The boss of Activision, company behind mega-hit game Call of Duty has expressed concerns over PS Vita – the next generation portable from Sony – and its position in a mobile gaming market dominated by cut price smartphone games on iPhone and Android gadgets.
Today you can grab a game on your Apple mobile for less than £1 and Bobby Kotick, President and Chief at Activision (once referred to by Lucasart’s Tim Schafer as a “total prick”) has made his opinion known regarding Sony’s upcoming handheld platform. Despite his high praise “fantastic” hardware and the “surprisingly affordable pricing” of the PS Vita, he tells The Guardian “It’s really something incredible. The question is – where is the market?”
Bobby suggests the PS Vita is a specialised portable device, and we can agree in the current market for such portable gaming devices, smartphones are one of the popular choices – delivering the function of a mobile with the ever-growing support for gaming. Makers Sony even recognising this fact by putting out its own gaming smartphone the Sony Ericsson Xerpia PLAY – or “Playstation phone” as it’s become known.
He treads carefully as he continues “Hopefully there will be (a market) because it’s a really nice product and it’s very well differentiated from what you can get in even the most capable smartphone or tablet today”.
Addressing Activision’s lacklustre approach to delivering its gaming wares onto the popular tablet platform the Pres. says “those are market opportunities that are starting to emerge. I don’t think they are going to be big opportunities for revenue growth in the short term, but over the long term, they’re going to be exciting.”
Moving onto, but not taking a great step away from the tablet platform, the Activision boss (much like EA Games) expresses excitement and enthusiasm for Nintendo’s unique Wii U control methods “I think that the user-interface itself is very clever – there will be a lot of innovation to come from having the second screen.” He adds.
Be sure to leave your tweets and comments on the official Gadget Helpline Twitter as well as our official Facebook page!