With an attractive price, fantastic hardware and a terrific line-up, it’s becoming increasingly hard to think of reasons not to buy the PlayStation Vita, and Capcom’s hoping to make it even harder.
Speaking to MEGamers, David Reeves, the Capcom Europe head and former SCEE boss spoke of the publisher’s plans to support the Vita:
I think in the case of 3DS and Vita, Capcom are treating them pretty equally. They have Resident Evil: Mercenaries that released last week. Super Street Fighter as well, along with other titles. There will be one launch title for Vita. I am not actually sure if it’s been mentioned, so I am not going to, but there will be a launch title for the platform. And then we will do Street Fighter vs Tekken, and at least two others. I am sure you can guess what one of them has to be, considering the success in Japan.
With Monster Hunter Portable 3rd on PSP Capcom’s most successful game ever, it’s easy to assume that Reeves is talking about a Vita version, but he goes on to talk about the future of the franchise:
So there are going to be games coming out for both the platforms. And they are both Japanese companies, Nintendo and Sony, and so is Capcom. So the ties are very, very strong. So I think down the road, you could probably see a Monster Hunter iteration somewhere. Probably on both of them. I haven’t heard any concrete plans…they don’t always share those plans…because they switch teams many times.
He added:
Personally I find Vita a little bit more enticing. It’s got more to get into, it has 3G, it feels good in the hand. I find…and Nintendo will probably tell you as well…that 3D is not what they are going to sell it [3DS] on. They think 3D is something that will draw people in, but after a while, that’s it. People will just use the slider and put it into 2D. And they are aware of that.
It’s going to depend on the software ultimately, whether it be a Zelda or a Mario, they are the games that will probably draw players in and sell systems.
It will be interesting to see who prevails. I think in the Middle East it will probably be Vita, because of its Playstation brand. In Russia it will certainly prevail as well. I think in the US and Europe, however, it’s going to be quite a battle. And that’s only good for consumers.
But Capcom themselves are pretty agnostic about it. They will choose the game that will suit the individual platforms and develop for both of them. Just as other publishers, like Ubisoft, who are developing for both of them as well.
Considering the 3DS has only been met with moderate success so far, it’ll be interesting to see how the Vita fares in the post-smartphone market of 2011/12, and whether it can surpass the 70 million sales of the PlayStation Portable.
