The Vita's Presence at the Playstation Experience

I recently made the trip to Vegas for the Playstation Experience and was dreading to not hear anything about the Vita. Well, it wasn't all about the Vita, but it certainly wasn't left in the dust. Read on!

I've never been to a videogame convention. E3 always happens at the unfortunate time in my teaching year... finals week. Gamescom is in Europe, etc. When I heard about the show being held on a weekend in Vegas I was sold. So my brother and I got our tickets and waited for the day.

Lines and lights. I was on overload.

We flew in late and made it to the first keynote speech (including the Uncharted 4 demo) but we made it to hear about the Vita. Unlike E3 or Gamescom this past year, the show spoke highly about the Vita.

Titles for the PS4 were simultaneously mentioned for the Vita, new titles were announced for it... it just felt right. Unfortunately no "big" titles were announced for the Vita. Gravity Rush 2? Nope. Not even a word. That was a little disappointing, but not so much to take away from the fact that Sony really cared about the Vita's presence here. 

Some of my favorite cosplay.

Some of the games mentioned for the Vita at the speech included: 

Geometry Wars, Bastion, Skytorn, Dungeon Defenders 2, Severed, Shovel Knight... All received pretty highly from the crowd. 

EA president came out and announced that Need for Speed would be a free download for all Vita owners for the course of the weekend. That was a pretty sweet deal. I hope you picked that up while you could!

It was then that Gio Corsi, Director of Third Party Production for Sony PlayStation, took the stage and announced that the 1000's of emails/tweet people have sent him regarding which games to bring to the Vita were coming to the console. He obviously loves the Vita and was proud to announce titles like Suikoden 1 and 2, Towerfall Ascension, Octodad, Supertime Force Ultra (with special unlockable character Shuhei Yoshida), Banner Saga, and Resident Evil Revelations 2.

Phew! Before he left, Tim Schafer came to the stage and shared how Broken Age would make its way to the Vita, as well as Grim Fandango in January. One of my personal favorites that will be on the Vita is The Day of the Tentacle, all proclaiming that adventure titles are far from over.

This was a long speech and the crowd became restless as the show floor opened up in the middle of it all. After it was over, my brother and I journeyed into the craziness that is the world of long lines, video games everywhere, competitions... it was a little overload for me.

This pretty much sums up the weekend for me. 

There I saw more Vita titles ready to go, Playstation Tvs hooked up with couches nearby to chill on and play, smaller developers filling up the rows with their shiny games. Yes, the PS4 was highly showcased, but the Vita's had their day. I was happy.

One of my highlights was to finally meet some of the devs that I have corresponded with over the years including Simon from Roll7 (the bringers of OlliOlli). I will share an interview I had with him regarding two of their upcoming games, Not a Hero, and OlliOlli2.

A super cool title from Roll7, creators of OlliOlli.

It is true that there were no "huge" AAA title games announced, and it makes me wonder why Gravity Rush 2 wasn't mentioned, but the fact that there is a lot of apparent love for the Vita from Sony made me pretty hopeful. After conference and conference of Vita being overlooked, it was great to feel the love again, and as Gio Corsi said, "Long Live the Vita!"

What do you think, readers? Did you watch any footage of the PS Experience? Are you glad to be a Vita owner? What titles are you looking forward to?  

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