Konami has confirmed that it has no plans to release a PES game for the PlayStation Vita this year, as it plans on focusing on consoles, however that could change next year.
The PlayStation Vita already has one of the largest football simulation franchise’s title in the shape of FIFA, which EA released on the console during the early days of the console’s launch. However, any hopes Sony had of getting its rival, Pro Evolution Soccer, on board this year have gone up in smoke.
Konami, the developer behind the franchise, was very blunt when it released a statement via the game’s senior producer, Naoya Hatsumi, who put things as simply as was possible when he said, "There will not be a Vita version of PES this year."
Well that’s the end of that then, however, he went on to explain the reasons behind the move and also pointed out that they did have plans for the handheld console, though for the time being they were focusing on consoles.
He said, “But we are not saying that we are ignoring PS Vita. We have been exploring the possibility of having a PS Vita version.”
Hatsumi continued by explaining that the studio was "Not just thinking of consoles like PS3, Xbox 360 and PS Vita, but looking at much wider potential users.” The reason for this according to him was “Because of the change of lifestyle, for example users now use iPad and iPhone, they can play football games if they want to. That means we're not just limited to console users.”
Pointing out the publisher’s future plans, Hatsumi said, “We would like as many potential users as possible to play Pro Evolution Soccer,” but also pointed out that for the time being,”our argument is to try and provide for much wider potential users."
Konami need to be on their game next year as EA already has a head start on the studio in terms of experience on the PlayStation Vita.
It will be interesting to see when the studio decides to mark its debut on the portable gaming scene and whether it can carve out a slice of the market for itself.
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