Previously, the president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) Tsuyoshi “John” Kodera made a remark that PlayStation 4 is entering “the final phase of its console life cycle” and that PlayStation would “crouch down once” until March 2021 to grow in the future.
Today, a couple of Japanese news sites such as Bloomberg News Japan and Mantan Web have revealed that Kodera also had new remarks on the PlayStation Vita as well.
Regarding the portable game console PS Vita, Kodera said “I’d like to think about various options,” which makes it clear that he is thinking to once again give a focus to it as an important product in the company, lining it up with home consoles.
Kodera also pointed out “In what ways we can make more unique experiences by having customers use the portable device already sitting on their hands? We’re currently having various considerations with such point of view,” which shows the direction of enhancing the Vita’s advantage of being able to be carried and played outside.
Bloomberg notes that Kodera’s approach is contrasting from the previous CEO Andrew House, who did not see portable game consoles as “being a huge market opportunity.” Kodera also said in the interview that “Rather than splitting between portable and [home] console, we need to continuously think on whether there are ways to deal with portables as a way to provide even better gaming experiences.”
Finally, Kodera also mentioned a clear estimate on how long Sony is going to continue supporting the Vita, in a separate interview article posted by Mantan Web.
Regarding the portable game console PS Vita, which has been going sluggish, although [Kodera] would refrain from “also talking about portables (handheld game consoles) in detail,” he also said “While sales (shipments) of PS Vita for Europe and America are over, we’re still continuing (sales) for Asia and Japan. But in the end, we’re on a direction to wrap it up within 2 years (2020).”
This goes in line with recent reports that say Sony is ceasing production of PS Vita physical games for America and Europe while still continuing them in Japan and Asia for the foreseeable future.
[Sources: Bloomberg Japan, Mantan Web]
