the game?
MERV Yeah, this was my first proper game writing job and so there are all
sorts of things I’d do differently now. For one, I’d try to make the script
shorter and funnier. I’m still proud of what I tried to do with it, but it’s
just so overwritten in places and it still makes me cringe when I hear
it. After LBP Vita came out, we did the DC Comics pack for LBP2 and I
had the chance to rectify some of those mistakes and ease the pain a
little, but I’m not sure it’ll ever be enough. Maybe we could do a Special
Edition like they did with the original Star Wars – that went really well!

ASGER I would have loved if the system could have supported Online
Create. This was one of my favourite aspects of LBP on the PS3, and I
was really sad, when the programmers told us it wouldn’t happen on
Vita.
SEBBO As an artist you always look back at old games with love, but also
a lot of thoughts about what could be done better!
HENKE I don’t think it was possible to do it, but it would have been a
dream to make all existing LBP content retroactively playable on the
Vita as well. Imagine the millions of levels from LBP and LBP2 playable
at launch. Not many games launch with millions of user-made levels.
MATT As is the case with any game, I wish we had more time. There’s
always something that could’ve been done better, or things that could
have been more polished. We had high expectations for what we
wanted to create with LBP PS Vita, and while we weren’t able to hit
everything, I strongly believe the quality of the final title reflects those
high standards.
I will say that during development things get cut. It’s a sad reality
of game development. We had a lot of cool ideas that, for one reason
or another, got left behind. The result is a more cohesive, polished
game overall, but coming from being a community creator, it was a
difficult adjustment to make. If we tried to squeeze everything in, there
wouldn’t have been time to really make the best of the best content
shine.
Were any sacrifices made in developing the game for Vita?

HENKE In game development there’s always sacrifices, that’s the nature
of iterative development. Some things have to be down-prioritised
when you figure new things out and learn from the development
process. I remember a really cool theme that we had to remove from the
game very late in development for technical reasons, that was really
sad.
MATT I don’t know if I’d call them sacrifices, but coming from making
content for LittleBigPlanet 2 (on the PS3), we had to take a different
approach at times. It has a smaller screen. There was now touch
functionality. While still powerful, the PS Vita wasn’t quite as powerful
as a PS3. The code gurus at Double Eleven did a fantastic job porting
the LittleBigPlanet engine to the PS Vita, but there’s no denying the
game was originally meant to run on a different console.
It was just a matter of condensing things down to what was most
important. We had to break some habits, and be clever at times in how
we achieve an idea. Thankfully, we had a lot of support for improving
some of the creation tools. In the end, despite being on a handheld
Tarsier Studios 085

device, I actually preferred working in the LBP PS Vita editor over the
LBP2 editor.
There were so many new features added to the Vita version, for
example the memoriser, touch controls, mini-games and taking
pictures of items in the real world to use in the game. What
features were you most proud of and why?
ASGER I think some of the editor touch shortcuts were part of my
favourite additions. Most of them were pretty minor and simple, but
they helped making creating very speedy and intuitive.
LBP gave us loads of

confidence and when went
independent, we had a
better sense of what
we were capable of
HENKE Frankly the simplest one – the camera features. Being able to
take a photo of something, and seconds later have that thing appear in
your own game or level unleashes such potential with the community.
It’s not necessarily used to create the coolest gameplay or the most
advanced game logic, but it lets you personalize something like you
never could before. Anyone could get started with taking a photo and
removing the background to get your own creation in the game looking
awesome.
MATT I’d say the memorizer was a game-changer. For me anyways.
I remember way back in LittleBigPlanet 2 trying to abuse the score
system to try and save a measly 8 bits of data between levels. It was
hacky, and ugly, and not fun to work with.
Then I find out we’re creating a little tool to store data, and I was
ecstatic! While it was originally intended for use across different levels,
we found we were using it within a single level to just make life easier.
It’s not the flashiest, or most exciting, feature for players, but as a
content creator if was a really nice addition to the tool bag.
What was the impact of developing LBP Vita on Tarsier Studios?

MERV At its simplest, it showed that we could complete an entire

development cycle and, more importantly, that the end result would
feel pretty good. That gave us loads of confidence going forward and,
ultimately, when we decided to go independent, we had a better sense
of what we were capable of.
LBP PS Vita turns 6 this year, what would you like the game to
be remembered for and what would you want people to say when
they talk about the game today?
ASGER I once saw someone in a review say “LBP PS Vita is The Empire
Strikes Back of the LittleBigPlanet series”. Remembering it this way, I
think is very flattering.
MATT I get a little giddy any time I see someone mention it as
their favourite LittleBigPlanet game. I think players were pleasantly
surprised at how Tarsier Studios was able to put their own spin
on LittleBigPlanet while retaining the core character of the
franchise. It was definitely different from past games, but at the
same time relatable.
If there’s one thing I want the game to be remembered for, it’s
as a standalone game. Some are quick to call it a port, and while the
engine itself was ported, it was an entirely original game in an
existing franchise. We put our own little Tarsier spin on things, and
I think players appreciated that. We were a relatively young studio,
with lots of new people, and what we wanted most was to make games
with our unique Tarsier identity. Sony gave us a great opportunity,
and I believe it opened the door for us to work on the original games
that would follow.
MERV I hope people would see that we gave LBP PS Vita our best shot,
and didn’t just churn something out to tick a box. That game means
so much to so many people, not least all of us here, and I hope that
it still comes through in the finished product, so that all those wildly
committed creators out there feel as though we’ve shown LBP the love
and respect it truly deserves.
Tarsier Studios 087

INTERVIEW Stuart Tilley
Sony Studio Liverpool

Stuart Tilley had dreamed of working on a WipEout game ever
since he saw the original in action. He finally got his chance when
he became one of the game directors for WipEout 2048. In this
interview he shares some of his memories from the development
and launch of the game.
How did you end up becoming one of the directors on

WipEout 2048?
When I was first in the industry, it’s going back a long time, I was
making two games for the Atari Jaguar CD. One was called Blue
Lightning and the other was Battle Morph. Around the time we were
finalising them, me and my old boss were in America at Atari’s office.
One lunch time we took ourselves to one of the big electrical stores,
like Best Buy or something like that, and they were just wheeling out
a PlayStation with the point of sale material. Right in front of my eyes
they booted up WipEout and I was like ‘Oh my God!’ From that day, I
thought: a) I’ve got to work at PlayStation, and b) I want to be involved
in a WipEout game. I obviously bought it and I was a big fan. I managed
to convince my bosses at the company that made Blue Lightning to
make our own racing game. It was called Rollcage and it was on the
PS1. That was the first game where I was producer. In my early career
WipEout was the big guy and I was like the scrappy dude on the side
shouting and punching hard. I wanted to be as good as those guys.
We went to one of the big

electrical stores, and they
wheeled out a PlayStation
and booted up WipEout –
I was like ‘Oh my God!’
Some of the guys I met during development of Rollcage ended up

employing me at Sony. I had just joined Sony Liverpool Studios when
this game (WipEout 2048) was starting and it was a perfect fit. It was
something I had always wanted to work on and they had a vacancy for
game director. So after 20 years the planets aligned and I managed to
get my chance to be in charge of a WipEout game. It was a real treat. It
was dead exciting and that’s how it all started.
Sony Studio Liverpool 089

A lot of the guys in the studio had worked on WipEout from day 1.
So they were real experts and I was the new kid on the block, making
sure that I learnt the lessons that they had learnt over the generations.
One of the things that I found really fascinating was that WipEout was
a game that was always used to innovate on PlayStation hardware.
Hitting launch hardware was a really big deal for the team on the
PlayStation 1. They were the first PlayStation game with DLC. They
were a launch game on PSP and that was the same with the Vita.
It was a fascinating challenge (developing a game alongside a new
console launch), because I had done a bit of that before but not as
much as these guys. These guys were experts. While you know you’re
making a game and doing the graphics for it, the hardware hasn’t been
finalised so you’re kind of aiming for a moving target. You don’t quite
know how your controls are going to map or how buttons are going to
appear on the console. You don’t know how many polygons you’ve got
to play with. So the guys on the team, not only did they know the ins
and outs of the game itself, they were absolute ninjas at working in the
most flexible way, so that really quite late in development when you
know the final specs of the system, they can make sure the game is as
good as possible. That was a fascinating learning for me.
The vision early on was

pretty strong – Sony
wanted to create a
handheld, but make sure it
was PlayStation quality
I’ve heard that from other interviewees that the constant

hardware iteration caused a lot of development challenges.
It did yeah. Although, being a first party studio we had the inside track
to development hardware. So we had super early access to the buttons,
controller, rear touch pad and things like that. We spent a lot of time
with Sony as a whole on various calls and with their hardware teams.
You had the creative teams trying to find a cool way to use the different
parts of the device like the camera, the touch screen and the rear touch
pad, and at the same time we were working with the hardware teams
of Sony to create a console that we thought could make some really

cool games. It was awesome being involved in discussions with the
main guys in Japan who were responsible for creating the console.
Did they change anything based on your input? Were they

heading in a different direction with the system?
No. I think the vision early on was pretty strong. They (Sony) wanted
to create a handheld, but making sure it was PlayStation quality. So
there was always a really big drive to get the GPU running as fast as
possible and to have the highest quality screen. I think the rear touch
panel was the one feature that was debated the most on the calls.
Trying to find out how you may or may not be able to interact with it
and see basically was it worth the cost of including from Sony’s point
of view, because obviously the hardware R&D is a significant cost. So I
can’t necessarily take claim for anything, but there were quite a lot of
the first-party studios involved and everyone felt like they at least had
some of their voices heard. Mostly, when you work on new hardware
you want really powerful graphics processors and lots of memory. I was
personally hoping it could have more telephony features and somehow
combine a phone with a games console, but I was hoping for a bit too
much to be honest. I think that’s one for maybe 20 years time perhaps.
It probably would have made the Vita cost a lot more too.
Yeah, it absolutely would. Even the 3G version of the Vita cost more
because the hardware involved is quite expensive. It was a great time
though. Working with the (Studio Liverpool) guys, particularly the
vehicle guys, their attention to detail was absolutely second to none.
They had technical schematics for all the vehicles. They knew where
the fuel tanks were and where the fuel pipes would go, they wouldn’t
go past any parts of the exhaust systems and all sorts of crazy under
the hood deep thought on the shape and design for each of WipEout
ship. They weren’t just there to look sexy. They spent a lot of time
figuring out the rules of each of the ships, which was really cool.
So for you guys as a studio, what was more exciting at the time:
developing the next game in the WipEout series or developing a
game for Sony’s latest handheld?
For me personally it was working on a WipEout game but I’m pretty
sure for a lot of the guys, and the guys that ran the studio, the big
focus was on delivering on-time something beautiful that played well
for the launch of the new hardware. We were all invested in the success
of it (the Vita). So I’d say on a personal level, I was like a giddy kid to
get to make a WipEout game. The pressures I got from above were very

much:
“It’s definitely going to be on time isn’t it Stuart?”
“Yes, yes. It is sir.”
“And it’s going to look great and the screenshots are going to be
amazing, right? It’s going to play well?”
“Yes, yes. It will.”
A lot of my time was spent with the track designers to get the
tracks designed as well as we could. It was the first time in a little
while that new track designs had been put into a WipEout game. We
wanted to make it slightly more forgiving than previous WipEouts, so
we put in quite a lot of wider sections. If you didn’t nail your apexes
in some sections of some tracks then the game didn’t punish you so
much. We worried by doing that, by making it more inclusive, we would
lose some of the fans of the original games. So we ended up putting in
some of the later difficulty modes where we travel faster than any of
the other WipEout games to counter balance it. This was fascinating
actually and just about worked out in the end.
We wanted to make it more

forgiving than previous
WipEouts – but we worried
that we would lose some
of the original fans
I found the 2050 season really challenging.

That was the idea. When you look at the forums for the dedicated
community, they only play on the hardest of modes. When I got good
enough, that’s how I played it as well. Our aim was that it didn’t matter
if you’re really good (at WipEout games), 2048 is still going to have a
challenge.
There was a super big focus on getting it to work with Vita. There
was an interesting debate on memory and how big the package file
would be because of the different sized memory cards that go to retail.
The different sizes can really affect your business case for doing a Vita
game. We ended up getting it down to, I think it was, the 2 GB card in
the end. I believe we got it onto one of the smaller ones (game cart)
and so we ended up spending a fair bit of time towards the end of

development finding ways to really optimise our memory prints. It’s like
when you buy a bigger memory stick in the shop, it costs more. If the
game takes more memory, you can’t pass the costs on to the buyer, you
absorb the cost yourself. Going into retail, that was really important.
Although quite a lot of the sales were on download anyway, so I’m not
sure how much difference it made but there was quite a lot of pressure
on us at the time to make sure it fit on one of the smaller memory
cards.
Sony wanted to make their

consoles easier to work
with than the PS2 and
PS3 – the Vita was the
first step in that direction
How difficult did you guys find it to develop for the Vita?
You know what, it wasn’t bad at all. The guys that wrote all the
previous WipEout engines, some of them were still in the studio. So
they had written rendering tech across all the different PlayStation
platforms. They were very experienced at working with Sony hardware.
One of the things Sony had learnt from the PS2 and PS3 was that they
wanted to make their consoles easier to work with. Vita was the first
step in that direction and the PS4 took another step further along.
We had better tools and better manuals (from Sony) on how the chips
worked so that we could get up and running a bit quicker. I wouldn’t
say it was a walk in the park because these are super brainy guys and
they worked really hard to get the game to where it needed to be. We
eventually decided to run the game at 30 (frames per second) rather
than 60, which was a hotly debated point during development. 60
is silky smooth, it’s what you want, but we weren’t 100% sure we’d
get it looking as great as we wanted it to if it ran at twice the frame
rate. The game was actually up and running pretty early, it was there
or there about even before the hardware was final. It was generally a
good system to work with. It was the only Vita game I worked on and
I’m not sure what the other teams would say and whether they would
agree, but my boys said they found it easier than previous PlayStation
hardware.

Do you remember when you saw the final Vita model and what
you thought of it?
It was cool. The development versions always came connected to this
thick cable that tethered it to this big box. The main thing we were
excited about was that it had two sticks. The world would have ended
if Sony hadn’t put two sticks on it. So that was cool. I remember
the first time seeing the OLED screen and booting the game up and
thinking ‘yeah, that’s really nice.’ When we were going to E3, we were
all briefed to make sure we talked a lot about the screen because it
was a really high cost component. The game really did look lovely on
the Vita’s screen.
We were all really positive

on the future of the Vita –
I would always take it
away with me, and I still
do from time to time
It was dead exciting in the office whenever new hardware came in.
We would get these mystery boxes. You opened it up and you didn’t
always know what was going to come out. Sometimes it’s just some
naked circuit boards with stuff wired on and chips hanging off and an
HDMI port at the back. Towards the end, we started getting packages
that were like the real hardware. We started getting the systems that
would boot up into the proper operating system with the circular
buttons. It was very exciting. It was almost like a little Christmas
present every few months. There would never be enough for everyone.
It would go on someone’s desk and everyone would crowd around and
we’d all watch it be unboxed and booted up. Usually then we’d spend 2
or 3 days trying to get the game to run on it.
We were all really positive on the future of it (the Vita). I remember
at the time there was a lot of talk in the press about whether there was
room in people’s life for a handheld gaming device, because everyone
was playing on their phones. I was in the other camp. Maybe I’m a
game geek but I would always take it (the Vita) away with me and I still
do from time to time. Although less so now because I take my Switch
with me. It’s a bit of a badge of honour when you saw anyone on a

plane playing a Vita and you thought ‘yes!’ It was good for sparking
up a conversation.
It was good seeing the hardware come in. We very rarely get
the retail hardware before you finish the game. You have to use the
development hardware which sometimes looked the same. The PS4
test kits that we have kind of look like retail versions. I’m not sure we
ever did get the retail hardware for the Vita. They were always tethered
with this big wire sticking out the back. Which was interesting for
testing the tilt controls because the wire would act as a counter
balance.
What were your proudest memories from developing 2048?

We went to a pre-E3 show and it was a Vita specific thing. The launch
titles looked super cool and we were really proud to have a demo track
running really nicely with a solid frame rate. Obviously Uncharted was
there too, they were the poster boys if you like. Being there, publicly
showing WipEout 2048 for the first time on proper hardware and people
basically being wowed by it. Being right there and being the director
and being interviewed on camera, knowing that the guys back in the
studio would be watching and knowing that all that hard work, those
two year of blood, sweat and tears is paying off and the game is getting
a good reception. I can remember it now. But yeah that was it. All the
squirrelling and busying away and working really really hard on it
and getting it into the world and people saying ‘wow check that out!’
Those were good times.
Knowing that those two

year of blood, sweat and
tears is paying off and the
game is getting a good
reception felt great
The game did look so impressive on the Vita. It really stood out in
the launch line-up for how good it looked.
Thank you. The guys wouldn’t have it any other way. Lee Carus, the art
director, and who was art director on previous WipEout games, he’s a
real stickler for detail. Rob Sutton, who was the vehicle artist, wouldn’t

have had it any other way. I think it was Marcus Tanner, who was
assistant game director, doing the environments. They wouldn’t, and I
wouldn’t, accept anything less than the absolute best that we could do.
Even if sometimes we bit off some pretty sizeable challenges.
I was always a big fan of the graphics design at the front-end,
the little hexagons and triangles that you can push up on the back
touch pad. It gave the game a very lovely, slick feeling. When you’re
developing a game you don’t get that (front-end UI) until the end.
You’re just selecting race tracks off of text lists. The graphics go in
quite near the end. We had this beautiful looking game and then
suddenly you had this really cool menu selector on the front-end and I
thought ‘yeah this is cool.’ The guys did a good job.
Quite a few guys really powered through the environments as well.
We had a reasonably large art time with only small amount of time to
work. We spent quite a bit of time working on getting the flow of the
tracks right before we let the art guys on. There is a point where you
commit and you say ‘I’m not changing a single polygon anymore.’ This
is the surface, this is the camera, these are the turning points, this is
the width of the track, and that’s the point you give it to the art team
and they transform it basically from a simple ribbon floating in space
to suddenly having a world built around it. If you ever need to change
anything you’ll basically get the whole art team charging at you! You
have to fully commit to it.
I was a big fan of the

graphics design at
the front-end – it gave
the game a very lovely,
slick feeling
That’s interesting. So for a track like Sol, which was set up

above the sky scrapers, was the look of the track and setting
pre-determined?
Yeah, absolutely. So each of them (the tracks) had a tonne of different
concept art. We had a guy called Darren Douglas, who had done lots of
WipEout concept work in the past. So his experience was really good.
We knew the look of all the tracks. We had the concept that the higher

up in the city it (the track) would go, the more futuristic it would look.
The lower down tracks were inspired by brownstone buildings in New
York, whereas Sol was the most vertical and had the most futuristic
looking graphics. We got a real mix of art styles but they were pre-
determined. We knew the basic look and feel for each one which was
developed at the same time as the ribbon, which is what we called
the track. We had good tools for creating the ribbons, better than any
other game I’ve worked on. It was simple to build but at the same
time difficult because it’s another one of these things where you have
various parts coming together. Tweaks you made to the handling of the
vehicles happened at the same time as you design the shapes of the
tracks. You can create 10 brilliantly shaped tracks but if you suddenly
change the way the vehicles fly, then it may stop being as much fun.
There are not too many

regrets – we were on tight
timescales, and at the end
of the day the game looked
nice and reviewed well
Is there anything, looking back now, you would have liked to

have done differently?
If we had our time again, I think I would have wanted a bigger
multiplayer component and given the player more options. It may have
been the right decision at the time, but we went against doing the
race box mode which was very popular in previous WipEouts. So I think
if I had my time again, I would have cut some cloth from somewhere
else in the game to make space for it. But there are not too many
regrets. We were on pretty tight timescales and we were going to new
hardware. You have to make some pretty rapid decisions. At the end of
the day the game looked nice and reviewed pretty well so it’s still one
I’m proud of.
It’s surprising you say you wanted a bigger multiplayer

component. I found that the multiplayer campaign was huge.
Yes it was, and it was good. One of my favourite features was the
gloating mode, where you can basically take photos of yourself when

you win a race. I remember the first week at retail; I played a series of
games online. I thought I’d win easily but there was this person who
beat me, I don’t know who he was, but they won the race every time.
He had a load of different muppet toys and every time he won he would
post a photo of a different muppet teddy bear that he was sat next to. I
was just like ‘God damn it!’ I really enjoyed the multiplayer; it was just
that some players felt that they weren’t given enough choice. Player
choice was key and we didn’t give them enough, which is fair to say.
But I enjoyed it. The multiplayer online races were good.
I hope people would list

it as one of the WipEout
games they enjoyed
playing the most – I’d be
very happy with that
We had cross-play with PS3 and that was a really really big deal. We
had some right fun with that. I remember at Gamescom, it was possibly
the first time that we were demonstrating cross-play. We were in a
nearby hotel and we were going to be demonstrating to press. So we
had some PS3s in one room and Vitas in another room. We were going
to connect them all together and they were going to play against each
other and be wowed by it. We rocked up the day before, as you normally
do, to do the technical set up and it just was not working. I knew our
code worked. Basically, what it turned out to be was: because we were
going through PlayStation’s in-development, if you like, secret network
area, what we didn’t know at the time was that we needed to whitelist
the IP ranges for the hotel that we were in. It was only whitelisted
for the network in the Gamescom arena. We didn’t realise that, so we
were there until 6am on the phone to people in Japan and the hotel IT
people getting all these IP ranges listed, calling people to get out of bed
all over the planet. Then at about 6.00 or 6.30am we got it working and
we went to have one hours sleep and then back for the 9.00am start
of the presentations and the shows. It was proper seat of the pants
stuff. We enjoyed our Stein’s beer that night! That’s just one of the
trials and tribulations of online play. When it worked it was really good
actually. That particular feature was featured quite a lot at CES (the

Consumer Electronics Show) in Vegas. They (Sony) tend not to show
games there, but they wanted to show interoperability between the Vita
and PS3. So we ended up being on Sony’s big main stage and we got
called up every hour or two to do a live demo. That was good because
basically me and Graeme (Ankers, previously the studio director of
Sony Liverpool) got to spend the week in Vegas on the company! So life
wasn’t so bad, I’ve got to say.
2048 turned six this year. Is there anything in particular you

would want the game to be remembered for or how would you like
people to talk about the game today?
I think when people are looking back on it with nostalgia, I hope
they’d list it as one of the ones (WipEout games) they enjoyed playing
the most. Particularly with it being on a handheld, it really did have
console quality graphics on the go. 2048 was intended to be full of new
content. New ships, tracks and modes and things like that, whereas
the prior WipEout hadn’t. For me it was my fondest one of the WipEouts
because it was the only one I worked on so it will always have a special
place for me. If people see it as one of their favourite WipEouts, I’d be
very happy with that.

INTERVIEW Paul Rustchynsky
Evolution Studios

Motorstorm RC launched alongside the Vita and was a departure
from previous games in the series, which were 3D, off-road racing
games with a variety of vehicles and lots of crashes. Motorstorm
RC was a top-down racer, where players drove remote controlled
vehicles around tracks of tight turns. It was the first Vita game to
feature cross-buy (allowing buyers of the PS3 version to download
the Vita version for free, and vice-versa) and was a well-received
and addictive title. In this interview Paul Rustchynsky, the game’s
director, talks about the origins and development of the game.
Can you go over the journey for Evolution Studios from making
the 3D Motorstorm games to arriving at the concept for
Motorstorm RC, a top down racer, for the Vita?
MotorStorm RC was born out of one man’s passion for the world of RC
racing. Paul Frewin, an extremely active member in the real world RC
scene, had always dreamt of making an RC game and when we learned
of the PlayStation Vita we thought that an RC game would be a perfect
fit for the platform. From there we threw together a quick prototype on
PS3 using the MotorStorm Apocalypse engine, realised it was a great
deal of fun immediately, so we showed it to management and before
you knew it we were in full production.
We threw together a
prototype on PS3, showed
it to management, and
before you knew it we
were in full production
What was more exciting at the time: developing a new

Motorstorm game with totally different gameplay or developing
a game for Sony’s brand new handheld?
Making games on new hardware is always cool and it was awesome
to be able return to the MotorStorm universe, to dive into its diverse
history, but it was the opportunity to work on a fresh style of racing
that excited the most. The handling, modes, viewpoint and the cool
asynchronous competition all combined to create a unique gameplay
experience that made it a pleasure to work on.
Evolution Studios 101

Motorstorm RC was the first Vita game to feature cross-buy
with the PS3 version. Was the plan to always develop it for both
systems or was it originally planned as a PS3 version?
We did all the initial prototyping on the PS3 with the idea to pitch it
as a Vita game, so it just made sense to continue develop it for both
so that we could reach as wide an audience as possible. Cross-buy
was something we were passionate about from the start, we wanted
to make sure that you could play the game at home and seamlessly
continue your experience on the go – and for this to work it was
essential that you only had to buy the game once, so I was thrilled
when we got the green light to do it.
How difficult was it to develop the game for the Vita? Were any
compromises needed compared to developing on PS3?
There was no compromise, which I was really pleased with. There was
a lot of effort by the team to achieve this, as the Vita was obviously not
as powerful as the PS3, but it was helped massively by the improved
development tools and easy to use architecture of the Vita.
Motorstorm RC pushed the Vita’s social connectivity features.

Was this something you decided early on in the game’s
development or was this something that evolved as you learnt
more about the Vita’s features?
We had a fairly good understanding of what the Vita was capable of
and what Sony’s vision was for the platform, so from early on we knew
we wanted to make this a competitive social experience to make the
most out of the hardware.
Cross-buy was something

we were passionate about
– we wanted you to play
the game at home and
continue on the go
Do you remember the first time you saw the Vita? What were
your thoughts on the device?
We had pre-release hardware during development, and even in its not

quite as polished final state I was wowed by the build quality
and that OLED screen, which still impresses to this day! It felt
immediately great in the hands, and I still enjoy playing my Vita
to this day, it (the original release unit) still feels so modern, sleek
and premium.
Motorstorm RC was well received by fans and critics. How did the
fan reception make you guys feel?
I was thrilled. It’s still a game I look back on fondly, and I’m so proud
of what such a small team achieved in less than 12 months. All of the
guys were superstars and there’s nothing more pleasing than when
both critics and fans love it.
It’s still a game I look

back on fondly, and I’m
so proud of what such a
small team achieved in
less than 12 months
Sony showcased the Vita and it’s games at all the main
gaming conferences (E3, Gamescom, etc.) leading up to its
launch. How did you find fans and critics response to
Motorstorm RC pre-release?
It such a difficult area to gauge, we had some MotorStorm fans
who felt it was an odd direction to take but conversely lots of RC
racing fans who loved the idea. On the whole I remember the
reception being positive, but not without a few people being on the
fence. Luckily I think we managed to convert most people who
played it.
Looking back, is there anything you would have done

differently with the game?
For the short development period that we had with the game I
honestly don’t think I would have changed anything. If you asked
me the same question for any other game I’ve worked on and I’d
have a list of things I’d have done differently, I was really that
pleased with how RC met our initial vision.

Concept art from the
production of Evolution
Studios’ MotorStorm RC

The two DLC packs were a lot of fun. Was there any consideration
given to making a sequel?
By the time we had wrapped up development on RC and its DLC
expansions we had to move straight onto Driveclub. There wasn’t really
any time to consider a sequel. I’m sure if the game had been wildly
successful then we might have been having a different conversation.
For the first time it felt

like a real project, where
we had the team all
together and the means
to realise our vision!
Do you have any fond or interesting memories from the

game’s development and launch that you’d like to share?
I remember when the game became more than a prototype, a small
idea we secretly worked on in our own time, it was when we first pulled
a team together in our own part of the office. This for me was my most
cherished memory, as it was the day the project became more than just
an idea that I thought would never see the light of day. For the first
time it felt like a real project, where we had the team all together and
the means to realise our vision!

Concept art from the production of
Evolution Studios’ MotorStorm RC

Library
110 Gravity Rush
114 MotorStorm RC
118 Escape Plan
122 FIFA Football
124 Call of Duty: Black Ops: Declassified
128 Sound Shapes
132 LittleBigPlanet PS Vita
136 Need for Speed: Most Wanted
140 Persona 4 Golden
144 WipEout 2048
150 Unit 13
154 Virtua Tennis 4
158 Super Stardust Delta
160 Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack
162 Uncharted: Golden Abyss
166 Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward
170 Resistance: Burning Skies
172 Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation
174 Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale
176 Release list 180 Inventory 182 Timeline
109
RETROSPECTIVE GRAVITY DAZE WAS RELEASED IN
Japan in February 2012. It was renamed
Gravity to Gravity Rush for its Western release
Rush in June of that year. The game was

developed by Team Gravity, part of Sony
Interactive Entertainment Japan Studios
– Sony’s Japanese arm of their first party
development studios. Gravity Rush was
directed by Keiichiro Toyama, who was
the creator and director of the original
Silent Hill game. After developing Silent
Hill, he joined Japan Studios and directed
the Siren series of games before moving
Released on to Gravity Rush.
February 2012 Although it was released just a few
Developer months after the Vita’s launch, Gravity
Project Siren Rush was actually planned to be a PS3
Publisher game. Development started in 2008 but
Sony Computer Toyama decided that the Vita would be
Entertainment a better fit for the game, with the tilting

to aim mechanics adding to the game’s
immersion.
The game is centred around the Part of the enjoyment
protagonist Kat, who wakes up in a
floating town call Hekseville with all
of the game was
her memories gone. She discovers a flying around,
mysterious black cat, named Dusty, that
gives her the ability to manipulate gravity
exploring above and
- allowing her to walk on any surface, below the town
fall in any direction and throw objects
with ease. After saving a boy from being
swept up in a gravity storm, Kat learns
she can use her new abilities to help beating Nevi, players earned jewels that
protect the people of Hekesville from the were used to upgrade Kat’s abilities. Over
monsters that arrived with the gravity the course of the game Kat could become
storms, called the Nevi. The game follows very powerful, able to stay in the air and
her journey around Hekseville and into travel great distances at speed. Part of
hidden dimensions, called Rift Planes, the enjoyment of the game was being
to defeat the Nevi and try to uncover her able to just fly around finding jewels and
the secrets of her shrouded past. exploring above and below the town.
Along the way, she meets another Controlling Kat was straightforward
mysterious gravity manipulator named with the right trigger used to lift off
Raven who begins the game as Kat’s the ground and to fly to a target. The
enemy but later helps her in battling the left trigger returned gravity to normal
Nevi. causing Kat to fall.
Players could control Kat by letting Battling the Nevi could be done
her walk and jump around the town but through melee attacks on the ground,
the real fun came in experiencing Kat lifting items with Kat’s gravity powers
flying. At the start of the game, Kat’s and tossing them, flying into the sky
abilities are limited and she is only able and barreling towards the enemy with a
to fly for a short amount of time. After devastating gravity kick or using one of
Kat’s special abilities to attack multiple
enemies at once. The gravity kick in
particular was Kat’s most useful attack.
It was powerful and fast and could kill
many of the basic enemies with one hit.
It was also however a source of criticism
for the game. Once the player had
chosen an enemy to attack, the player
could hit square to fly towards them.
The target could be adjusted using the
vita’s gyroscope controls but due to the
Gravity Rush 111

for dark and gritty, Gravity Rush was
more about letting the player have fun
with being a superhero. The story unfolds
through comic book style cut scenes
which suited charming feel of the game.
The game had many mysteries and Kat’s
amnesia gave players the feeling that
they were learning about the world and
its characters along with Kat.
Gravity Rush was an open world
game and once you had upgraded Kat’s
abilities enough, you could fly freely
between the world’s 3 districts with
ease. It wasn’t a particularly big map but
each district had its own distinct design
and music, ranging from steampunk to
gothic. Players could explore the areas
for jewels littered above and below the
towns or could complete the optional
challenge missions. The challenges
ranged from flying around the districts
hitting checkpoints in timed trials,
fighting Nevi, carrying civilians to safety
or sliding races. The missions could
be quite tricky to complete, especially
without having all the correct upgrades.
The challenge missions and exploration
were fun distractions and added to the
longevity of the game. The cel shaded,
speed of the attack and some enemies anime graphics looked very impressive
being able to move out of the way at on the Vita. Years after release, it is still
the last second, there were many times one of the Vita’s best looking games.
when the player would fly far past the Studio Japan had truly created a unique
enemy. Stopping, turning around and and beautiful world to explore.
re-aiming and potentially missing again The game reviewed well, sitting at
was a source of frustration for many 83% on Metacritic. Which made it the
players and reviewers. Battles with 5th highest rated Vita game at the time
flying enemies could at times feel more it was released. Currently it sits in the
annoying than fun. top 40 of Vita games on Metacritic.
Kat’s bubbly and optimistic Reviewers praised the game’s world,
personality gave the game a light- graphics, gameplay and Kat’s personality.
hearted feel. Where so many games aim Criticisms focused on the disorientation

released on the PS4 – an HD upgrade of
the original Vita game.
The game reviewed After being on sale for 5 months, Sony
well, and was the began giving Gravity Rush on the Vita
to PS+ subscribers in November 2012 as
fifth highest rated part of its Instant Game Collection. It
Vita game at the time remained free to PS+ subscribers until
June 2014. While it was a sensible move
it was released for Sony to give away one of the Vita’s
flag ship titles to new Vita owners and as
an incentive to sign up to PS+, it annoyed
loyal fans that had supported the game
during battles caused by the camera by buying it on its release. Having it
and the confusing story with mysteries free for so long meant it was one of the
unresolved even after the game had been most owned games on Vita, based on
finished. The Japanese gaming magazine, psnprofiles.com.
Famitsu, scored the game an extremely In Gravity Rush, Sony had created
positive 38/40. However the high review a new and unique game for the Vita.
scores did not translate to sales. Gravity It gave Vita owners hope for the Vita’s
Rush sold 43,000 in its week of release future potential which made it even more
and it took 2 months to reach 100,000 disappointing that Vita owners would
sales in Japan. Granted these sales not be able to continue Kat’s story on
figures did not include digital downloads the handheld where it belonged. Gravity
but it was perceived as another sales Rush 2 was released in January 2017 to
disappointment for the Vita. Its release in positive reviews, but disappointing sales.
Japan also did not result in an increase in It reportedly sold far less than Gravity
sales of Vita units. Rush on the Vita. Perhaps if the sequel
In September 2012, just months after had been on Vita, the game would have
the game’s release, Toyama stated that sold better with the same audience that
he wanted to make a sequel and hinted bought the first game and also those PS+
that it was going to be announced subscribers that had played and enjoyed
imminently. The sequel was teased the Gravity Rush.
following year with a full announcement
in 2014 at the Tokyo Games Show (TGS).
However, to the dismay of Vita fans, it
was revealed that Gravity Rush 2 would
only be released on the PlayStation 4. By
2014, Sony had pretty much given up on
developing games for Vita and making
Gravity Rush 2 a PS4 exclusive was just
another indication of that. In February
2016, Gravity Rush Remastered was
Gravity Rush 113

RETROSPECTIVE THE FIRST MOTORSTORM WAS
launched on the PS3 at the end of 2006.
MotorStorm It was developed by Evolution Studios
RC who were acquired by Sony in 2007. It set

itself apart from other racers by having a
range of different vehicle types and fast,
fun, chaotic gameplay. The epic crashes
and smashes got the game a lot of
attention and the series went on to have
two more PS3 games, a PSP game, that
replicated the console experience on a
handheld, and MotorStorm RC.
MotorStorm RC was a Vita launch
game and also a PS3 cross-buy and
cross-save title. It meant that if you buy
it for Vita, you also have it for PS3. You
Released could also move your progress from Vita
February 2012 to PS3 or vice-versa to continue your
Developer game on the other system.
Evolution Studios The game was a complete departure
Publisher from previous games in the series. Unlike
Sony Computer its 3D predecessors, MotorStorm RC was a
Entertainment top down racing game where you control

mini remote controlled vehicles around
tracks filled with obstacles and tight
turns. As you play the game’s festivals, MotorStorm RC
essentially its career mode, you unlock
new tracks and cars. The cars were varied
was a call back to
ranging from slow and heavy to almost retro racers like
uncontrollably fast. The game was a call
back to retro 8-bit and 16-bit racers like
RC Pro Am and
RC Pro Am and Micro Machines. It also Micro Machines
paid homage to the other games in the
MotorStorm series with tracks themed
around the previous four games. Tracks
were split into four festival sets named off pretty easy, the difficulty ramped up
Monument Valley, Pacific Rift, Arctic significantly and trying to collect all the
Edge and Apocalypse. Each festival had medals for each track was so hard that
4 unique tracks and 16 race challenges the developers patched the game a few
to be completed. Races were split into months later to make it easier. Not only
four types: the standard Race pits you did players have to get used to the speed
against 7 other cars as you race to the of the cars, navigating the sharp turns
finish, Hot Lap challenges you to achieve and obstacles on the track meant that
the best time for a lap, in Pursuit you players had to drive smart, not just fast,
must overtake 9 other opponents in the in order to claim all the medals
quickest time and Drift events challenge MotorStorm RC delivered on
you to drive with style, giving points for Sony’s vision for social gaming
drifting around corners. experiences on the go. It did not have
Each challenge lasted from 10 seconds an online multiplayer mode, but online
to several minutes. It may not have leaderboards and friend ghosts gave
had the scale and epic-ness of the PS3 extra motivation to repeat tracks,
games in the series, but the short, fun improve your time to try and shave off
races were well suited to a handheld that fraction of a second to claim the
console. The MotorStorm games always gold medal. Live leaderboards showed
felt addictive and Evolution brought you where you ranked against all your
that to RC as well. Short load times and friends as well as globally, and for those
instant respawning after crashes meant with a 3G Vita, the scores could be
that it was easy to lose track of time even updated while you’re away from a Wi-Fi
though you tell yourself you’ll have just connection.
one more go. The game was designed to bring
Controlling the cars took some getting out your competitive streak. Evolution
used to and the game became extremely made it simple to know how you were
difficult in the later levels due to the progressing on each track and how you
speed and handling of some of the were performing against your friends.
fastest cars. Although the game started As you drove, you could see ghosts the
MotorStorm RC 115
track that represented your friends, your
previous best time and also of the gold,
silver and bronze medal challenge times.
It gave players a clear target of how they
needed to drive to better their time.
Over time, MotorStorm RC had 2
expansion packs with extra tracks and
dozens of cars that could each be bought
for less than a dollar. The expansion
packs were available within a couple
of months of the game release, giving
players an incentive to keep the game
on their Vita and continue to play it.
The additional vehicles were in no way
essential and some were quite random.
Sony also offered micro-transactions in
the form of time saver packs that allowed
users to unlock all tracks and vehicles.
They weren’t particularly expensive but
the idea of paying to unlock levels rather
than just playing the game drew some partnership with Scion) and gave players
negativity. hours of game time. The main criticism
The game reviewed well, with critics of the game was a lack of multiplayer.
citing the fast, fun gameplay and also As it was a downloadable game there are
the fact that it was cheap. At $10 or £6 no available sales numbers, however as a
it was a fraction of the cost of some of rough comparison, looking at psnprofiles.
the other launch releases for Vita (US com shows that it had the 4th highest
Vita owners were actually able to claim number of owners compared to the Vita’s
the game for free for the first two weeks other launch games. This was likely
of its launch as part of a promotional helped by the Scion promotion in the US.
After Evolution released MotorStorm
RC, their next game was DriveClub on
the Playstation 4. Originally planned for
The game reviewed the PS4’s launch, the game was released
more than a year late and suffered from
well, with critics citing many bugs. Although the game was
the fast, fun gameplay patched and eventually ran smoothly,
the unsuccessful launch of the game
and also the fact that resulted in the studio being shut down
it was cheap in 2016. As a result, MotorStorm RC was
unfortunately the last MotorStorm game
in the series.

117
RETROSPECTIVE ANNOUNCED AT GAMESCOM 2011,
Escape Plan was one of the Vita’s most
Escape anticipated launch games. There was
Plan a huge amount of positive buzz from

the games media and fans following its
reveal due to its dark humour and stylish
and unique black and white graphics that
helped it stand out from all of the Vita’s
other launch games.
Escape Plan was developed by Fun
Released Bits Interactive. The studio was founded
February 2012 in 2010 and was made up of part of
Developer the team that made Fat Princess for
Fun Bits Interactive the PlayStation 3. Escape Plan was a
Publisher puzzle game where the player guides
Sony Computer two characters – Lil and Laarg –
Entertainment America through various rooms solving puzzles

to ultimately escape from the evil
Bakuki who wants to turn them into his
mindless minions. At launch, the game’s
primary control method was the Vita’s
front and back touch panels. For instance,
Lil and Laarg could be moved by touching
them and swiping, obstacles could be
pushed to the background by touching
them on the front screen or moved the
foreground by touching the back panel
and enemies could be distracted with
a poke of the front screen. While this
was a unique feature of the game before very common. It was almost fun to see
launch, it also drew some criticism as how the various traps would effect Lil
accidental brushes of the screen could and Laarg and to see the black goo
result in an unexpected death. painting the walls and floors after each
The look and style of the game were death. Every time a character dies, the
particularly memorable. The film noir number on their stomach increases by
black and white graphics were sharp and 1 to remind players of all their missteps.
the characters had a shine as if they were Although the game could be frustrating,
wearing black latex. The environments especially when death is caused by an
looked dangerous with chainsaws and accidental touch of the screen, it was
electrified cables. The music had an old also useful in helping the player learn the
fashioned style that suited the black and level and know what not to do.
white graphics. Clap and laugh tracks The puzzles were varied. They ranged
gave the feeling the player was part of from moving obstacles out of the way
the audience watching the clumsy pair as of Lil and Laarg or distracting Bakuki’s
they die and die again. Death was one of minions to giving Lil coffee to make
the most memorable parts of the game. him move fast and dodge obstacles
Hearing the ‘splat’ sound and seeing the or blowing him up like a balloon to
body explode into a liquidy goo became float past obstacles. The game was
cleverly designed, teaching players new
mechanics before testing the player to
combine multiple mechanics with precise
timing to avoid death. There were 78
Escape Plan was trap filled rooms to complete. Solving
one of the Vita’s the puzzles and reaching the door at the
end of the room led to the next deadly
most anticipated room. The game used a 3 star rating
launch games system to track how well players did in
completing each room. The more touches
required to solve the puzzles the lower
Escape Plan 119

the player’s score. Striving to complete
every room with a 3 star rating added
both replayability and challenge. The film noir black
The developers labelled Escape Plan a
‘survival humour’ game. The aim of the
and white graphics
game was clearly to survive the deadly were sharp and the
traps but it had a dark humour with
audience laughing at each gruesome
characters had a
death. black latex shine
Reviews were mixed. It was praised
for its art style, humour, low price and
for its quirkiness. However, the touch
controls were a source of criticism for PlayStation Network charts for February
making the game awkward to control to April 2012 in the US and remained in
at times. Additionally, the game did the top ten for eight months of the Vita’s
not always recognise a touch action first year.
straight away resulting in players dying After launch, the game received 3
or missing out on the 3 star rating due DLC packs with new environments and
to needing to compensate for the lag in puzzle rooms. The new levels added
recognising touches. Despite the mixed some variety and new environments
reviews, the game sold well. It was the to the original levels and players could
most downloaded Vita game on the customise Lil and Laarg with new
costumes. The first and second DLC
packs were sold initially at a massive
discount (the first pack, the Asylum, cost
only 25 cents in the US or 25 pence in the
UK) with the price increasing 2 weeks
after they launched. Patch 1.04 was
released in October 2012 and added non-
touch controls allowing players to choose
their preferred mode of play.
With its unique art style and
memorable characters, Escape Plan
seemed like a game that could have been
the new PlayStation handheld franchise
like Patapon or Loco Roco were for the
PSP. Despite strong sales on Vita, Escape
Plan never had a sequel. It was the only
game Fun Bits developed for the Vita.
They went on to make Fat Princess
Adventures which launched in December
2015 on the PS4.

121
FIFA IS ONE OF THE BIGGEST
gaming franchises in the world with well
over 100 million copies sold in the series’
lifetime. It’s yet another example of the
impressiveness of the Vita’s launch line
up that it had a FIFA game ready for the
system’s launch. Despite FIFA 12 having
been released on consoles months earlier,
FIFA Football on the Vita (or FIFA Soccer
as it was called in North America) was a
close port of the console FIFA 11. It was
a shame that some of the modes and
improvements in the console FIFA 12 were
not brought to the Vita version but it
was still an impressive game with online
multiplayer and various single player
modes. The career mode allowed you to
build your career as a player, you could
be a team’s manager or you could even
act as player-manager, managing your
team while also playing on the pitch.
The game received positive reviews with
critics praising the graphics, gameplay
and how the game was a close console
port on a handheld. At the time, it was
considered the best portable game in
the FIFA series. It also made some of the
best use of the Vita’s touch screen and
back pad, especially when compared to
RETROSPECTIVE the other launch games. The front touch
could be used to pass the ball to other
FIFA players and the back pad acted like the
Football opponent’s goal where touching it would

shoot the ball at that part of the goal. The
back touch did make the game a bit too
easy at times but it was a smart use of
Released the Vita’s unique inputs.
February 2012 Electronic Arts (EA) announced in
Developer July 2012 that the next iteration in the
EA Canada series, FIFA 13, would be coming to the
Publisher Vita in September 2012, just 8 months
Electronic Arts after the release of the first FIFA on

download charts.
The Vita received two more versions
FIFA Football was of FIFA. FIFA 14 was given the subheading
considered the Legacy Edition and made clear at least

that this game was a minor update to
best portable game the previous versions. This didn’t stop EA
in the series charging full price for the game. FIFA 15

was the last FIFA title to arrive on Vita
and turned out to be the worst of the four
games. FIFA 15 was again titled Legacy
Edition and again made clear that it was
Vita. There was speculation that FIFA 13 a re-skinned version of the original FIFA
would include the features present on the but EA had unexpectedly stripped out the
console versions that were missing from online multiplayer mode. This was not
FIFA Football but this was not the case. announced before its release resulting in
FIFA 13 turned out to be essentially the disappointed buyers only discovering the
same game that was launched months omission after they had bought it.
earlier. There were some improvements Reviews of every subsequent version
to the graphics and gameplay but these of FIFA were rated worse than the last.
were minor. The only real change was FIFA Football has a Metacritic score of
to update the player rosters and skins, 79%, FIFA 13 scored 57%. FIFA 14 and 15
but this did not justify the game being didn’t even get enough reviews to receive
a full price release. EA made no effort a score on Metacritic but the reviews they
to explain that this was a minor update did get were overwhelmingly negative.
but worse still, EA did not send out In The Vita Lounge’s review of FIFA 15
review copies of the game ahead of its they stated, “With the removal of the
release to gaming media sites, therefore multiplayer you cannot even say that
preventing customers from learning first time FIFA buyers should pick up this
about the game’s shortcomings ahead version. Previous FIFA games on Vita are
of time. Once they did get hold of a copy, cheaper and have online. EA would have
reviewers were not impressed. While they created less anger by not releasing this
admitted the gameplay was still solid, the at all.”
game was criticised for being deceptive FIFA sells millions of copies annually
and overpriced. and FIFA Football likely sold well on Vita
Although no official sales numbers given the positive reviews and brand
were ever announced by EA, FIFA Football name. It’s a franchise that could have
performed well at least in the U.K. where helped the Vita grow but instead EA
it was number 2 in the all formats video chose to charge fans the cost of a full
game sales charts for the week it was price game (three times!) and hide the
released. FIFA 13, on the other hand, fact that these were minor upgrades that
didn’t appear in the retail charts at all probably should have been patches or
or in the PlayStation Network monthly DLC for the first FIFA game.
FIFA Football 123

RETROSPECTIVE AFTER THE VITA’S ROCKY LAUNCH
and months of mediocre sales, Sony
Call of Duty: announced at E3 2012 that Call of Duty
Black Ops: would be coming to Vita. No gameplay

was shown, only the title: Call of Duty:
Declassified Black Ops Declassified. It was billed as

the portable continuation of the console
Call of Duty: Black Ops series and was
due to be released that same year. This
was the game the Vita desperately
needed to turn around its fortunes – Call
of Duty was the biggest gaming franchise
at the time and having a new entry in
the series on the console would no doubt
boost the Vita’s fortunes. However, alarm
bells began ringing almost immediately
Released – no footage of the game was shown
November 2012 at E3 and Sony did not even reveal who
Developer was developing it. It was confirmed that
nStigate Games none of Activision’s internal studios were
Publisher developing the game, but the caginess
Activision of both companies to show footage and
reveal the developer was a cause of
concern for the gaming media.
At Gamescom 2012, Sony finally
revealed a trailer with multiplayer
footage and confirmed that Declassified
was being developed by Nihilistic
Software – the developers of the Vita
first-person shooter Resistance: Burning
Skies. Burning Skies was part of Sony’s
Resistance series of games that saw the
player take on the Chimera aliens to
prevent them from realising their plans
to take over the Earth – it launched in
May 2012 to a mediocre reception. The
game was praised for its controls and
for being a genuine first person shooter
on a handheld, however criticisms were
levelled due to its forgettable story,
sub-par graphics and short, uninspiring
levels. Many saw it as an average shooter

for the game up to that point – a very
strange occurrence for such a major
title. Fortunately (or unfortunately) the
game was so short that reviews began
appearing within 3 days of release. The
game was heavily criticised and, more
than 5 years after release, is still one of
the worst rated Vita game on metacritic.
com with an aggregated score of 33%.
Reviewers highlighted the imprecise
which did not inspire much confidence in controls, a single player campaign that
this developer tackling Call of Duty: Black could be completed in an hour, bland
Ops: Declassified. However questions graphics, bad enemy AI and small multi-
were also raised about how the studio player maps that could result in instant
could develop and launch Declassified death on re-spawning. There were almost
just months after Burning Skies’ release. no positives cited at all, showing just
Gaming sites that had an extended what a trainwreck the final product was.
look at the multiplayer mode of Looking back at reviews now, they seem
Declassified at Gamescom were left overly harsh for a game that’s at least
unimpressed. The main concern was as good (or bad, if you prefer) as Burning
that it seemed to play like Resistance: Skies, but to make matters worse the
Burning Skies – and that was considered game retailed for $50 in the US and £45
a bad thing. Even the trailer failed to in the UK. To charge a price similar to
raise excitement levels in the game. It the console Call of Duty for a game that
seemed that the title was not ready for was far worse and much shorter left fans
release and would almost inevitably disappointed and angry.
be delayed, but Sony and Activision Declassified had a single player
confirmed Declassified would be available campaign made up of short missions,
in November 2012. It was arguably a multi-player mode and a horde mode
the biggest and most important game named Hostiles, that pits the player
release for the Vita for its first holiday
season, but very little information was
being provided by Sony or Activision or
Nihilistic. When the game was released it
was obvious why.
Declassified was
When a publisher decides not to send the game the Vita
review copies of a game to gaming sites,
it’s likely an indicator that the game
desperately needed
has problems that they don’t want to to turn around
be made public. Call of Duty: Black Ops:
Declassified was released on November
its fortunes
13, 2012 but no reviews were available
Call of Duty: Black Ops: Declassified 125

against waves of enemies. On the surface
a game with single player, multi-player
and horde mode seems like a complete Declassified
package, however all three had issues
that made the game feel rushed and
reportedly sold
unfinished. Following release, gaming surprisingly well
media sites reported the difficulties of
developing the game. It was claimed
that Nihilistic only started working
on Declassified after development for console/handheld game Nihilistic would
Burning Skies was complete, giving them develop. The studio went on to change its
only 5-6 months to develop Declassified. name to nStigate and stated they would
In an effort to speed up development, focus on developing mobile games before
assets were reused from Burning Skies. ultimately shutting down.
What is especially strange is that the Despite the poor reviews Declassified
game was announced in January 2011 reportedly sold surprisingly well
at the reveal of the NGP. If Sony and compared to other Vita games. The game
Activision had intended for this game had the second highest launch of any
to be made, why did they wait to give PS Vita title in the UK in 2012 (beaten
development to Nihilistic rather than only by Uncharted: Golden Abyss) and
one of their own studios with more according to vgchartz.com it had sold
experience at developing shooters? Why over 1.6 million units in the five years
also give Nihilisitic only half a year to since launch, making it the 2nd best
develop and launch the game? There was selling Vita game of all time. However,
an unconfirmed rumour that Activision the positive sales numbers do not reflect
were trying to port Call of Duty: Black Ops the impact the game had on the Vita. At
2 to Vita, but realised it couldn’t be done a time when the Vita was already being
well and so the project was passed off to called a failure, Black Ops: Declassified
Nihilistic as they were the only company further damaged the Vita brand. A good
with an FPS engine which worked on Call of Duty game on the Vita could
Vita at the time. have given the device a significant
Black Ops: Declassified was the last boost to sales by offering a fantastic
portable experience but for many people
who bought a Vita hoping to play a full
featured Call of Duty game on-the-go,
it was a disappointment. Sony often
referred to the Vita being able to replicate
the console experience on a handheld,
but Declassified further cemented the
Vita’s reputation as a sub-par system
that tried and failed at the slogan of
‘console quality on the go’.

127
RETROSPECTIVE SOUND SHAPES WAS ONE OF THE
most unique games to launch in the
Sound Vita’s first year – a minimalist, musical
Shapes platformer where the music was created

by objects in the environment and you,
the player. The objective of each level
was simple: control a sticky ball, move
through single screen areas and get to
the end of the level avoiding obstacles
while navigating some tricky platforms.
Everything in the game had its own
sound, from the crackling of ice falling
apart beneath you to missiles flying
across the screen. In addition to the
environment, collectable coins added to
the sound of the levels. The coins were
dispersed on the screen like notes on a
music sheet, creating recurring beats and
Released notes as they were collected to form the
August 2012 soundtrack of the level. Even movement
Developer and jumps needed to follow the timing
Queasy Games and beat of the level to evade the deadly
Publisher obstructions, meaning players were not
Sony Computer just listening to music, they were part of
Entertainment the music creation and evolution.

as Beck, deadmau5, Jim Guthrie and I am
Robot and Proud while famous artists
Sound Shapes was such as Superbrothers, PixelJam and
one of the most Pyramid Attack created the stages and
objects within them. Each album stood
unique games out for its unique sound and style - for
to launch in the example ‘Hello World’ had you travel
through a calm and beautiful world of
Vita’s first year nature, climbing and jumping on trees
and flowers; ‘Corporeal’ was themed
around escaping a grey and brown office;
‘D-cade’ was a homage to old school
Sound Shapes started as a arcade games with upbeat electronic
collaboration between video game loops, and ‘Cities’ was memorable for
developer, Jonathan Mak, and musician Beck’s recognisable vocals and its dance
Shaw-Han Liem. Mak had previously beat set to a war-torn city with missiles
developed the game Everyday Shooter exploding and fire everywhere. Playing
for the PlayStation 3 and Playstation through each album was such a different
Portable. Together, they experimented experience not just due to the graphics
with the idea of fusing music with art and music – some levels emphasised
and made a series of prototype games puzzle solving, some revolved around
until they landed on the musical tricky platforming and some focused
platformer Sound Shapes. Mak and Liem on the perfect timing of jumps and
originally pitched the game to Sony for movement. Those 20 levels were a
the PS3, but Sony suggested it should perfect balance between artistic visuals,
be made for their upcoming handheld. arresting music and challenging (at
Sound Shapes was revealed to the public times) platforming.
at E3 2011 where it wowed fans and A common thread between all the
the media with its beautiful and varied levels was that red was bad. Touching
visuals and creative blend of music and anything red resulted in an instant
platforming gameplay – it was originally death (fortunately, very little progress
planned to be a launch game for the Vita
but was pushed back with no explanation
and at E3 2012, Sony finally revealed that
Sound Shapes would be launching for
both the Vita and PS3 in August 2012.
The core game contained 20 levels
split into 5 albums – each album had its
own graphical theme and sound that
resulted from a collaboration between
artists and musicians. The musical loops
were written by famous musicians such
Sound Shapes 129

would be lost between each death as sense of achievement.
checkpoints were littered throughout The core game may have felt too
each level). One of the few criticisms of short but there was potentially endless
the game was that it could be finished content available from the Edit Mode.
in several hours and that each level Players could create platforming levels
could be beaten in just a few minutes. with their own beats and musical loops
Some levels were tougher than others, and using objects unlocked in the core
but it was not an especially difficult game – stages could be uploaded and
game. Online leaderboards were also shared with players around the world.
present – competing with friends and Thousands of levels were created
players around the world for the fastest and it didn’t matter whether they were
level completion time gave players an created on the Playstation 3 or Vita, all
incentive to replay levels. levels were available for players of both
The core single player game was only platforms. Impressively, levels were still
part of the Sound Shapes package. Once being uploaded 6 years after the game’s
those 20 levels had been completed, release.
two new modes were unlocked – Beat There were some excellent user
School challenged players to listen to created levels, although discovering
different combinations of beats and them wasn’t easy, especially in the first
recreate them by placing notes on the few months after release when so many
correct spot on the screen, while Death levels were being created and uploaded
Mode was made up of 20 single screen at the same time. In March 2013, the
levels based on environments from the game received an update that included
main game – players had to collect the curated albums called Milkcrates. The
specified number of coins in fast-paced Milkcrates were made up of a selection of
levels, full of deadly obstacles and within user created levels that were particularly
a demanding time limit. Death Mode impressive or followed a common theme
provided the difficulty that was missing – each Milkcrate also had a director’s
from the main game. Completing all 20 commentary explaining why the levels
levels was a gruelling experience full of were chosen. 22 Milkcrates were created,
frustration but also provided a strong including curation from the game’s
developer, Queasy Games, Shuhei Yoshida
(President of Sony’s Worldwide Studios
for Sony Interactive Entertainment) and
websites such as Gamestop and The
The Edit Mode Verge. That same update in March 2013
meant there was also brought another hugely requested
feature – downloadable user created
potentially endless levels (prior to the update, user created
content available levels could only be played while online).
Thousands of levels were now available
to download and play on-the-go.

reviews, obtaining 84% on Metacritic,
making it the 7th highest reviewed Vita
game from 2012. It was praised for its
beautiful art, straightforward gameplay,
inventive levels, the intuitive creator
mode and of course the music. Sound
Shapes won the 2012 Game Critics
Awards for best mobile/handheld game,
and was declared 2012 E3 Game of
Show by 1up.com. It also won Best Song
and Best Mobile game at the Spike
Video Game Awards. The most common
criticism was around the short length
of the single player campaign. It’s not
possible to know how many copies
were sold, but Sony made sure it was a
compelling purchase with its cheap price
point, cross-buy (allowing purchasers
to own both versions after buying one),
cross-save (allowing player progress to
There was a huge amount of be shared between systems) and having
downloadable content added to the game user created content available to players
following its release. Most were new on all three systems.
musical instruments and sounds to use During an interview with Gamespot,
as part of creating levels; however a new Jonathan Mak talked about why he felt
album was released in 2013 called the the game worked so well on the Vita:
Car Mini-Album. This album had three “As we started working with it (the Vita)
levels where you drive a car as it flips we realised it was the perfect fit. If you
and jumps around fast-paced platforming think about Sound Shapes the way you
levels to heavy metal musical loops. play it and edit, there’s these two sides
Sound Shapes was ported to the to it. The Vita is the same thing. It’s got
PlayStation 4 (PS4) and was available these controls and the touch screen. It’s
for the system’s launch in November got these two sides. The new school and
2013 – it was a cross-buy game allowing the old school. That really fit with our
purchasers of the Vita or PS3 version to game. One control scheme for each area.
automatically have the game available If you’re making a musical instrument
to play on the PS4. in September 2015, you really want it to be as tactile as
it joined Playstation Plus’ Instant Game possible and the touch screen is really
Collection meaning Plus subscribers on good for that, but if you’re making a
all three systems could download the traditional video game, like a platformer,
game for free. playing with a touch screen is just not
Sound Shapes received very positive the same.”
Sound Shapes 131

RETROSPECTIVE PLAY. CREATE. SHARE. THIS IS THE
mantra of the LittleBigPlanet games.
LittleBigPlanet The colourful 2D platformer series first
PS Vita debuted on the Playstation 3, introducing

the world to its charming mascot –
Sackboy (or Sackgirl, if you prefer). There
was always a core single player game to
play through but what set LittleBigPlanet
apart from other platformers was the
idea that anybody could create their own
game levels and share them with the
world. The first LittleBigPlanet, released
in 2008, was a success critically and
commercially which led Sony to buy the
game’s developers (Media Molecule)
Released in 2010. The series went on to have 2
September 2012 more console releases and two portable
Developers releases, one for the PSP and this one for
Double Eleven the Vita.
Tarsier Studios The Vita version of LittleBigPlanet
XDev Studio Europe was revealed during Sony’s E3 2011
Publisher presentation and was released the
Sony Computer following year in September 2012. It
Entertainment included all the main modes from

the console versions – single player had been corrupted by the Puppeteer.
campaign, multiplayer co-op, level Sackboy travelled to the various areas of
creation and level sharing. However, Carnivalia to rid them of the Puppeteer’s
many new features were added – the influence – along the way, he met a cast
Vita’s touch screen and back touch pad of colourful characters that helped him
were used in the single player campaign in his journey and provided some context
to provide variety to the puzzles and to the Puppeteer’s evil machinations. The
the touch screen could be used to make story was better fleshed out than most
level creation easier and more intuitive. other entries in the series and although
One of the most significant changes the main plot was a straightforward
was the introduction of the Memoriser ‘stop the bad guy’ story, the amusing and
tool that gave users the ability to quirky characters that are met along the
create whole games with progress and way made it a more interesting journey,
information carrying over between levels. especially the dim-witted Sean Brawn
LittleBigPlanet 2 was the first game in that considered himself a hero despite
the series to allow users to create multi- not actually doing anything heroic. Like
level games, the Vita version took it a other games in the series, LittleBigPlanet
step forward – for example, users could PS Vita was narrated by the British
now create an RPG where the player’s comedian Stephen Fry who voiced
stats carried forward from level to level. the game’s introduction and tutorials
There was of course a reliance on users providing humorous commentary that
actually taking the time to create levels had become synonymous with the series.
and games, but the possibilities were After LittleBigPlanet 2, Media Molecule
endless. stepped away from full development
The single-player campaign was of games in the LBP series to work on
arguably the strongest of the series. It Tearaway and eventually their ambitious
followed Sackboy’s adventure to stop PS4 project Dreams. The Vita version
the Puppeteer and his minions, the of LittleBigPlanet was developed by
Hollows, from overrunning the land of Tarsier Studios who had previously
Carnivalia – a circus themed planet that worked on DLC for LittleBigPlanet 1 and
2. Tarsier were assisted by Double Eleven
in making the game – Tarsier were
responsible for development and Double
Users now had the Eleven ported the game to the Vita.
It seemed like the developers were
ability to create whole influenced by Tim Burton’s movies
games with progress with the strange and twisted worlds

that were also oddly beautiful in their
and stats carrying over own way. The graphics were praised
between levels by critics for looking as good as the

console LittleBigPlanet games with
varied environments for each stage – so
LittleBigPlanet PS Vita 133

much detail went into each area to make Many of the Vita’s games from its first
them look unique and suit the style of year on the market tried to incorporate
the world, with items hanging up with the various control functions of the
strings in the background and musical device (and not always successfully).
instruments that played notes as you LBP PS Vita found some novel uses of
stepped on them. The Jackpot City area the Vita’s various touch controls to make
was a highlight with levels designed puzzles more interesting, from simple
around a factory full of deadly glowing mechanics like moving platforms around
surfaces, a pinball level that Sackboy to guiding rockets with the player’s
sped around within his circular ‘high- finger. The Vita’s camera could be used
tech rolling device’ and the inside of a to take pictures and utilise them in
computer where you fought the area’s designing environments when creating
boss. levels.
As you complete the story levels,
players could unlock a variety of mini-
games and arcade games. They were fun,
short distractions but they were also a
showcase for what could be achieved
through the game’s creator tools – a top-
down racer, an Asteroids-style shooter,
robot boxing and many other genres were
playable to demonstrate the range games
that could be made. 2D platforming was
of course an option for creators, but
seeing all the different types of games
that could be made provided inspiration.
The user designed levels were impressive
– nearly 300,000 levels were created
that ranged from artistic platformers, to
role-playing games to arcade shooters. In
his review of the game for ign.com, Greg
Miller described the game’s creator tools
as the Vita’s “free App Store.” 67 tutorials
taught player all the mechanics of the
creator tools; however as with other
games in the series, making high quality
levels was time consuming and required
dedication. Between the mini-games and
the user created levels, the game had a
ridiculous amount of content available
to players – it was easy to imagine apps
similar to some of the mini-games being

available on mobile devices for a cost, but
in LittleBigPlanet PS Vita it was all free.
The game was universally praised LBP continued to be
with a Metacritic score of 88% – the
second highest of the Vita games
popular, and even had
released in 2012. It was well-received for user-created levels
having a varied and funny single player
campaign, novel uses of the Vita’s touch
being made over six
controls, beautiful graphics, enjoyable years after its release
mini-games and the impressive creator
tools. The main criticisms were centred
on the load times for levels and slow
down during gameplay (especially Marvel mini-games weren’t especially
when playing online with other players). good, but the additional content gave an
LittleBigPlanet and Sackboy were extra incentive for Vita owners to buy the
considered Sony’s equivalent mascot to game if they hadn’t already, following
Nintendo’s Mario, but ‘floaty’ controls its worldwide digital release (there was
were a common complaint for the series, also a physical version that was released
and that included LittleBigPlanet PS in most regions). Sales figures aren’t
Vita. Compared to the other notable 2D available but when it originally released
platformer released in 2012 for the Vita, in September 2012, it was the number 1
Rayman Origins, Sackboy’s movement felt selling Vita game on the US PlayStation
imprecise. Difficulty spikes in the single Network charts, despite only being on
player story levels were also a problem, sale for 5 days of that month. It remained
with some levels being very easy and in the top 10 EU PlayStation Network
some being overly difficult. These charts for five months after its release.
complaints were far outweighed by how LBP was an excellent game to
polished and full-featured the game was, showcase the talent of Tarsier Studios.
made even more impressive that this was After LBP PS Vita, they continued their
on a handheld. This was LittleBigPlanet relationship with Sony and worked on
without compromises – some reviewers LittleBigPlanet 3 and Tearaway Unfolded
even said that it was better than the (the PlayStation 4 port of the Vita title)
PlayStation 3 games in the series. and in 2017, Tarsier released their own
As with all the other LBP games, there IP in the horror puzzle-platformer Little
was a huge amount of DLC released Nightmares. There was no sequel to
– over 300 costumes, level packs and LittleBigPlanet PS Vita but the game
additional creator tools were available to continued to be played for many years
download. The game had a re-release in and even had user-created levels being
2014 as the Marvel Superhero Edition – in made over 6 years after its release. It was
addition to the standard game, it featured an excellent game that demonstrated the
mini-games and player costumes themed Vita’s various control features but didn’t
around Marvel’s comic characters. The sacrifice quality to do so.
LittleBigPlanet PS Vita 135

RETROSPECTIVE “CONSOLE GAMING ON THE GO.”
That phrase came up so often in the
Need for Speed: gaming media and fan’s discussion of
Most Wanted the Vita in anticipation of its launch, not

helped by Sony’s advertising campaigns
playing up to this. While 2012 had many
instances of big budget, console quality
games being released for the Vita, none
Released were as ambitious as Need for Speed:
October 2012 Most Wanted (NFS:MW) – developed
Developer by Criterion Games who had over a
Criterion Games decade of experience of developing
Publisher racing games, including the excellent
Electronic Arts Burnout Paradise. NFS:MW was a racing

the cars felt different to drive and
had noticeable changes in speed and
There were over handling – even the engines sounded
40 cars, from different.

There was no story mode to play
everyday Fords to through, instead players climbed the
exotic Lamborghinis Most Wanted rankings to become

the top racer in Fairhaven. This was
handled through ten one-on-one races
of progressively increasing difficulty that
gave players a sense of progression and
game with dozens of cars to drive, became true tests of driving skills – not
various events and races, integrated only were players competing with expert
social features and a huge open world
to explore. It was an extremely close
port of the PS3 version of the game
and although some compromises were
required to have it run on the Vita, it was
still a very impressive game and remains
one of the best examples of the genre on
the handheld.
NFS:MW was set in the city
of Fairhaven – a fully explorable
environment full of sports cars to steal
and races to win. Most vehicles didn’t
need to be unlocked through races or
grinding for money – they were littered
around the city at ‘jack points’ and once
discovered they could be accessed again
at any time. There were over 40 cars to
be driven, from the everyday Ford Focus,
muscle cars like the Dodge Challenger,
and exotic racers like the Lamborghini
Aventador. Each car had a selection of
5 races to play through and by winning
them players could unlock upgrades and
customisations, including the essential
nitrous exhaust. The customisation
options weren’t as extensive as previous
entries but could enhance the cars and
provided assistance for different types
of tracks and events. Most importantly
Need for Speed: Most Wanted 137

drivers in faster cars, they also had to
contend with the police chasing them
and laying traps along the road. Winning
each of these races unlocked the Most
Wanted car that could then be driven by
the player.
The Most Wanted races were unlocked
by earning speed points, the game’s
scoring system. Of course, the main
way to earn speed points was through
winning races but they could also be
earned through pretty much anything
that the player did – for example jumping
through billboards, speeding past a
new police camera, finding a new car,
knocking out a police car or driving with
style could all earn more points. The Auto
Log feature recorded the player’s speed
points and accumulated them across
other versions of the game. Points earned
on the PS3 or mobile versions could be
combined with points earned on the
Vita version to make unlocking the Most
Wanted races easier.
The Auto Log recorded player
progression throughout the whole game
and shared them with PlayStation
Network friends. This went well beyond
race completion times. While driving
around Fairhaven, players would drive
NFS:MW wasn’t past police speed cameras where their

top speed would be recorded on the Auto
perfect, but it Log and shared with friends to give
showcased the Vita’s them a target to beat. The distance of a

jump when driving through billboards
capability and was was also recorded and all of these scores
a true demonstration were downloaded onto the Vita and were

available online and offline to give a
of console gaming sense of always competing with friends.
on the go Fairhaven itself was an impressively

realised city. Players could race around
the urban city centre, beach or forested

highways or through an industrial
district. The world map on the Vita
mirrored that of the console version
– Criterion shrunk the whole console
experience onto the Vita including all the
cars and events. Some compromises did
however have to be made, for example
the graphics weren’t as sharp as the
console versions, the draw distance
was reduced, multiplayer matches were
limited to 4 players and traffic was undermine the incredible achievement or
scaled back for the handheld. Although the immense novelty of having a faithful
the differences were noticeable, the handheld port day and date with its
gameplay and feel for the cars were bigger cousin.” Criticisms were levelled
unchanged and as a bonus the Vita primarily at the graphics and frame
version also had some exclusive races rate and the reduced traffic compared
not present on the console versions. to the console versions which resulted
Reviews were generally positive. The in the game being easier and less
unstructured style of the game, freedom thrilling (according to some reviewers)
of choice and short races lasting a on Vita. NFS:MW on Vita ended up with
few minutes at a time was considered a Metacritic score of 79%.
a better fit for gaming on the go as The console versions of NFS:MW
opposed to sitting in front of a TV, while received various DLC packs including
Criterion’s efforts were universally new cars and a new location added to the
praised for shrinking practically the full city. These DLC packs were not brought
console experience down to a handheld. to Vita. In an interview with thesixthaxis.
In their review, eurogamer.net said: com, Craig Sullivan (Creative Director
“Understandably, it’s taken something of the next game in the series, Need for
of a visual hit, but it’s never enough to Speed: Rivals) revealed that Need for
Speed: Rivals would not appear on Vita
due to low sales of NFS:MW. Presumably,
the DLC was also not released on Vita
due to its sales performance.
NFS:MW was an example of a AAA
publisher and one of its most illustrious
studios taking the time and making
the effort to port a full console game to
the Vita. While it wasn’t perfect, it was
one of the best games to demonstrate
the system’s capability and was a true
demonstration of console gaming on
the go.
Need for Speed: Most Wanted 139

RETROSPECTIVE A COMMON COMPLAINT ABOUT
the Vita in its first year was the lack
Persona 4 of any big game that justified buying
Golden the system, yet by the end of 2012 Vita

owners had their killer app – Persona 4
Golden. Critically praised and loved by
fans, it remains one of the best games
on the system, the highest scoring Vita
game on Metacritic and is regularly
featured as the top selling Vita game on
amazon.com. It was the game the Vita
desperately needed but even though it
was released in North America just nine
months after the Vita’s Western launch,
it was still too late to turn around the
Vita’s fortunes.
Persona 4 Golden was a remake
of Persona 4, developed by Atlus and
Released released in 2008 for the PlayStation 2. It
June 2012 was an instant hit, selling 193,000 copies
Developer in its first week on sale in Japan and
Atlus receiving very positive reviews. Persona
Publishers 4 Golden sold 137,000 copies in its first
Atlus week on sale in Japan, an extremely
NIS America impressive number when you consider

a normal day they will go to school, but
after school the player can spend time
with one of their friends, explore the
town of Inaba, study, get a job or enter
the Midnight Channel to battle shadows.
Depending on the player’s choices they
can improve their statistics or unlock
new abilities in their allies that can
assist them in battling shadows – there
is also the option of romancing the
female party members. All the choices
could feel overwhelming at times with so
the PS2 had sold over 21 million units many characters to get to know and so
in Japan by the time Persona 4 was many activities to engage in, meaning it
released, whereas the Vita had not even was impossible to do everything in one
sold one million units in Japan when playthrough. Atlus smartly added the
Persona 4 Golden came out. option for New Game + allowing players
Persona 4 placed players in the shoes to carry over some of their statistics,
of a silent protagonist who moves to Personas and character relationships to a
the small town of Inaba to live with second playthrough.
his cousin Nanako and uncle Dojima. Persona 4 was praised for its
Attending the local high school by day, intriguing story with multiple endings
he and his friends discover that they can that depended on the player’s
enter TV sets and travel to a mysterious decisions and friendships. It was the
world full of evil shadows where the characters that the player meets and
protagonist learns that he can harness the relationships formed with them
his inner power – his Persona – to attack that really made Persona 4 Golden
the shadows. His friends also gain this special – the six other members of your
ability as they learn to accept their party (Yosuke, Chie, Yukiko, Kanji, Rise,
personal flaws and access their own and Teddie) were well flashed out with
Personas. The world of shadows is linked
to the Midnight Channel, a TV program
that is only visible at midnight on rainy
nights and reveals future murder victims
before they die. Using the power of their
A common complaint
newly awakened Personas, the team save about the Vita was the
the murder targets in the shadow world
and investigates the mystery in the real
lack of big games – by
world. the end of 2012 the
The game takes place over a school
calendar year, where the player can
Vita had its killer app
choose how they spend each day. During
Persona 4 Golden 141

a Persona to call upon to cast magic
attacks and defensive spells – the main
character, however could capture new
personas and change their personas mid-
battle to access different abilities and
exploit enemy weaknesses. New Personas
could also be created in the Velvet Room,
a hidden dimension that could only be
accessed by the player.
Persona 4 Golden was a faithful port of
the original but improved on it with new
music, new social links, a new character,
new events, an extra month of the school
year to play through and an epilogue to
close out the story. Online features were
also added, allowing players to see how
other players spent their time on any
given day and ask for help. The online
elements weren’t particularly useful
features but the new story elements
interesting stories. They came across as and the new character were important
grounded and likeable which made them additions that made Persona 4 Golden
a pleasure to spend time with. the definitive version of the game.
The voice acting was extremely well Another highlight of the game was the
done, adding depth and emotion to the music. The Persona series had become
non-playable characters. The writing well know for its soundtrack composed
and voice performances as well as the by Shoji Meguro and Persona 4 Golden’s
animation were used for comedy – small selection set the tone for the game with
non-verbal reactions from characters the upbeat J-Pop soundtrack. The music
and comedy timing provided humour to a would change depending on the time
game that could be very serious at times. of year and weather, for example with
Exploring the town and getting to happier pop music during sunny days
know the other characters was the and slower songs for the cold winter days.
highlight of the game (it made the Meguro’s career in video game music
dungeon exploring and battling shadows began in 1995 when he was hired by
almost seem mundane and repetitive at Atlus to compose tracks for Revelations:
times). The dungeons varied in theme Persona. It was Persona 3’s soundtrack
depending on the personality of the which brought him considerable fame
area’s boss, while battles with shadows and that was further built upon with his
followed a pretty standard turn-based stellar work on Persona 4.
Japanese RPG system with attack, magic The inception of the Persona series
and guard. Each party member had goes back over 30 years to 1987 with the

style fighting game and the canonical
sequel to Persona 3 and Persona 4
It was the characters which brought back the whole cast of
and the relationships the two games (it even spawned a sequel
named Persona 4 Arena Ultimax). The
formed with them that Persona 3 and 4 cast would appear again
really made Persona 4 on the 3DS in the dungeon crawler RPG
Persona Q, and finally in 2015, Atlus
Golden special released Persona 4: Dancing All Night for
the PlayStation Vita – a music rhythm
game that continued the adventures of
the Persona 4 cast and had them dancing
release of Digital Devil Story: Megami to remixed tracks from the original game
Tensei on the Famicom system. Four to defeat shadows. It’s a testament to
games were released in the series before the popularity of the characters that
the spin-off game Megami Ibunroku Atlus chose to develop so many games
Persona was released in 1996. Persona featuring them and impressively all of
4 built upon previous entries in the the spin off games were well received.
franchise and improved on nearly all Persona 4 Golden blended traditional
aspects. The main cast made up of high RPG gameplay with an emotional and
school students, the ability to explore the suspenseful story. Over the course of
student’s hometown, a silent protagonist, the 70 hour playthrough, players felt like
the Velvet Room (a special room located they were a part of this world, forming
between consciousness and sub- connections and friendships with its
consciousness), Igor (who lives in the inhabitants. It was the culmination of
Velvet Room), mysterious supernatural the games that came before it but also
incidents and fighting enemies with iterated and improved on the previous
the use of the character’s inner power – games in the series. It’s no surprise that
their Personas – were all introduced in Persona 4 Golden is consistently seen as
previous games. The calendar system and one the best games on the Vita.
social links were introduced in Persona
3, but were vastly improved for Persona
4. In contrast to previous games in the
series, Persona 4 had a lighter tone – it
dealt with serious issues at times but
compared to the other Persona games it
was a more fun experience.
The story and characters of Persona
4 were so successful it went on to have
multiple spin-off games, an anime movie
and even a live stage production. Persona
4 Arena was an Arc System Works
Persona 4 Golden 143

RETROSPECTIVE EVER SINCE THE FIRST WIPEOUT
game was released on the PlayStation
WipEout One, the futuristic anti-gravity racing
2048 series has been synonymous with Sony’s

systems. Every PlayStation system has
had a WipEout game and the Vita was no
exception – WipEout 2048 was a launch
game for the Vita’s Western release and
it was also the final original WipEout
game to date. The history of WipEout is
tied to the history of its developer: Studio
Released Liverpool.
February 2012 Studio Liverpool, originally named
Developer Psygnosis, was founded in 1985.
Sony Studio Through the 1980s and early 1990s
Liverpool Psygnosis was primarily a game
Publisher publisher – it became well known for
Sony Computer picking up technically impressive games
Entertainment including Barbarian, Shadow of the Beast

and Lemmings. Over 100 titles were
developed or published by the studio
before it was acquired by Sony in 1993 for
$48million in the run up to the release
of the original PlayStation. Although the
purchase was viewed negatively at the
time, Sony benefitted within months
when Psygnosis’ relationship with SN
Systems assisted Sony in developing
cheap PC compatible PlayStation One
development stations. The payoff of
this was easier access for developers to
make games for the PlayStation One and
ultimately more games for the system.
Psygnosis began developing WipEout
in 1994 and had it ready for the European
release of the PlayStation One in
September 1995. Nick Burcombe, the
game’s Lead Designer, conceived WipEout
as Super Mario Kart set to modern dance
music with futuristic vehicles designed
by Psygnosis artist Jim Bowers. Dance
music was hugely popular at that time
and WipEout tapped into that with a
soundtrack featuring famous artists,
as well as advertising that appealed to
the underground rave scene at the time
(including an infamous poster featuring
a bloody Sara Cox which received much
media attention). The game itself was graphically impressive, it moved the
unique, edgy and technically and world of gaming closer to popular culture
and it established the PlayStation as a
system for grown ups.
WipEout wasn’t Psygnosis’ only
success. They published and developed 11
The futuristic racing games for the Playstation between 1995
series has long been and 1996 – in fact it was reported in the
UK games magazine Maximum in June
synonymous with 1996 that Psygnosis’ games accounted
Sony’s systems for 40% of all games bought on the
PlayStation One for Sony’s financial
year 1994-1995. By 2000, Psygnosis had
WipEout 2048 145

published or developed 20 games for the campaign was set between the years
PlayStation One, including three WipEout 2048 and 2050 (the first WipEout took
games. By the launch of the PlayStation place in 2052). Studio Liverpool designed
2, Psygnosis had been re-branded to Sony the tracks to reflect the earlier time
Computer Entertainment (SCE) Studio setting with races taking place on city
Liverpool and they released four further streets, over sky scrapers, across bridges
WipEout games for the PlayStation 2, and through parks rather than on tracks
PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 3 built for anti-gravity racing. The feel of
before releasing WipEout 2048 in 2012 for the vehicles, however, remained true to
the PlayStation Vita. the series with the anti-gravity ships
Within the series’ in-game chronology, floating above the track and gliding
WipEout 2048 was actually the earliest around corners.
entry in the series – the single-player The WipEout series cultivated a
reputation of being hardcore,
difficult racing games, something
Studio Liverpool decided to change
by making 2048 more friendly for
newcomers; at least for the first season
of the campaign. The gameplay was
adjusted with a greater emphasis on
battling other racers – lanes were made
wider to accommodate the combat
and to allow players to focus on the
driving and battling without constantly
crashing into the walls. The design of the
game and challenge ramped up slowly,
with players introduced to the game’s
various mechanics through the first few
stages (for example, the first race had
no weapons and only required players
to finish the race in order to unlock the
next stage). The wider tracks allowed
Studio Liverpool to introduce more player
choice for item pick-ups – players could
navigate the vehicle to drive over green
pads for defensive items, yellow pads for
offensive weapons or blue speed pads
for a temporary boost (previous entries
in the series had only one item pick-up
which unlocked an offensive or defensive
item at random). Players had to make
smart use of the multiple pads to stand a

chance of completing some of the trickier
events later in the game.
The wider tracks were helpful WipEout had a
to newcomers of the series but a
compromise had to be made to the
reputation of being
game’s frame rate. In an interview with hardcore, but Studio
Edge Magazine, Stuart Tilley, the game’s
co-director, stated the locked frame
Liverpool made 2048
rate of 30 frames per second (fps) was more friendly for
chosen because the combat-style racing
and wider lanes resulted in vehicles
newcomers – at least
closer together and more action on for the first season
screen – 30fps was chosen to minimise
slow down. This was however a decision
criticised by reviewers and fans of
the series that were expecting 60fps gradually speeding up). As events were
gameplay similar to the previous series completed, new ones were unlocked until
entry WipEout HD on the PlayStation 3. the season final race became available.
WipEout 2048’s single-player There were also hidden events that
campaign was made up of three seasons could be completed to unlock prototype
of increasing difficulty. The first season, vehicles with unique abilities. Studio
set in 2048, eased players into the game Liverpool introduced an XP (experience
before the difficulty ramped up for the points) system where players earned
2049 and 2050 seasons. Each season XP and levelled up as they played the
contained five types of events: standard game – even failing to complete a race
races against 7 opponents, time trials, earned some XP, giving the effort some
combat events (where the goal was to worth despite losing. New vehicles were
deal as much damage as possible to the unlocked as players levelled up, with
opponents), sprint lap (similar to a race different vehicles adjusting the balance
but with one lap) and zone (with the between speed, handling and combat.
aim of surviving as long as possible on Unique to the series, the multiplayer
neon tracks with no braking and the ship mode was structured similarly to the
single-player campaign, with 210
nodes each representing an event to
be completed. Graeme Ankers, WipEout
2048’s co-director, said to Edge Magazine
that Studio Liverpool’s aim “was to utilise
Vita’s connected, social potential. Not
just one-off races online, but to build a
full campaign, a full sense of a whole
world of races going on outside of the
single-player experiences.” In practice,
WipEout 2048 147

this meant players enter a lobby, vote for
an event type and are then assigned an
objective to complete for each event. The
next event is unlocked as objectives are
completed; although the next node can
also be unlocked by failing to complete
the event objective three times. The
length of the multiplayer campaign was
a source of praise and criticism. On one
hand, it gave players hours and hours
of playtime to complete; however, some
players were unhappy at being forced
to play through the whole campaign in
order to unlock the game’s platinum
trophy. Outside of the multi-player
campaign, there was also the option to
race online against owners of the PS3
game WipEout HD.
Similar to other launch games,
WipEout 2048 utilised the Vita’s various
control inputs and social connectivity campaign map screen and unlock hidden
features. The Vita’s Near app could be events. Players could choose if they
used to drop challenges on other nearby wanted to control their vehicles using
players, for online races players could the Vita’s non-traditional controls, for
take a picture of themselves using the example tilt controls could be used to
Vita’s front camera and the rear touch steer the ship, the front touch screen
pad could be used to interact with the could be used to activate weapons
and the rear touch could be used for
acceleration. However, these controls
added little to the game experience.
The DLCs contained Traditional button controls were available
and were the preferred option for many
all of the content of reviewers and players.
the PS3’s WipEout HD WipEout 2048 was one of the Vita’s
most graphically impressive launch
and its Fury expansion games. Studio Liverpool used assets from
– it was an impressive WipEout HD (and its Fury DLC) on the
PS3 to build WipEout 2048. The Sol track
addition to an already was particularly impressive with the race
lengthy game taking place high above the streets and
around sky scrapers. As with previous
games in the series, the soundtrack

was made up of 14 tracks from famous the single player campaign). The most
artists including Deadmau5, The common criticism was the load times
Chemical Brothers and Orbital – while the – races could take up to 50 seconds to
music itself was praised, the game was start up. For a portable game, making
criticised for its slim track list. players wait nearly a minute just to start
Reviews for the game were mixed. a 3 minute race was seen as a huge
It was praised for its visuals, sounds, negative and review scores suffered as
controls and overall gameplay and was a result – WipEout 2048 scored 79% on
considered the most friendly WipEout Metacritic, making it the lowest scoring
to newcomers of the series while also entry in the series.
being addictive, exciting and retaining Four months after release, two
the hardcore racing challenge (once DLC packs of additional content were
players reached the second season in launched. The HD and Fury packs
contained all of the tracks and online
content of the PS3’s WipEout HD and its
Fury expansion, which itself was content
lifted from the PSP entries, Pure and
Pulse. It was an impressive addition to
an already lengthy game. To make things
even better for fans of the series, players
that had previously purchased WipEout
HD and Fury on the PS3 would get the
WipEout 2048 DLC for free. The additional
content was praised by fans and
reviewers, the only criticisms being that
XP for 2048’s single-player campaign
could not be earned by playing the HD
and Fury tracks and that the soundtrack
was not updated for the new content.
In August 2012, Sony announced that
Studio Liverpool was being shut down,
bringing to an end its 28 year history.
Sony released another WipEout game
in 2017: WipEout Omega Collection – a
remaster of WipEout HD, Fury and 2048.
WipEout 2048 was the last original game
in the WipEout series and it was also
the final game that would be developed
by Studio Liverpool. In 2018, Wipeout
2048’s online servers were shut down,
permanently ending the multi-player
campaign.
WipEout 2048 149

RETROSPECTIVE THE VITA’S ANNOUNCEMENT WAS
especially exciting for the potential of
Unit 13 being able to play shooters on a handheld
using the Vita’s two analog sticks.
One of the main criticisms of the PSP
was the lack of a second analog stick
which impacted the gameplay of 3D
and first-person games played on the
system, although some developers did
find inventive ways to compensate for
the missing second analog stick.The
Vita’s diverse launch line-up covered
most gaming genres and with Unit 13,
Sony had a game to demonstrate what a
console quality shooter would look like
on a handheld.
Unit 13 was developed by Zipper
Released Interactive, a company that was well
March 2012 experienced in creating third-person
Developer shooters after a decade of developing
Zipper Interactive games in the SOCOM series for
Publisher PlayStation systems. Zipper was acquired
Sony Computer by Sony in 2006 and went on to release
Entertainment SOCOM games for the PS2, PSP and PS3.

They were generally well received but the
last two games Zipper developed before
Unit 13, SOCOM 4 and M.A.G. (Massive Sony now had a
Action Game), suffered from mediocre
reviews. Unit 13 would be the final game
game to demonstrate
the studio would release – less than what a console quality
one month after Unit 13’s release, Sony
announced they would be closing the
shooter would look
studio. As a swan song for Zipper, Unit 13 like on a handheld
delivered in terms of gameplay but failed
to wow critics and gamers.
Unit 13 combined the gameplay of
a console third-person shooter with were also an additional 12 High Value
the accessibility of a game designed Target missions to be unlocked that
to be played on the go. The core game tasked players with assassinating well-
was made up of 36 military missions of protected enemy generals. As missions
varying length – from short missions were unlocked, players could choose the
taking several minutes to complete to type, length and difficulty of the mission
long missions that took up to 20 minutes. they wanted to play next.
As each level started, the player was There was no real narrative to the
assigned an objective to execute as game. Players took control of a member
quickly and expertly as possible. The of the special ops team, Unit 13, and
objectives varied based on the mission undertook missions against enemy
type, from covert missions that required forces for reasons not fully explained in
stealth, time-based missions that the game. A short introductory dialogue
required the objectives be completed set up the objectives of the level before
quickly, missions that stacked multiple letting players choose how they wanted
objectives and elite missions that were a to complete the mission. Levels were
combination of the other mission types designed to allow multiple routes to
but without regenerating health. There complete the objectives. In the absence
of a story, there was an arcade style
high score system, awarding points not
only for completing the objectives but
for doing so with style and expertise –
getting through an area without being
detected awarded players bonus points
while a head shot or stealth kill were
worth more points than standard kills.
Each mission also had a ranking system
out of 5 stars (i.e. the higher your points,
the more stars the player acquired),
where acquiring more stars would unlock
Unit 13 151
the next high value target mission.
Achieving a perfect performance on a
level with minimal enemy detection and Unit 13 took advantage
only stealth kills took time and practice
but was incredibly satisfying.
of the Vita’s features
Different mission types required without compromising
different play styles and so six different
operatives were available to choose
gameplay
for each mission, each with different
weapons, strengths and secondary
items. For example the marksman used
a sniper rifle to eliminate enemies from hand gun to avoid detection and the
a distance, the infiltrator used a silenced pointman had the most health and used
a shotgun to take on enemies at close
range. Each soldier could be levelled
up based on completing missions and
earning points. Levelling up unlocked
new weapons and secondary items that
were essential for the more difficult
missions. The points were awarded
differently for each operative, depending
on their strengths and the best way to
play the character – the infiltrator would
get more points for stealth kills compared
to the pointman for example.
Unit 13 had all the features gamers
would expect from a third-person
shooter on consoles. Players could take
cover behind walls and around corners,
grenades and explosives could be thrown
at enemies, close up melee attacks were
available to instantly and silently kill
enemies and multiple weapons were
available to use at any time. Auto aim
helped a great deal in targeting enemies
but timing and precision was still
required for headshots. The controls and
the feel of the game were set up to be
immediately familiar to fans of console
shooters.
Zipper made use of the Vita’s social
connectivity features to implement

leaderboards for all levels. Players could
send their high scores and challenges to
their friends or to others nearby using
the Vita’s Near app, while every level
could be played cooperatively (co-op)
with another player and the Vita’s
in-built microphone could be used for
in-game chat. Co-op was a useful way
to level up operatives and levels were
far easier with a second player – six
years after the game’s release, players
could still be found online. The game gaming sessions that were perfect
also had daily challenges that placed for a portable system, the ability to
players globally in a custom mission play through the game co-op and
with leaderboards tracked each day, decent graphics. Criticisms levelled
which again were still active more than at the game included: occasionally
six years after Unit 13’s release. frustrating missions where small
As with all the first party launch mistakes forced players to restart
games, the Vita’s various control inputs the whole level (for example being
were incorporated into the game, but spotted by a guard or camera during a
Zipper managed to do this in a non- covert mission), endlessly respawning
intrusive way. The front touch screen enemies, inconsistent enemy AI and
could be used to throw grenades or bland environments. The most common
disarm enemy mines. The placement of criticism, however, was that the game did
these buttons was small enough to not nothing new. It was a console shooter on
get in the way of the action on the screen a handheld but it did little to set itself
and close enough to the edges of the apart from other games in the genre.
screen to make them easily reachable. Arguably, that was the aim of the game,
The back touch could be used to swap to showcase the shooter experience on
shoulders for aiming. the Vita, but in the end, review scores
Unit 13 was praised for its solid were mixed leaving Unit 13 with a
gameplay, levels designed for short Metacritic score of 71%.
With Unit 13, Zipper didn’t just make
a shooter. They understood how to utilise
the Vita’s controls and portability to
make a game that took advantage of
these features without compromising
the core gameplay. Unit 13 may not have
set the world on fire but it was a good
example of the Vita’s capability and, at
the time, one of the best examples of a
shooter on a portable system.
Unit 13 153
RETROSPECTIVE THE VIRTUA TENNIS SERIES WAS
one of many forays by SEGA into licensed
Virtua sports game development. It released in
Tennis 4 arcades in 1999 and the following year,

it made the jump to consoles with a port
to the Dreamcast. This first console entry
in the series had solid reviews and SEGA
went on to develop another six games
in the franchise for consoles, handhelds
Released and a mobile port in 2012. Virtua Tennis 4
December 2011 was the fourth main game and originally
Developer released on the PC, Wii, PS3 and X-Box
SEGA 360 where it received average reviews.
Publisher Critics cited the lack of changes to the
SEGA formula from previous entries aside from

the introduction of motion controls. Just tennis players featured in the game to
under a year after launching on consoles, real world photos.
Virtua Tennis 4: World Tour Edition came In reality, many of the additions were
to the Vita as one of the handheld’s nice to have but were not major selling
launch titles where it made a much points of the title. They gave Vita early
better impression thanks to short game adopters a chance to try the different
sessions and variety of game modes. features of the system but SEGA had
Compared to the console versions, the good sense to not impose any of
Virtua Tennis 4: World Tour added many the Vita’s unique control methods onto
exclusive features and like most of the game – players had the choice
the launch games attempted to use of playing with the touch control
the various controls and inputs of the and gyroscope or just sticking to the
Vita. Aside from more mini-games and traditional button inputs.
optional touch controls, there was also
a first-person mode and the ability
to control the game using the Vita’s
gyroscope, although the traditional
button controls were more precise.
Character creation returned but now
players could use the Vita’s front camera
to take a photo of their face and have the
game construct a character based on the
photo. Two players could use the same
system by turning it sideways and using
a combination of touch controls and
buttons to play against each other and
augmented reality could be used to bring
Sega had the sense

to not impose any
of the Vita’s unique
control methods onto
the game – players
could stick to the
traditional inputs
Virtua Tennis 4 155

The game’s single player modes
included ‘Arcade’ that the series was
known for and a career mode that was Reviews were
first introduced on the console versions
of Virtua Tennis 4. This mode allowed
generally favourable
players to tour the globe playing matches – Virtua Tennis 4
in order to qualify and participate in
various international tournaments while
was enjoyable and
also building the experience of the accessible and
player’s character. Players moved through
the world like they were progressing on
a solid fit for a
a board game – competing in friendly portable system
matches, playing mini games and
meeting fans to increase their experience
and qualify for major tournaments. If
they failed to gain enough experience,
the player would not qualify and if the
player lingered on the side activities for
too long, they would miss the window
entirely to enter. The World Tour mode
was extremely addictive, making it easy
for players to see their progress and
strive for the next big match – it was
lengthy too, as one complete playthrough
of the career mode could take over 10
hours, but it was easy to lose track of the
time with the short gameplay sessions
and variety of activities.
Online play returned and was
enhanced with players having the ability
to share their match statistics, they could
leave comments on the home screens of
their friends and also download player
characters to compete against them in
the offline career mode.
Additionally there were Vita-specific
mini-games, that trained players in some
of the finer points of the game. These
varied from playing a tennis-bowling
hybrid game or hitting balls to destroy
a pirate ship – they could be random at
times but were generally a fun distraction

the ball in a variety of ways, making
it extremely easy to pick up and play.
Although the game was easy to grasp,
it became very challenging on hard
mode and further into the career mode
– trying to out-play the AI with clever
aiming and ball placement were key to
winning some of the trickier matches.
The career mode was well designed,
easing players into the game with simple
opponent AI and easy objectives for the
mini games before introducing more
challenging opponents. In addition,
having each match only last a few
minutes meant it was well suited for
gaming on the go – in large doses, the
game could feel repetitive but playing in
short bursts helped it stay fresh.
Reviews were generally favourable,
citing the graphics, fun gameplay and
good in quick bursts style of the game.
It was noted by many reviewers that the
extra features of the Vita version did not
add much to the overall experience and
that Virtua Tennis 4 on Vita was not a
game for those that disliked the console
version. It got a 77% on Metacritic on Vita
which compared favourably to the PS3
version which scored 69%.
from the main game as chasing the next Virtua Tennis 4 was enjoyable and
score to unlock the next level of the accessible and a solid fit for a portable
mini game added a welcome break from system. A few months after it was
playing match after match. released on Vita, Virtua Tennis Challenge
As a launch title, Virtua Tennis 4 was launched on mobile devices. This
was a showcase for the Vita’s graphical was the last Virtua Tennis game to be
capabilities. The game looked very released. Virtua Tennis 4: World Tour
impressive, with bright colours and Edition was removed from the Sony
detailed character models. Where the PlayStation Network store in April 2015
game really stood out was the gameplay just three years after its release, although
– the controls were intuitive, with the thankfully physical copies are available
left analog stick used for movement and for anyone wishing to try it out in the
the four face buttons assigned to hitting present day.
Virtua Tennis 4 157

RETROSPECTIVE THE FIRST STARDUST LAUNCHED
in 1993 on the Amiga and Atari ST and
Super Stardust was originally made by the Finnish
Delta developer Bloodhouse. The follow-up

game Super Stardust was released the
following year, after which the series
remained dormant for over a decade.
In that time a new development
studio, Housemarque, was founded by
individuals at Bloodhouse and another
Finnish studio Terramarque. Stardust
re-emerged in 2007 on the PlayStation
3 with the release of Super Stardust HD.
It was a critical hit and praised for its
visuals and gameplay. Super Stardust
Delta was another launch game for the
Vita. Sony had often touted the Vita as
Released the handheld for playing console-like
February 2012 experiences on-the-go and also cheaper,
Developer downloadable games. Super Stardust
Housemarque Delta was a perfect example of the latter.
Publisher The twin-stick shooting gameplay
Sony Computer had not evolved significantly from the
Entertainment PlayStation 3 entry in the series - players

controlled a star ship around a planet’s
orbit and had to destroy attacking
enemies, asteroids and ultimately the One of the highest
planet’s boss enemy. Players had access
to two primary weapon types at the start
rated games at the
of the game – fire and ice. Switching system’s launch, years
between the two weapons could be done
instantly with a press of the R1 trigger.
later Super Stardust
Depending on the type of enemy (often Delta remains one of
indicated by the colour) one weapon
would be more effective than the other.
the Vita’s best twin-
Over the course of the game the weapons stick shooters
could be upgraded by finding power-ups
from destroying the glowing asteroids.
Enemies could also be attacked with
powerful smart bombs, black holes or
a temporary boost effect that speeds
the ship through enemies, damaging
any that get in the way. There were five
planets in the main game, but Super
Stardust Delta also had a variety of mini-
games for players to enjoy, including an
endless mode where enemies continually
appeared and modes that utilised the
Vita’s various control inputs. Competitive
online leader boards and three difficulty
levels provided an incentive to replay the
game beyond just completing the five
planets. Like most launch games, touch
controls were introduced, but players
could choose whether to apply these or
not.
The game received very positive
reviews and was one of the highest
rated Vita games as at the system’s
launch. Super Stardust Delta was praised
for impressive graphics, an excellent
soundtrack, short load times, fun and
addictive gameplay and all at a cheap
price. Years after its release, it remains
one of the most enjoyable twin-stick
shooters on the system.
Super Stardust Delta 159

RETROSPECTIVE TALES FROM SPACE: MUTANT
Blobs Attack was a hidden gem amongst
Tales from the Vita’s launch line-up. Releasing
Space: Mutant along-side Uncharted: Golden Abyss,

WipEout 2048, FIFA and games from other
Blobs Attack big console franchises, it was easy to

miss this charming, indie, 2D platformer.
For those players that did discover it, they
found a surprisingly good game.
In Mutant Blobs the player controls
Released a one-eyed blob that escapes from the
February 2012 science lab that had held him prisoner
Developer and proceeds to eat anything in sight
DrinkBox Studios in order to grow big enough to take
Publisher revenge on humanity. While the blob
DrinkBox Studios starts off as tiny and only able to eat

screws and coins, over the course of the
game it grows to massive proportions.
The aim of each level is to eat enough
objects to grow big enough to eat the
obstacle blocking the way to the next
level. Each set of levels were broken up
by humorous 1950s science-fiction style
animated cutscenes. The platforming
was especially enjoyable. DrinkBox had
created a game where the feel of the
movement and jumping emulated how
you would expect a gelatinous blob to
move.
Despite being one of the cheapest
games of the Vita’s launch line-up, Tales
From Space turned out to be not just one
of the highest rated launch games on the
system but, at the time of writing, it was
the 11th highest rated Vita game of all-
time on Metacritic. Critics complimented
the game for its well-designed levels,
the feel of the controls, challenging
platforming, the game’s humour and its
cartoon-style visuals.
Tales From Space: Mutant Blobs Attack
wasn’t the last game DrinkBox would
develop for the Vita. They released two
further games: the 2D metroidvania
Guacamelee and the first-person touch-
screen dungeon crawler, Severed. Both
The platforming was games, like Tales From Space: Mutant

Blobs, were critically acclaimed.
especially enjoyable
– the feel of the
movement emulated
how you would
expect a gelatinous
blob to move
Tales From Space: Mutant Blobs Attack 161

RETROSPECTIVE UNCHARTED: GOLDEN ABYSS
was undoubtedly the most high profile
Uncharted: game in the Vita’s launch line-up. The
Golden Abyss developers, Bend Studio, had the difficult

task of creating a title that would
showcase what the Vita was capable of
while also making a game that lived up
to the critical acclaim of the Uncharted
series. For the most part, they succeeded.
Golden Abyss had the core gameplay,
style and story of a console Uncharted
game but made to be a portable
experience and to make use of the Vita’s
various control inputs. It was expected to
be the game that justified the purchase
of a Vita and although the final product
turned out very well, it didn’t quite hit
the high expectations of critics.
Bend Studios were no strangers to
Released making portable games – they were
February 2012 most famous for the stealth-action
Developer Syphon Filter series on PlayStation 1 and
SCE Bend Studio PlayStation 2 (which transitioned to PSP
Publisher in 2006 with Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror)
Sony Computer but they had also developed Resistance
Entertainment Retribution for Sony’s PlayStation

retained the feel of a Naughty Dog game.
Searching for collectables had been a
standard part of all Uncharted games, but
Golden Abyss emphasised the treasure
hunting far more and innovated on the
formula – which made Drake feel like
more of an adventurer. Collectables
weren’t just items to be found in the
environment – in Golden Abyss, Drake
would take photos of notable locations,
use charcoal rubbings to decipher
hieroglyphics and pick up key items from
Portable, which was praised by reviewers defeated enemy soldiers. As the player
for its solid gameplay and short missions found each collectible, Drake could be
that perfectly suited gaming-on-the-go. seen making notes in his journal giving
Golden Abyss had series protagonist the feeling that he was more than just
Nathan Drake competing with rival the wall-scaling, gun-toting action hero
explorer Jason Dante to find the treasures he had always been portrayed as being.
of the lost city of Quivira. Golden Abyss Of course, action was still a big part
was set before the events of the first of the game. Drake has to contend with
Uncharted game, which justified the Guerro’s army of soldiers wielding guns,
exclusion of Elena Fisher, Drake’s love grenades and rocket launchers to defeat
interest through the console series. the villains and reach the treasure.
Instead, Marisa Chase was a new The third-person shooter mechanics
character to the series and together with were practically unchanged from the
Drake worked to uncover the location of console games – players familiar with
the lost city and reach it before Dante the controls of the console Uncharted
and his partner, the warlord Roberto games would feel right at home in
Guerro. playing Golden Abyss. Drake would take
The Uncharted series on console cover behind walls, shoot enemies and
was developed by one of Sony’s most
talented studios – Naughty Dog. The
series was well known for entertaining
stories, excellent voice acting, cinematic
set pieces, stunning graphics and solid
Uncharted: Golden
third-person shooting gameplay. Golden Abyss was expected
Abyss managed to tick most boxes but
also shifted some of the focus from
to be the game
story to puzzle solving, exploration and that justified the
treasure hunting. The action set pieces
were significantly scaled back but
purchase of a Vita
the gameplay, script and voice acting
Uncharted: Golden Abyss 163

use melee combat when enemies were
close. Hanging off the edge of a cliff
while engaging in a fire fight with a The Vita’s various
group of enemy soldiers felt just as tense
in Golden Abyss as it did in the console
unique control
Uncharted games. inputs were featured
The Vita’s various unique control
inputs were featured heavily in the game.
heavily – for the most
Players could traverse walls using the part, they worked
touch screen, swipe the screen with their
finger to melee attack enemies, move
to make the game
the Vita as if it was a sniper scope to more immersive
aim shots at enemies, hold the Vita up
to light to solve puzzles with the back
camera, rub the screen to emulate taking
a charcoal rubbing of ancient symbols made use of the Vita’s Near application to
or fling grenades at enemies using a trade treasures with other players close
finger. For the most part, the variety of by, although the Near app was later shut
controls worked to make the game more down as of July 2017.
immersive, however, the touch screen Six years after its release, Golden
melee combat sections drew criticism for Abyss is still one of the best looking
being imprecise, especially during the games on the Vita. The realistic
final fight of the game. The game also backdrops and environments were unlike
anything seen previously on a portable
system and the colours of the lush forest
looked especially impressive on the OLED
Vita’s screen. Even the rippling of the
water looked better and more detailed
than some console games at the time.
Golden Abyss launched four months
after Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception was
released on the PlayStation 3 and it was
expected that Golden Abyss would benefit
in terms of sales and media attention
from the success of Uncharted 3. Golden
Abyss was the best selling video game
in the U.K. on its week of release and
remained in the top 40 best selling
games chart for a month. Play Magazine
UK’s June 2012 edition revealed that
Uncharted: Golden Abyss was the top
selling Vita game up to that point, selling

530,000 units worldwide. In November
2012, Sony began giving Uncharted:
Golden Abyss to PS+ subscribers as
part of its Instant Game Collection – it
remained free to PS+ subscribers until
June 2014.
Reviews were positive for the most
part resulting in a Metacritic score of
80%, making it the 14th highest rated
release for the Vita in 2012. The game
was praised for its story, presentation,
use of the Vita’s controls (for the most
part) and its focus on collectables and
treasure hunting. Lack of any big set
pieces and lack of online multiplayer
were two common criticisms of
Golden Abyss, as these had become
staples of the series on console. Other
criticisms included lack of variety to the
environments, secondary characters less
interesting than those featured in the
console games and the tedious touch
screen controls for fist fights in the game.
It may not have been the best Uncharted
game, but Golden Abyss was praised for
retaining the feel and experience of the
big-budget, console series.
Uncharted: Golden Abyss lived
up to being a console experience on
a handheld and as a launch title it use of all of its control features. In a
demonstrated what the Vita was capable detailed post-mortem of the game with
of in terms of graphics, gameplay and gamasutra.com, writer and director John
Garvin said: “Even though development
was stressful and meant many months
of hard work, I’m glad our studio took
on the challenge and rose to it... the
development of Uncharted: Golden Abyss
was far from a perfect process, and the
game isn’t perfect either, but as a studio,
we’re proud of what we accomplished,
and are excited to put these lessons to
work on our next game.”
Uncharted: Golden Abyss 165

RETROSPECTIVE BRIGHT LIGHTS AND THE SEARING
pain in your head jolt your body into
Zero Escape: consciousness. An unrecognisable room
Virtue’s Last comes into view. No. Wait. The metallic

panels on the walls. The row of buttons
Reward that line up alongside the shutter like

doors. The hand rails that adorn opposing
walls. Could this be an elevator? A girl’s
Written by voice from the corner confirms your
Georgina Young suspicions with a sarcastic assertion.
Your mind pursues the truth. “Where
am I?” – “Who is she?” – “How did I get
Released here?” It is unknown now, but in time it
October 2012 (NA) will be made clear. This is your first test.
November 2012 (EU) This is your first escape. This is your
Developer Nonary Game.
Chunsoft The opening to Virtue’s Last Reward
Publishers was not only a surprise for Sigma,
Aksys Games (NA) our main protagonist, but also for the
Rising Star Games (EU) player. While the visual novel genre was

already well established in Japan, it was
only Virtue’s Last Reward’s predecessor,
the then Nintendo DS exclusive title
Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors,
that gained this style of game footing
on foreign shores. The other genre of
gameplay which director and writer
Kotaro Uchikoshi attempted to marry in
this series, the escape room genre, was
at the time of release mostly confined to
browser based titles. While the scenario in a timely manner, but who can be
as a whole felt natural to players of the trusted with their lives.
original, Uchikoshi added many new Pairs and Singles who worked
elements to the sequel. Much like its together to complete their escape puzzle
predecessor, Virtue’s Last Reward features now face off in an Ambidex game.
a cast of nine contrasting personalities, Imprisoned in opposing booths, players
working in teams to complete a number all begin with 3 points. Pairs decide
of escape room puzzles. These efforts together and singles alone, whether
are in aid of discovering the secret of the they would like to Ally with or Betray
facility in which they are imprisoned, their fellow teammate. If both Ally, they
and ultimately, to escape. Players can go all receive 2 points. If one Allies and
back in time and change their decisions one Betrays the player or players who
having different effects on the plot and Betrayed gain 3 points, and those who
outcome of the story. Each time, however, Allied lose 2. A set of Betrayals lead to
there is the added element of keeping no loss or gain for either side. The aim
the information learnt from the different is to gain 9 points or more in order to be
timelines. able to open the final door, the one to
Introducing the Ambidex game: in the outside. While the AB game can be
Virtue’s Last Reward instead of numbers played as many times as needed, over
dictating teams, the characters rely on all you have to consider the actions of
colour theory. Each round players are
assigned to be either part of a pair, or a
single. Teams who can attempt escape
rooms are made up of one pair and one
single, in other words three players. Each
While the scenario
pair or single is also assigned a colour, felt natural to players
and it is these colours which dictate who
can work together to complete an area’s
of the original, many
puzzle. For example, a red pair could team new elements were
up with a blue single to enter a purple
door. The player cannot only consider
added to this sequel
who can be trusted to complete a puzzle
Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward 167

the other players. The final door can
only be opened once, so any player
who achieves 9 points is an immediate Despite misgivings
threat to the others. Then there are the
consequences. Those who drop below 1
with the art direction,
point are punished, That is to say killed. Virtue’s Last Reward
Immediately.
Exactly two months after the Vita’s
was a critical success
initial release in Japan, Virtue’s Last in Japan and abroad
Reward could be found at all their major
gaming retailers. This was a surprising
release for Chunsoft, as Nine Hours, Nine
Persons, Nine Doors was not a success Nine Persons, Nine Doors predictable nine
in its home country, selling less than rooms and six endings.
30,000 copies in its first year. It was Another way in which Virtue’s Last
only after localization that this ‘choose Reward attempted to change up the
your own adventure’ thriller truly found predictability of the genre was by using
success. Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine 3D models instead of 2D sprites. While
Doors found commercial success in North originally intended for the Nintendo DS,
America, after Aksys took the huge risk upon hearing that both the Nintendo
accepting a visual novel for translation 3DS and PlayStation Vita were coming
in a region that had previously shunned close to release, the team quickly
the genre. changed platform eager to utilise the
This being the first successful release hardware’s 3D capabilities. However, this
of its kind in North America encouraged approach had mixed results. Some found
not one but two sequels to be greenlit the resulting art direction, and lack of
immediately. They were developed animations jarring as they played, while
simultaneously in the same engine to others found it innovative and suiting
save funds. Uchikoshi began work on to the story. Whichever way you view it
both Virtue’s Last Reward and the third this new direction was seen overall as a
in the trilogy, what is now known as failure. With Nine Hours, Nine Persons,
Zero Time Dilemma. Research lead by Nine Doors art direction being universally
the development team Chunsoft found applauded, this was a lacklustre response
that the commercial failure in Japan was by comparison. Unfortunately, Zero Time
due players finding the title too scary. To Dilemma was already in development,
combat this Uchikoshi worked on a more and utilised this same 3D engine.
exploration focused title by removing the Despite some misgivings with the art
time limits lessening the overall sense of direction Virtue’s Last Reward was an
desperation. Virtue’s Last Reward ended overall critical success in both Japan and
up with sixteen escape room puzzles abroad. Japan’s most popular gaming
and twenty-three different endings. This magazine Famitsu gave it two 9s and
is huge when compared to Nine Hours, two 8s, praising the heart-pounding

Ambidex games and its optimisation predecessor on its home turf, shifting
on the PlayStation Vita. The North just over 33,000 units in its first year.
American Vita release scored a similar Almost half of these sales were for the
84 on Metacritic with critics praising its PlayStation Vita version. Possibly due
dark tone and whole new approach to to that generation’s portable hardware’s
gameplay. sales performances in the West, overseas
Unfortunately for Uchikoshi and his sales figures could not make up Japan’s
team this overwhelmingly positive praise lack of revenue. Estimates for the North
did not translate into sales. Despite American release put Virtue’s Last
attempting to tailor the game more Rewards sales at a meagre 30,000 for
towards Japanese audiences, Virtue’s the Nintendo 3DS version and even more
Last Reward did little better than its appallingly below 10,000 for the Vita
rendition.
Due to poor sales, on February 13th
2014 Uchikoshi announced that both
releases in the Zero Escape series had
lost money in Japan, and as such,
the third instalment was cancelled.
The game was eventually put back in
development in 2015 after its devoted
fan base made sure their passion for
the series was heard. Zero Time Dilemma
was eventually released in 2016. While
the Zero Escape series as a whole has
never been a huge money maker, the
series eventually did find moderate
success when the first two games of the
series were packaged together under
the title Zero Escape: The Nonary Games
and released in 2017 on PlayStation 4,
PlayStation Vita and Steam.
While Virtue’s Last Reward was never
an overwhelming financial success,
its intricate interweaving storyline
spanning across multiple decisions
and playthroughs, as well as the plot’s
multiple twists, turns and layers which
slowly peeled back laying the narrative
dazzlingly bare, made sure that it nestled
its way deep into the hearts of all who
played it. That should be considered a
success by anyone’s standards.
Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward 169

RETROSPECTIVE DURING THE PS3 GENERATION,
the Resistance series was, alongside
Resistance: Killzone, one of Sony’s premier first-party
Burning Skies shooters. Developed by Insomniac Games,

the legendary developers behind iconic
PlayStation franchises such as Spyro
Written by and the Ratchet & Clank series, its first
Thivanka Attanayake instalment was Resistance: Fall of Man –
a launch title for the PS3 in 2006 – and
immediately gained a cult following. This
was quickly followed up by two excellent
sequels, Resistance 2 and Resistance 3,
and an impressive spin-off on the PSP
titled, Resistance: Retribution.
Released The story of the series revolved around
June 2012 an alternate timeline set in the 1950s,
Developer where a race of aliens known as the
Nihilistic Software Chimera had invaded the Earth. Starting
Publisher with Russia, they spread all over Europe
Sony Computer and slowly, to the rest of the world.
Entertainment Throughout the series we followed the

The game also featured eight different
weapon types including series staples
Resistance: Burning like the Bullseye and M5A2 Folsom
Carbine to new entries like the Mule
Skies showed that the and Sw.A.R.M. Each weapon also had a
Vita was capable of secondary mode of fire, which can be
triggered by tapping on the Vita screen.
offering FPS gameplay Throughout the levels, intel documents
could be collected to flesh out the story
and give backstory to some of the events
in the main campaign. These collectibles
events of numerous battles between the were well hidden and gave players a
Special Research Projects Administration reason to revisit the levels after they beat
(SRPA), the human alliance fighting the the game.
aliens, and the Chimera. Resistance: The game got mixed reviews at
Burning Skies told the story of New release, scoring 60% on Metacritic with
York fire-fighter, Tom Riley, and the some critics praising it as a decent
events that unfolded after the Chimera shooter and a faithful entry in the
attack the East Coast of United States Resistance series, however the majority
of America. The story was driven by criticised its graphical inconsistencies,
Tom and his love for his family, and the glitches, bland levels, and the campaign
depths he goes to ensure their protection being much too short. Destructoid were
from the alien invasion. The presentation particularly scathing, its review stating:
of the game remained faithful to the “it is visually atrocious, interactively
Resistance franchise. Fans of the series vapid and incomplete to a degree that a
could instantly recognise many of the full retail price is an insult.” Resistance:
enemy types, and some of the bosses Burning Skies was the last game in the
were massive in proportion, just like their series. Nihilistic Software, who developed
console counterparts. The game was the game, went on to develop the very
divided into 6 locations, each adequately poorly received Call of Duty: Declassified
detailed, with comic style hand-drawn for the Vita before changing their name
cut-scenes to help move the story along. to nStigate Games and dropping out of
console game development entirely in
favour of mobile game development.
Although it was not the system seller
that Sony envisioned it to be, Resistance:
Burning Skies showed that the Vita
was more than capable of offering
first-person shooting gameplay on a
handheld, which Sony later proved
definitively with the release of Killzone:
Mercenary in 2013.
Resistance: Burning Skies 171

IT TOOK THE ASSASSIN’S CREED
series less than a decade to go from a
brand new IP on the PS3 and X-Box 360
to a franchise with over 100 million in
sales; making it one of the best-selling
video game series of all time. It is
now Ubisoft’s biggest franchise spanning
(at the time of writing) over 20 titles
across most modern gaming systems
(including mobile) since the first game
released in 2007. Liberation was the
ninth Assassin’s Creed game and the first
to feature a female protagonist.
Announced at Sony’s E3 presentation in
June 2012, Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation
was a pleasant surprise for fans, and,
alongside Call of Duty: Black Ops:
Declassified, gave the audience hope the
Vita would be delivering on the promise
of console gaming on-the-go. It released
in October of that year and was bundled
RETROSPECTIVE with a new white Vita unit. Liberation
was also the first and only Vita game to
Assassin’s have a steel book cover.
Creed III: The game starts in 1765 during the

end of the French and Indian War and
Liberation is set in New Orleans. It tells the story

of Aveline de Grandpré who was born
to an African slave, Jeanne, and French
Written by businessman, Philippe deGrandpré.
Kickstarter backer She grows up in a sheltered and loving
household, raised by her father and
stepmother, Madeleine de L’Isle, due to
the disappearance of her real mother.
Released The plot takes place over 12 years
October 2012 (between 1765 and 1777) as Aveline travels
Developers between New Orleans, the Louisiana
Ubisoft Sofia Bayou and Chichén Itzá, and learns
Ubisoft Milan the truth about her mother and fights
Ubisoft Montreal to stop the evil machinations of the
Publisher Templars. Aveline becomes a proficient
Ubisoft assassin over the course of the game,

able to use a wide variety of weapons
including cleavers, hatchets and axes,
pistols, a blowpipe, and a whip. A first Assassin’s Creed went
for the series at the time, Aveline has
the option to switch between three
from brand new IP to
outfits with different advantages and one of the best-selling
disadvantages – the upper class woman
outfit was useful in accessing Templar
series of all time in
controlled locations but Aveline could less than a decade
not run or fight while wearing the dress;
the slave costume allowed Aveline to
blend in to a crowd and the assassins
outfit was the best one for combat. and crashes, which drew complaints
Liberation made use of many of the from gamers and reviewers. It was highly
unique features the Vita including its praised for its music, which won several
touch screen, camera and gyroscope awards including the Global Music Award
controls. It also offered connectivity for musical excellence. The multiplayer
with Assassin’s Creed 3, which launched on the other hand was heavily criticised,
on consoles on the same day as due to it being overly complicated, poorly
Liberation. Buyers of both games balanced, and hardly adding anything to
could link them together to unlock the game. Overall Liberation scored 70%
additional in-game content. on Metacritic. While this score was by
Reviews of the game were mixed. no means bad, the game didn’t deliver
It was praised for its gameplay that on the quality of the console games in
mirrored its console counter-parts, the series.
however the plot was considered In February 2013, Ubisoft announced
disjointed. Liberation also suffered from that Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation had
bugs at launch that caused slow downs sold close to 600,000 copies on Vita, an
impressive number given the modest
sales of the system to date. Sales were
helped by heavy discounting during the
November 2012 Black Friday Sales in the
US and by being bundled with the Crystal
White model of Vita. In January 2014, an
HD remaster of Liberation was released
on PC, X-Box 360 and PS3. Despite the
improved graphics, the remaster scored
lower on Metacritic compared to the
Vita version – it seemed that reviewers
were more forgiving of the game’s
shortcomings on a handheld compared
to a full console release.
Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation 173

RETROSPECTIVE THE PS ONE WAS LAUNCHED
17 years before the the Vita was released,
PlayStation and in that time the PlayStation brand
All-Stars had become associated with dozens

of high profile gaming IPs, many of
Battle Royale which were created by Sony themselves.

Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale was
Sony’s attempt to create a fighting
Written by game leveraging their history of popular
Krauserzero the Bushlord Playstation exclusive characters (for
example God of War’s Kratos, Nathan
Drake from the Uncharted series, Sackboy
from LittleBigPlanet and many more)
with some third party characters added
to enhance the roster (for example
Isaac Clarke from the Dead Space
series and Raiden from Metal Gear
Solid Revengence). It was developed by
Released SuperBot Entertainment and Sony Santa
November 2012 Monica, and was in fact SuperBot’s
Developers first game. Santa Monica, in contrast,
SuperBot Entertainment was a well known studio with years of
SCE Santa Monica Studios experience in game development as
Publisher part of Sony’s first party studios and the
Sony Computer developer behind the popular God of War
Entertainment series.

The story for All-Stars Battle Royale
was straightforward: players chose a
character from the roster of 24 fighters,
they battle their way past a selection of
the other 23 to eventually face their rival
character. Once the rival was defeated,
players would go on to face Polygon
Man, the disgraced former mascot of
PlayStation. With the destruction of
Polygon Man, the winning character
would go on to use Polygon Man’s power
in any way they chose to when they
returned to their world. use a weaker super early to score a point
Following the game’s announcement, or charge it and save it for a big finish.
the response from the PlayStation fan This was the first of PlayStation’s
base was extremely positive. The line-up cross-buy game line where buying
of playable characters was welcomed the PS3 version also granted buyers a
and considered a good balance between download code for the Vita version. While
the early PlayStation titles (for example this may have helped encourage some
Parappa the Rappa, Sly Cooper, Sir Daniel to buy the game to have it available on
Fortesque) and recent (at the time) hits both systems, sadly, the game didn’t do
(for example Bioshock’s Big Daddy and well overall in terms of sales. Players and
Heavenly Sword’s Nariko). critics alike criticised it for being a clone
Each fighter had three super attacks of Nintendo’s Smash Brothers series and
which would charge as the battle the supers system caused frustration
progressed. Landing a super attack was as it was easy to miss taking down
the only way to take down an enemy an opponent, thus wasting the meter.
combatant and score a point. Players The Vita version also suffered from
needed to be tactical and decide the right performance issues, including slow down
time to burn their meter and whether to when there was heavy action on screen.
The lacklustre sales killed any plans
for new fighters after the first four DLC
characters and the game did not receive
Following the game’s a sequel. It also impacted SuperBot, as
they went on to only release one game
announcement, the since 2014, which was on mobile. In
response from the 2018, the servers were shut down, ending
on-line multiplayer. Despite all this,
PlayStation fan base All-Stars Battle Royale did win IGN’s
was extremely positive people’s choice award in 2012 and D.I.C.E.
Summit’s Interactive Achievement award
for fighting game of the year in 2013.
PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale 175

53 physical and 31 digital games were released for the Vita in
2012 in Europe and North America, including brand new titles,
like Unit 13 and Sound Shapes, as well as ports of popular games
such as Jet Set Radio and the Metal Gear Solid series
LIBRARY
Physical releases
Hot Shots Golf ModNation Racers: BlazBlue: Continuum Ben 10: Galactic FIFA Soccer
World Invitational Road Trip Shift EXTEND Racing
Ultimate Marvel Lumines: Electronic Dungeon Hunter: Asphalt: Injection Rayman Origins
vs. Capcom 3 Symphony Alliance
Michael Jackson F1 2011 Virtua Tennis 4: Wipeout 2048 Little Deviants

The Experience HD World Tour Edition

Uncharted: Touch My Ninja Gaiden Shinobido 2: Army Corps of Hell
Golden Abyss Katamari Sigma Plus Revenge of Zen
Dynasty Warriors Unit 13 MLB 12: The Show LEGO Harry Potter: Ridge Racer
NEXT Years 5-7
Reality Fighters Supremacy MMA: Disgaea 3: Absence Mortal Kombat Resistance:

Unrestricted of Detention Burning Skies
Metal Gear Solid Gravity Rush LEGO Batman 2: Madden NFL 13 LittleBigPlanet
HD Collection DC Super Heroes PS Vita
Library 177
FIFA Soccer 13 New Little Spy Hunter Silent Hill: Book Zero Escape:
King’s Story of Memories Virtue’s Last Reward
Super Monkey Ball: Smart as... Street Fighter Need for Speed: LEGO The Lord
Banana Splitz X Tekken Most Wanted of the Rings
Ragnarok Assassin’s Creed III: Call of Duty: Black PlayStation All-Stars Persona 4
Odyssey Liberation Ops: Declassified Battle Royale Golden
DJMax Technika Sonic & All-Stars

Tune Racing Transformed

LIBRARY
Digital releases
Escape Plan
Super Stardust Hustle Kings Tales From Space: Plants vs. Zombies Top Darts
Delta Mutant Blobs Attack
StarDrone Extreme MotorStorm RC Sumioni Demon Arts The Pinball Arcade Pure Chess
Puddle Sound Shapes Zen Pinball 2 Treasures of Sunflowers

Montezuma Blitz
Retro City Dokuro Orgarhythm Frobisher Says! Doctor Who: The

Rampage Eternity Clock
When Vikings Sine Mora Jet Set Radio Uncharted: Fight Lemmings Touch
Attack! for Fortune
Big Sky: Infinity Knytt Underground OddWorld: Chronovolt Jetpack Joyride

Stranger‘s Wrath HD
Library 179
INVENTORY
Vita island
There were seven
variant models 1
of the Vita 1000
produced before it
was discontinued
in 2013
2
1 Black
2 Hatsune Miku White
Limited Edition
3 Cosmic Red
4 Sapphire Blue
5 Crystal White
6 Toukiden Onigara
Limited Edition 3
7 Soul Sacrifice
Limited Edition

INVENTORY
Gear up
At launch, Sony 1
released a variety of
accessories for the
Vita, including this
selection of items
1 Memory cards: in
4GB, 8GB, 16GB,
and 32GB
2 Portable charger
3 Pre-order pack:
limited edition
blue PlayStation
earphones, and an
exclusive digital
2 3
content bundle
4 Starter kit: pouch,
case, games case,
screen protector,
wrist strap, and
cleaning cloth
5 Travel kit: case,
12v car charger,
games case,
screen protector,
wrist strap, and
cleaning cloth
6 Travel case
4 5
Inventory 181
YEAR ONE
Timeline
From its successful announcement to
the mishandling of the memory card
pricing, the Vita had a turbulent launch
and first year – here are some of the 2011
key events that marked the system’s
first 365 days Jan
NGP revealed.
Uncharted,
Call of Duty,
LittleBigPlanet,
and Wipeout
announced.
2012
Oct Feb June

Western and PS Vita launched PlayStation Mobile, PS One classics
Japanese launch worldwide. compatibility, PS3 remote play, Call
dates of the Vita of Duty: Black Ops: Declassified and
announced. Assassins Creed 3: Liberation, all
announced at E3 2012
Dec Persona 4 Golden launched in Japan,
Mario Kart 7, becoming the best selling week 1
Monster Hunter 3G physical Vita game in Japan.
and Super Mario
3D Land released
for 3DS.
PS Vita launched
in Japan.

Feb June July Sept
Nintendo 3DS Name officially 3DS price drop Memory card
released. revealed to be announced. prices revealed.
Playstation Monster Hunter 3G
Vita and price for Nintendo 3DS
announced at announced.
E3 2011.
Aug Sept Nov

Sony announced lacklustre Vita sales. Remote play Call of Duty: Black
This is the last time Sony would reveal enabled for four Ops: Declassified
the Vita’s sales on their own. PS3 games: God released.
Tearaway and Killzone: Mercenary of War 1 & 2, Ico, Persona 4 Golden
announced at Gamescom 2012. and Shadow of released in North
the Colossus. America.
PlayStation One classics support arrives
on Vita. Final Fantasy 7 and Metal Gear LittleBigPlanet PlayStation Plus
Solid among the first batch of compatible released for Vita. launched for
games available. Vita with six free
games in North
Oct America and four
PlayStation Mobile
in Europe.
launched for
Vita with 20
new games.
Timeline 183
Thank you to all the Kickstarter backers
who made this book possible
Cristian Gerhardt Verdasco • joenemesis • Alicia Pamperin • Vernon Joseph III • Christoph Adams
Corey M Lunchuck • Don Lucas • Daniel “TootsieRoll” Davies • Patrick Oakes • Ricardo S.V • Sean Chandler
Lee Sanderson • Britta @Food4Dogs • Francisco Martinez Jr. • Kyle Collins • Greg Middleton • Ronald Lust
Lindsy Cucura • Aedanski • Vi Hoa PHUNG • Glenn Allen • Richard Pisters • Chris Millar • Philip Wyatt
Angel D. Melendez • Brandt Gold • Karbunos • Alexander Tolentino • Romain Oger • Dennis Leusink
Andrew J Dickinson • Hugo “Huggies” Sánchez • ROADKILL_101 • Julien Tetart / LtGlloq
Leszek ‘leafnode’ Krupiński • MatrixMorpher • Jay Shy • Jacob Kristof • Stefan Rotermund • Ryan J Porava
Michael Nacarato (NacsGaming) • Matthew Whitaker • Carlos M. & Chris S. • George Nash • Jamie Quinterno
Julio Tain Sueiras • Boghos Avetikian • Wing See Li • Geoffrey Pernin • Monsieur Sushi • Joshua Michael French
darkcp3 • Johan Johnsson • Andy Prince • Christian Eriksson • Yanislav Atanasov • Allen Ewasiuk
Patrick Weaver • Mauricio Batres • Jeanette Nying • Thierry Clavel • hrcrabtree & darley5
George Solowan aka Batteraziiz • Jakob de Pina Pääjärvi • Benjamin Kolz • Manuel Sagra de Diego
Leeanne Graham • DojoDan (TVL) • Alan T. Williams • Jordi Kroon ‘erbkaiser’ • Alexander Lucard • KrauserZero
Charlie Owen • Aourgen EVEN • DIEGO BORUNDA R. • Alvaro Correia Neto • RARS!!! • Jeremy Blaker
Lucian “Luzfel” Melendrez • EdEN • Nick “HevyD” Mangiaracina • Jaidan Vazquez • Carl “Strider” Busby
David Guiot • Francisco J. Merino L • @anthony84 • Gordon Logan • Guillaume Baron • Jason Neifeld
Lindsay Mayhew • Steve Thone • Tom Bourner • Joseph Bloomer • Justin “Lemar” Kling • Callum J
Kristopher Wendel • Rahul Gandhi • Paul Peters • Benjamin Cambour • Ricardo A. Soto • David Schmeißer
Brittany Wilbert • Rhys Cooper • William Lucero • Judas Madison North (Ryan M) • Alex2life
Shaun aka “vinyl.renegade” • Jared Trail • Warren Lapworth • Mark Nitschke • Eric Agena • Martin Derbyshire
Alvaro Martinez • Splosion • Michael Cook • Yuki Asahina • Won-ji Seo • shirokuro • Cameron Ovens • Des Miller
Andreas Stiller • Wild Mendonça • Marc (Xilos) Sanchez • Scott Paul Kelly • Marcel Schalhorst • Kevin Foss
Tobias Bürgermeister • Daniel J. Ladd • Dan Barber • Nick • Earl-Jay Pollard • C. Aaron Smith • Matthew Sparber
Kyle Nickerson • Jan-Karl M. Velez • Sébastien PAUSE • David Sneed • Megadouche91 • regdobey • Rifampicine
Petrovski • Patrick Williams • Cory A. • offmarteens • Luis Jimenez • LBoo • Martin Bavière • Michael Lynch
Jack Chiu • Dawid Salamon • Matt Pfaff • Todd Cavanaugh • Slope’s Game Room • Christian Mele • Whiskey
Langdon Oliver • Simon Pickering • Piotr Jura • Lam Tsz Ki • Young J. Park • Antonio Scarlato • John Turcios
Matthew M • Marcos Richardson • Steffen Beringer • Damián José Ortiz Pineau • Giuseppe Pantaleo • R Linwood
Gameimpulse • Rene “RJ” Cabanza Jr. • Uwe “Jardras” Ziminske • Patrick Kop • Matthew “Firefang” Stephenson
Stefan Diepeveen • Paul Whelan • Yragael • Stephen McConnell • Tom Storm • Keith Russell • Rick Haughton
Gary Huss • Pete Shaw • Spence Precourt • Blue Littlewood • Zisis Paraskevaidis • David Léa and Lou Ann Frison
Daniel J Bennett • Gareth Robinson • Sven Schmalfuss • Ieuan Lawrence • silwi80 • Derek Campbell
Thivanka “BaNeArroW” Attanayake • Max ‘Norynson’ Olefirenko • Sugar Shane (Gamer AF!) • David Young
Amanda Clemons • Kishimoto Studios • Jacob Freeman • Joshua Lack • Traier - Kiss Roland • Darius Haghighi
David Erosa García • Budd Royce • David Martinez Bertolez. • Santi Berlémont • Jason “TJ Kitsune” Morris
Alexander Petrovic • Dusty Benjamin • Darryl Abbott • DrakeFromParis • Jeremy Boone • Christopher Salomon
Mark Lawton • Melvyn Chong • WaddleJrJr • Shirley • Sasha Wulfe • Lisa Newcomb • Michael Berry
Charles Jorge • Adam Sinker • Gregori Coll Inglés • Marco Jirasek • JohnsParadoxPro • David Sanshiro
snakekilla77 • Nicholas Ware • Fenric Cayne • Jetatomic • David Yanska • DeQuimet • BatteMan
Benjamin Hüll • Mohammed Abdelraof Alkhamis • Alan Morgan • Nation Harris • Miles Calloway • JCL
Kyle Overby • Kr.S • Jayson Murray • Benoît Cantarelli • Durburz • Dave Eisenbise • David Kruse • Viktor Mars

Christoph “Saudumm” Kehl • TonyMonster • Jose N. Argueta-Guevara • Tom Hackey • Dmitry Usov
Peter McQuillan • Brendan Singh • OutCa5t3r • Raphael Hering • Gassi The Cat • Mezors Tham
Danny Kriegbaum Laursen • Cody Darr • theGalaxy89 • Taylor ‘Kodax’ Greene • Danny Adkins
Lukas Walder • Kenneth Oliver Dennis • Joshua Batson • Jake Hyland • R. Souza • Paul Gardosik • Thomas Barr
Trinidad T. Mendoza • Rogelio Quintana, Jr • Joseph R. Shivak • Arwin John • SilentBun • Heath Bsharah
Colin Monahan • Wouter Jooren • Donny McKee • Gideon Ramakers • Noel Estep • Oster Paul
Fabian Woelz • Abdulaali Kamal • Paolo Zoratti • Jason Murphy • Edwin Hoogendoorn • Panzerodin
Björn “grifteskymfning” Eklund • Luis Al. • Tim McCoury • Nicholas O’Keefe • Robert Sacalmet • Mike Ammon
Alexander Bevier • Karl Alexander Meyer • Libby Walters • Dave Ainscough • Kimon Karathanasopoulos
Jonathan Polan • Will Ruzicka • Jonathan Matthew Barnett • Jason Montgomery • Vesper and Marikit
David De Freitas • Scott Salter • Alex Hefner • Jon • Paul Koznek • Paul Anthony Vincent • Rikus Kras
Andrew “@andiedoodie” Shiranui • Jesse Tillman • Dylan Evans • Oli Jackson • Andrew Chan • Kevin Leung
Benoit Chauveau • N Cory • Tom Charnock • Oliver Kupski • teje3 • Nick Kimberley • Cris O’Connor
Christopher C Moore • Tyler Darland • Jeff Raymond • Jonathan Seenvert • Justin Harris • Warren Leigh
David Arnaud • G to the Next Level • Dan Andrade • David Teal • Christopher Bowman • Curtis Zuend
Romain MELLIER • Mathieu Percot • Tim & Sara Rees • Shugwuggah • Karl maly • bigvilo
Carlos Manuel Jiménez Santos • Daniel Skantz • Chris L. Austin • Tom Maxwell • Gabe Jackson
TheOneCalledPhil • Patricio G Guadamud • Laurentiu Nita • Sam Sarette • Yaacov Verch • Josh Ho
Adam Tripleme Slovik • Cameron Gould • Stanislav Khromov • Tow Min Yi • Jérémy BILLIARD
Monsieur Lapichon (David Poixblanc) • Kay Bensberg • Martin Kluczewski • Henrik Larsson • Guillaume
Ron Sellner • Anton Porsche • Chris Sawyer • Aidan Shay • Joseph Brosnan • Keira Christine Evans
Gwendoline Ecalle • Jordi Escobar Bonet • OuO • Kayee Chu • DKRaptor • Martijn Oosterhof
Michael Haubrichs • Erik Edhlund • Ashton Handwerker • @ashman690 - Ashley Keegan • Andy Russell
Arashveer Rai • Raphaël WARGNIER • François Bélanger • Matthew Holloway • Jonathan VanWinkle
Adam F. Heinicke • europa - drew • Jordan “DeChief” Baty • Mike Houben • Braden Roy • Daniil Gussev
Julian (Kisa) Cepeda • Geoff Spick • Michael Bennion • Christian Albrecht • Daniel Lawrence Schneiter
Iran J. Rodriguez Jr • JeanWayne • Jeremiah Nelson • Rick Mallen • Fri Sherr • Paul Comrie • Aleksandr Parygin
David J. Anderson • David Donatelli • Ábel Stadler • Ed Hewitt • Pablo Aznal • Frank Kergil • Levi Clark
Marius Henriksen • Ethan VanHanehem • Daniel -212- Crane • John Campbell • Nintastic • Megan DeYarman
Côme • Jesus Alfaro Ros • Acksell • Damian Schoonen • eastasiasoft • Marcin Kiszka • Ryan Lowe
Matt (Stubs24) Schlapa • Marcin “stfraw” Sliwa • Sneth • Alec Featherstone • Kevin Todtenhausen
Alexandro Gonzales • Nicholas Orozco • Ross Liversidge • Z. L. D. Horn • Dr. Jonathan Xuereb • Tony Purkey
Ryan Riddle • CommanderShiro • Joshua Kinsey • Paul D. Merrill, Jr. • Paul Murphy • Corey Reece • Beckybeck
Kirill Borissov • Shubham Bora • T.J. Fuller, Jr. • Joseph Weiner • Helen June Crumpholt
Berenger LIEBER (GAMERGEN.COM) • Richard Ross • Niels Oskam • Franklin E. Powers, Jr. • M. Lau
TweetVitaReview • Adam Neely • gaminghelden.de • Nathan Cornelis • loic ‘darknigthmare’ basques
Georgina Young • Xpycec • Joao Oliveira • GamesArtDE • Robin “casualnerd” Wenström • Shammytank • jamvng
Timothy Leonardo • RetiredSphinx • Geoffrey Sinkeler • belmont_gr • Daniel and Natalie Harrison
Jiwoong Kang • Justin Sayasith • deluoodle • João Queiroz • venntek • Max Glick • Kadir Doğan • Gameskeeper
Andrew McNeil • Christopher Hepburn • Angela • Kaiyoria Chi • Jon. W • Daniel Hooi • Jacob Kristof
Sean Murphy • Joey Haddad • Fuad Chedid • Jonathan Leeper • William Li • Carf Darko • Andrew Benson
Ron Ketterer • Ben Cross • Pepijn de Kok • Edoardo Rodolfo Fusco • Sang Tran • John Meza • Jozef Rivera
Rudolf Halmi • Corey Stevens • Aaron Schnuth • Christian Krueger • Helal Miah • Vid Potocan • Chet Davis
Anthony Watt • Salvador Recendez Jr • Milorad Alempic • Pierre Chastagner • Eric Emme • Sean M Ritzo
Ian McIver • Aaron Wilkins • Thomas Wilcockson • Juliano Ferreira de Lima • ALEKSANDR LEBEDEV
Dimitri Delago • Brian Fay • Diogo Tenório Militão • Jonathan Hohle • Sydney Losstarot • Anthony Wilson
Arthur William B Gilmore • Andrew Dickinson • Davie, Dennis • Charles Caulkins • Jamie Georgiou
Rostyslav Slepchuk • Matias Hettich Castillo • Edward Macdonald • Clayton Mack • Alessandro Bianchi
Brian Aevermann • Marc Dietrich • Fernando Villa • Sebastian Montalban Luna • Johan Shamkhi • RJ Adochio
Randy Burkett • Abaid Rana • Matthew Kaplan • Eddy Witte
Kickstarter backers 185

CREDITS AND THANKS
PlayStation Vita: Year One

The unofficial story of the PlayStation
Vita’s launch and first year
Second edition
Author Thank you to

Sandeep Rai our interviewees
@2_old_4_gaming Chris Millar
Stuart Tilley
Editors Ricky Haggett
Michael Rupprecht Richard Hogg
handheldplayers.com Martin Jonasson
Spencer Pressly Shaw-Han Liem
@torchwood4sp Douglas Bogart
Adam Cartwright Dave Mervik
kresnik258gaming. Henrik Larsson
wordpress.com Asger Kristiansen
Sebastian Bastian Claesson
Art director Matthew Compher
Steve Novaković-Thone Jonas Steinick Berlin
snt.design
PlayStation Vita: Year One
Screenshots and images is an independent and
Thivanka Attanayake unofficial book. All content
Cristian Gerhardt Verdasco featured is used with
Britta Stabenow permission, or is considered
Benjamin Kolz fair use. This book is not
Kimon Karathanasopoulos endorsed by or affiliated with
Francisco Martinez Sony or any of the companies
Rahul Gandhi featured. PlayStation is
Langdon Oliver a trademark of Sony. The
Patricio Guadamud copyright for game boxes and
MrBlasandecker screenshots reproduced here
Stephen J. Jacques remains with the respective
Sandeep Rai owners of these works.
Gravity Rush art

Monori Rogue Dedicated to
monorirogue.deviantart.com Aryan & Aarav

Coming soon
PlayStation
Vita: Year Two
187
The PlayStation Vita
was labelled a failure
within weeks of its launch,
and there were many
reasons for this. Even
before it was released,
the gaming media’s
expectation was doom
and gloom for Sony’s
second handheld system.
The predictions turned

out to be correct, but
there wasn’t just one reason
for the Vita failing to set
the gaming world on fire.
In this book, you will learn
the story of the system’s
launch and first year, told
from a historical perspective.
Also inside are in-depth

retrospectives of some
of the games that had
the biggest impact –
positive and negative –
as well as interviews
with developers offering
fascinating insight into
making games for the Vita.

Playstation Vita:Year One: 2 Old 4 Gaming

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Playstation Vita:Year One: 2 Old 4 Gaming

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

2 OLD 4 GAMING

004 Playstation Vita: Year One

n the 1980s nobody expected of Sony’s drive to challenge Nintendo’s

006 Playstation Vita: Year One

Before Vita 007

ollowing months of rumours on the device and third-parties showed

008 Playstation Vita: Year One

The NGP 009

3 Building the Hype

Despite the Vita being

010 Playstation Vita: Year One

Building the Hype 011

4 The First Cracks

012 Playstation Vita: Year One

The First Cracks 013

014 Playstation Vita: Year One

The overpriced The game was announced to be launched

cited as one of the just three months, Nintendo completely

Vita’s failure games and the price drop, consumers

The First Cracks 015

n October 2011, Sony confirmed Nintendo also – Mario Kart 7, Monster

016 Playstation Vita: Year One

Failure to Launch 017

018 Playstation Vita: Year One

hile the Vita may have failed to

020 Playstation Vita: Year One

022 Playstation Vita: Year One

a true indication of not only the 3DS but also smartphones

market for the Vita and months to follow would be a true

The lack of early sales in Japan and even being outsold by

the unshakeable have some big games for owners in the

Vita had ‘no games’ Sony’s internal studio, Zipper Interactive,

024 Playstation Vita: Year One

Year One 025

026 Playstation Vita: Year One

Sony to show gamers the Vita and PSP from 16 million to 12

worth owning Computer Entertainment of America CE

Year One 027

028 Playstation Vita: Year One

Year One 029

030 Playstation Vita: Year One

Between Vita games,

Year One 031

predictions had come install base but enough games sold on

032 Playstation Vita: Year One

034 Playstation Vita: Year One

RICKY There’sa group within Sony called Strategic Content, run by

RICHARD We were actually trying to pitch Hohokum to Sony at the time.

We went off and sat in a

The Vita’s got all these

RICKY And this joke went on for a year or so.

036 Playstation Vita: Year One

RICKY We should talk about the art as well.

There were something like

038 Playstation Vita: Year One

We came up with most

RICHARD It was like a bad bootleg of the Vita.

RICKY We were there super early with the hardware. We hired an

040 Playstation Vita: Year One

RICHARD Yeah and he was such a professional. Everyone likes to think

The first time I saw a

RICHARD So we weren’t wringing our hands going “this thing better do

042 Playstation Vita: Year One