Economics for AAA games “simply don't work” on PlayStation Vita, Sony says

The economics of producing a big, AAA game for the PlayStation Vita don’t work with the traditional process, according to Don Mesa, Director of Product Planning and Platform Software Innovation at Sony Computer Entertainment.

Earlier this week, Mesa wrote a post on the PlayStation Blog announcing the release of the slimmer, $200 PS Vita in North America.

In the comments section, one fan made the point that while the $200 price point is nice, and might get more people to discover the selection of indies on the platform, Sony did promise the Vita will get “console-quality” games. Sony has put a lot of effort into making the PlayStation 4 and Vita indie-friendly platforms, but the Vita hasn’t seen many AAA releases like Killzone: Mercenary and Uncharted: Golden Abyss.

“As for the big games: The economics simply don’t work with the traditional process,” Mesa responded. “We have to do something different to get AAA games on Vita. We accomplished it to a certain degree by making PS4 games work on Vita via remote play. PS Now will be another way, streaming PS3 games on Vita. I can’t wait until PS Now is out on Vita – I hope you’ll try out the experience and let me know what you think.”

PlayStation Now will allow users to stream a selection of PS1, PS2, and PS3 games to the PS3, PS4, and eventually the Vita and other devices. The service is currently in a limited Beta, but is set to launch this summer.

Do you think the Vita needs more AAA exclusives, or are indies, remote play, and streaming enough?