PlayStation Vita project cancelled in wake of store shutdown confirmation
Indie developers say they had no warning.
Twin Breaker studio Lillymo Games has had to abandon its plans to release a project for PlayStation Vita in the wake of Sony's confirmation it will shutter the handheld's online store on 27th August.
The game is still at least six months from release - and so will simply not have time to launch before Sony closes the Vita store in August, following similar closures of the PS3 and PSP stores on 2nd July.
Lillymo Games posted on Twitter of discovering the news at the same time as it was revealed publicly:
In a report published today by The Gamer, Spooky Squid Games - the developer of the upcoming Vita port of Russian Subway Dogs - said it was now rushing to get the project done in time. A European launch has also been put in doubt due to added complications of submitting the project to ratings board PEGI for what will be a limited-time release.
"Basically, it's a whole new headache on top of the already complex process of releasing on consoles as a small dev," Miguel Sternberg of Spooky Squid Games said. "The port really has been a labour of love. We're way past the point where it makes a ton of financial sense to release on Vita, but it's one of my all time favourite consoles and I wanted to release a game on it before everything shut down. Most of the 'price' of deciding to do a Vita port has already been paid. This is my first time going through this process of coding for consoles - my game dev background is art, not code - so there's no guarantee I'll hit the deadline. It's a lot of stress."
Perhaps surprisingly, games are still releasing on Vita - someone should probably have let Sony know this, too! - and with the handheld's store due to shutdown, this will mean the end of revenues from the platform.
ScourgeBringer developer Thomas Altenburger posted on Twitter to say his game's upcoming Vita port would be available next month as planned - but would of course now be a "limited release" until the store shuts.
Vita owners will still be able to re-download and play previously purchased games, video content, and claimed PlayStation Plus titles once the PSP, Vita, and PS3 stores close. But no new purchases will be possible - meaning many digital-only games will be gone for good. Yesterday, Martin and Chris Donlan gathered up a list of PlayStation PS3, PSP and Vita classics that will become inaccessible when Sony's shutdown occurs.