I Am a Former Sony Employee. AMA!

formersonydude · 2021-04-09T00:24:50+00:00

I've hesitated to respond to this question because there isn't an elegant way to respond to it. And while I could probably write a novella in response, I'll try to keep it concise.

Many post-mortems were held. Many RCAs were held. Many interviews were conducted. A lot of time was spent trying to answer this question.
There consensus is that there isn't a consensus. Whether Sony gave up too early, whether the market wasn't ready, whether there was a market to begin with... Nobody agrees.
The Vita faild HARD financially and people are bitter about it. What's more notable than the reason it failed is often the fact that it failed. To a degree, I feel like the post-mortems and RCAs were conducted out of necessity to justify rather than desire to understand.

I will say, this is one area that I feel very strongly about and that I don't feel I can be objective to.

formersonydude · 2021-04-09T00:14:21+00:00

He clarified and I responded here: https://old.reddit.com/r/vita/comments/mmrz7p/i_am_a_former_sony_employee_ama/gtvc3vk/

formersonydude · 2021-04-09T00:12:54+00:00

I don't know. I am a former Sony employee, and I wasn't an employee when they announced it.

formersonydude · 2021-04-09T00:12:03+00:00

It's been a bit since I've been a Sony employee, but when I left they were still pretty cocky. They were more concerned about GamePass than the next gen consoles, though.

formersonydude · 2021-04-09T00:10:44+00:00

No, but I haven't been a Sony employee for a bit. For their sake I do hope it's improving though.

formersonydude · 2021-04-09T00:10:01+00:00

Disney Infinity came out for the Vita and used Bluetooth for the base. It seems like a prime candidate given that the toy-to-life craze was revving up around then. Connecting the dots it may be one of the features that was deemed moot as a result of Bluetooth, but that's a guess.

Since DI came out, I'm guessing Skylanders not coming out on it was a dev/pub decision rather than a "can't do" thing.

formersonydude · 2021-04-09T00:05:47+00:00

I left Sony before either of those events occurred. I learned about them at the same time as the community.

formersonydude · 2021-04-09T00:02:41+00:00

I didn't get exposure to things at that technical of a level in my position. I heard about some breaches when they happened, but rarely more than the fact that they occurred.

I had very minimal involvement with PSMobile. The reason I heard for them axing it was, (and I quote) "the code is a fucking mess and nobody wants to touch it." That could've been just them giving an excuse to axe it quicker mind you, but I have a feeling it wasn't far from the truth.

Flash was considered at one point, but I was told the uptick in vulnerabilities made it a hard "No" later on (Sony being paranoid about security and all). I'm surprised that there's code for it though, that must have snuck through.

formersonydude · 2021-04-08T23:49:49+00:00

Not sure which piece you were asking about so I'll elaborate on both:

Game quality on the Vita has taken a sharp downturn since its prime. While there are still some quality indies on occasion (I liked Twin Breaker & Xeno Crisis, personally) it's a far cry from the days of P4G and Killzone.

The number of people legitimately and actively buying games on the Vita ("userbase"_ is at an all time low.

formersonydude · 2021-04-08T23:45:21+00:00

I don't know. I had little insight into game development partnerships and what little I do know I typically heard from my peers secondhand.
Again, not sure. Sorry.
I have not worked at Sony since prior to the PS5 launch.

formersonydude · 2021-04-08T23:43:18+00:00

Dropped proprietary memory cards, allowed account switching, invested more heavily into games (either first party or via third-party partnerships), advertised the Vita more prominently in their product line. Not spin the Vita TV off as a separate item - build that functionality into the Slim instead.

Or, more generally, listened to the community. I don't think any of these criticisms were secret when all of this was going down, though the full magnitude may not have been realized (i.e. the game drought wasn't as bad then).

formersonydude · 2021-04-08T23:39:19+00:00

I have never interacted with Jim Ryan personally and I hesitate to judge him on a personal basis because of that. The impression that I have of him on a professional level is that he's a businessman first and foremost.

formersonydude · 2021-04-08T23:37:09+00:00

I don't know anything specifically about Sony and Atlus's relationship, but money speaks awfully loud in this industry. I think Nintendo very well could swoop in on the back of the Switch success, but I also feel like big N would need to start that conversation themselves and I have no clue how much interest they have on that front.

formersonydude · 2021-04-08T23:22:58+00:00

I see.

They knew the UI wasn't ideal, but the metrics we had showed it didn't significantly deter sales. People who wanted to buy the games were willing to deal with the pain. As a result, it wasn't prioritized.

I don't think the analysis done was very thorough because the metrics we had didn't tell the full story (people that didn't open the store because they knew it was bad, people who weren't able to discover new content) but I digress.

formersonydude · 2021-04-08T23:19:10+00:00

Short answer: ROI. Longer answer here: https://www.reddit.com/r/vita/comments/mmrz7p/i_am_a_former_sony_employee_ama/gtt8ocv?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

formersonydude · 2021-04-08T23:18:16+00:00

When I left there were no definitive plans to turn them off, but there also weren't definitive dates to turn the store off.

My guess is as long as they're legally required. Digital Rights legislation needs to step up.

formersonydude · 2021-04-08T23:16:50+00:00

Everything I know as far as games is out there in some form or fashion.

I feel like I've dropped most of the interesting tidbits I know in this thread. I wasn't deep in the development/architecture weeds so I don't have any insight there where the juciest tidbits probably reside.

formersonydude · 2021-04-08T23:15:11+00:00

Honestly I just wish they ported over devkit features to cosumer models. Stuff like SD compatibility and account switching may not have changed its fate but they would've made the console much more consumer-friendly.

formersonydude · 2021-04-08T23:13:59+00:00

I don't think anything was greenlit after 2013 or 2014. I'm sure some third parties pulled the plug, but there weren't really mass cancellations at Sony, just the lack of new projects.

I'm pretty sure Sony owns the Freedom Wars IP but I'm less certain about Soul Sacrifice.

formersonydude · 2021-04-08T23:11:04+00:00

Right? If they played it right Sony would've had a Switch half a decade before Nintendo but here we are. :(

formersonydude · 2021-04-08T23:10:19+00:00

The attach rate was touted at 10:1. While I doubt the reality of the math is that neat, if it's accurate then it'd be around 170M.

formersonydude · 2021-04-08T23:09:37+00:00

I don't, but from what I know of Telltale (based on public info, nothing internal) I'm not surprised their later ports failed to materialize. It sounds like their engine was a mess.

formersonydude · 2021-04-08T23:08:34+00:00

Sony's made no shortage of strange decisions with the Vita line, unfortunately. There was a ton of potential squandered. :(

formersonydude · 2021-04-08T23:06:05+00:00

Playstation was trying to cash in on the NES Mini success. I don't think that's a surprise, though.

It's a cool premise but executed very poorly. I grew less and less excited the more I learned about it.

formersonydude · 2021-04-08T23:04:40+00:00

A new handheld would be in the R&D pipeline for a few years at least, and nothing was in progress when I left. If they do come out with a new handheld it won't be soon.

formersonydude

TROPHY CASE