14 DAY TRIAL // The PlayStation Vita has been launched in Japan for close to one full week and the developers at Sony working on the hardware and the software for the device are already looking to the future, with the Augmented Reality features of the device one possible focus.
Shuhei Yoshida, who is a vice president at Sony Computer Entertainment and president of the Worldwide Studios, told the PlayStation Blog that, “One thing I know about hardcore gamers is that they hate it when we try to shove new technology down their throats. There may be a perception that Augmented Reality is a gimmick, so we have to provide something that is robust and genuinely enhances the experience. You’re right that AR leans more towards a casual or a younger audience but I don’t think that’s a bad thing; I think that it helps PS Vita to be more relevant to a wider group of people.”
Sony plans to experiment with the Augmented Reality concept and might even integrate it in more mainstream series in the near future.
Yoshida was also asked about the launch line-up of video games for the Vita and said that it was a direct product of the new approach at the company, where video game developers are being asked by the hardware development teams about their needs for the upcoming console.
The executive added, “Full development of PS Vita hardware started in Spring, 2008 when the semiconductor was complete. The great thing is that we were there right at the beginning to express our thoughts and reactions to the hardware that was being proposed. We were there at every stage and with every prototype, and we developed game builds to prove and, sometimes, disprove how each new feature was going to make for a great game system.”
The Vita will arrive on Western markets on February 22, 2012.