Sony Canceled 4 Vita Games, Including Uncharted & inFamous

It was going to be another Uncharted game but naughty dog was worried about franchise burnout with so many games coming out so close together, so they nixed it. We spent like a whole year dicking around with different ideas and pitches after that before I left the studio. We started and threw away so many demos during that year.

Sony really wanted another Uncharted from us and tried to convince Naughty Dog to let us do it. They wanted more content for Vita.

And we did make an infamous pitch at one point, too. I think that was the first pitch and demo we made after the uncharted project was canned. The infamous game would have been a vita title too.

We did a couple new IP pitches. One was steampunk but that didn’t make it very far. There was a really awesome futuristic sci if one that I really liked. We had an amazing future scifi city and a character that could run around and scale buildings with these jet boots, and it was awesome. We had a lot of assets done for that demo when it was canned. I was really bummed when that one got binned.

I left the studio about 2 years ago and that was when they were making the switch to Unreal 4 and PS4, instead of Vita. It was a bit of a waste since we’d put so much time and resources into making a vita engine and then only used it on one title. But a couple other first party studios used versions of our engine and we lent them support, so it didn’t totally go to waste.

I think Unit 13 from Zipper Interactive used our engine. Don’t remember who else did though.

I think the shift to PS4 was a desperate bid to get something greenlit. When you go through so many pitches and get one after another tossed out for various reasons, you start trying anything.

I recall it was always upper management, demographic, genre saturation kinda crap. Like, ‘someone is already making a game something along those lines that would come out 5mo prior to your GM date’, or ‘we’ve had too many games of that sort that didn’t sell well enough’, or projections for that kind of blah blah blah…

Also, kind of like the complaints about Hollywood only making generic formula action hits because they make money, rather than take a risk on something different that might not make money.

Same thing exists in games, obviously.

SOURCE

This comes from an ex-Sony Bend developer posting on Reddit, so I leave it to you to decide whether or not you want to believe this, but if true... Damn... I mean, Uncharted, fine, that's on Naughty Dog, but why cancel those other three games? Why not let those pitches go through? It is very telling that the only time Sony let Sony Bend's pitch go through is when they finally switched to PS4.

You can't cancel what you didn't approve.

I wouldve loved inFamous on Vita.. I'm also one of the few that absolutely enjoyed Golden Abyss so another Uncharted on the go woulldve been amazing.

Ah man, that sounds awesome.

Still waiting on another Jet set radio game too

"I know what they’re doing, but even if I don’t work there anymore, I don’t think it would be kosher to go running my mouth off.

Hard to say if you should be excited."

So basically she's saying they're currently working on garbage.

I totally agree here. Infamous is the perfect type of game for a handheld. There really wasn't much game there for Second Son on PS4, but that amount of content is perfect for a handheld. I also enjoyed Uncharted Golden Abyss and would have enjoyed another game.

dat support

lolvita

lol vita.

Poor Vita. Sony really did hate you.

That's a shame. More games like Killzone Mercenary would have been nice.

Does Sony even support the Vita still? I rarely ever hear about it.

Not anymore. At the very least, they are no longer making any exclusive content for it.

Good, now they can concentrate on the superior plattform.

true. PSNow is the future. When they change it to PS5 and put it on every device known to man then they will finally be set.

That wont happen. I expect PSNow the get ported to every plattform but the hardware business has a lot of room. The PS5 will be a traditional console.

Welp looks like Vita is dead. Even Sony doesn't support it...

Vita never had a chance.

The quotes never used the word "canceled", but yet that's in the title of this thread? It's a misunderstanding of the word the way the industry uses the term. The project has to be underway to be canceled.

Assuming that source is legit, yes it's sketchy internet stuff (That link didn't even take me to the quote in question)...I just read those games weren't ever approved, they were game pitches? They were trying to get things greenlit? That's way different.

That's not canceling, that means the games were never approved in the first place to get canceled later. There are a lot of games that get pitched and don't get approved. Nothing about this seem out of the ordinary to the industry. Companies get pitched all the time.

That title is misleading. I came to read about canceled games and instead I read about pitches of games that never saw the light of day past a tech demo designed to pitch a game. Who knows, those might have been awful games and what was shown weren't good. We don't know other than one devs tiny insight (assuming it's legit). Naughty Dog and other developers go through this, it's how we get games from developers ranging from Capcom to Konami to whoever. You pitch a game to your boss and he might take it up the ladder. It doesn't mean if they shut down the pitch, the game was canceled. It was never approved. We almost got a Jak 4 instead of Uncharted at one point (arguably what some might have prefered), but ultimately if the dev doesn't have the passion to make a great game, they shouldn't do it. I read The Last of Us also almost didn't happen for Jak as well. For all we know, that was many reasons these pitches didn't get greenlit.

What we do know is that Sony Bend cranked out games in decent time tables. These were the games they did make where those pitches failed. In another world, we don't have these games games below, but we have those other games instead. We don't get both:

For those wondering? Currently Sony Bend is working on a PS4 title. Looking at their timeline, I'm thinking their game will be announced at E3 with a possible release this year or next. Bend aren't very big; they are a smaller team of over 40 devs.

The fact that the console is called Vita is quite ironic.

@SolidTy: The user was confirmed as former Sony Bend artist Athey Moravetz.

As for the topic title, I had 60 characters, and a lot of information to convey, so I did the best I could. I expect my readers to read the OP and understand the intended meaning, instead of kneejerk responses to the topic title. Thankfully, users in this thread have all responded to the actual thread (except for one predictable outlier right at the beginning), so it appears my intuition was correct.

EDIT: Dude, stop editing your post again and again lol. I responded to a post that was four sentences long, and now it's like a full MS Word page. If you have something to add, reply to my post please!

@charizard1605:

By gamers for gamers huh?

I think this confirms Sony not developing Vita 2/PSP 3 or w/e. Nintendo is king of the Handhelds. Kills another competitor.

Enjoy the indies, cows.

That is unfortune that it happened.

I have doubts to the legitimacy, I imagine many of the ex-Naughty Dog devs that jumped ship did so because they probably realized they reached a peak as far as they could go at Naughty Dog, and probably left with their Naughty Dog resume under their arm able to get a better job anywhere they wanted, given the studio's stellar success. Plus, I imagine such a post would violate an NDA and I don't think anybody in the gaming industry wants to risk having their name and career tainted over a breach of an NDA.

Anyhow, considering if this is true, I don't think Infamous got made on the Vita because they probably wanted to get started on a next gen Infamous game, hence we got Second Son right after launch. I also think that Naughty Dog was smart not to overdue the Uncharted franchise, and that's probably how we got Last of Us. Smart call probably,

I'm glad it's confirmed that person was a dev, but that link in the OP didn't take me to the same page. Maybe it's Reddit.

With regards to the topic title, it's not just the title but the OP that use the word "cancel" when in fact these were just pitches. That's my point. It's things like this that cause mass confusion with users down the road both here and in SW as it's not accurate. People won't know the difference between a canceled title and a pitch that never got greenlit. Considering Athey Moravetz never used the word cancel either in the OP, it seems that word "cancel" doesn't reflect the substance of the quoted material.

When I saw the thread, I figured after reading the title the thread I was about to read about four canceled Vita games and instead I read about pitches that never were approved/greenlit. It's a big difference. Doesn't affect me, I just wish I came into the thread knowing the actual advertised content. If you knew the difference and made an inaccurate title due to the limited characters that needed interpreted for your readers (I understand that problem as I've come across it too), the problem is your OP goes on to say "why cancel those other three games?". My fear is the confusion will be repeated in the future in other threads neither of us will attend.

Perhaps you should compose the title with words like approved, greenlight, greenlit, pitches, etc. Words the dev who you quoted used. That's my two cents on that.

Regarding the content...I wish I was more of a handheld or Vita fan, but I'm not. Looking at Bend's timeline, they seem to do about two-three games per system (They pumped out four PSP games and zero PS3 games) and they are working on PS4 right now for their next title. Perhaps that PS4 game wouldn't exist if they had greenlit an Infamous for Vita.

Happy gaming.

I don't think OP knows what the term "cancelled" means.

Sony brass are already debating whether or not to go cloud. I'm betting they will because they won't want to waste billions on another piece of hardware that will end up outdated after a year.

Of course this is true.

Sony switched all their studios to PS4 development, so of course a lot of handheld projects will have been canceled along the way. There is no way all their handheld studios weren't making Vita games.

4 ? I'm guessing there are way more we just don't know about.

could have been a gamechanger for the vita if sony gambled

Sounds good to me, keep uncharted and infamous for the PS4 please!

Vita is the system for my RPG fix on the go... i would rather have more games on PS4 than Vita ( Vita is already getting a lot of Japanese games so nothing to worry about ).

Wow, even the first party devs couldn't be bothered with the Vita. Poor thing.

@ninjapirate2000: "another" competitor? Lol Sony was pretty much the only one they ever had in the dedicated handheld market. Anyway, wasn't for Pokemon and Nintendo handheld would also be pretty much dead. Smartphones are taking gaming on the go and now with Nintendo only taking care of it, dedicated handheld gaming is a dying breed.

Ummm excuse me @charizard1605_ but I disagree on Vita is not getting exclusive games because of this:

Note: Rumors suggest that GR2 might come to PS4 but we will find out at E3 2015.

I still think Vita would have taken off if sony gave it phone functionality. It would be the phone for all gamers, really.

What's a Vita???????

Aw shoot, the Vita really is in the same boat as the WiiU.

Great device, but no one wants to develop for it.

That's not true at all. Plenty of third-parties are developing for the Vita, it's Sony itself that is ignoring the platform.

The Wii U is the opposite. Nintendo supports the console, everyone else ignores it.

Sony treats their Vita owners worse than MS treated the X1 early adopters. MS continually dropped the price and Kinect. That sucks, but Sony dropped Vita like it was a bad joke.

Makes sense.I mean why support a dead platform?

It's a good decision from business stand point. Vita has been dead for a while now and they have no one to blame but themselves.

Sends quite a message though. People here keep saying how they can't trust MS again after the X1 unveiling. But how can people trust Sony enough to pay for their next inevitably expensive handheld, when they can't trust if they will support it properly.

That's not really cancelled....it's ideas that didn't develop.

Really sucks that the vita aint getting no big games anymore.

But to be honest im satisfied with my purchase. I bought it last year and got to play games like Persona 4 golden, Uncharted golden abyss and Killzone mercs.

Now im using it to play a lot of the free indie games from ps plus. Also I use remote play a lot. So Im happy with my vita.

Well, the visuals look exactly like GR1, so i bet it's gonna be a cross-buy at most.

Btw, serious talk, i consider GR to be a killer app.

It's a unique open world game with fun core mechanics, fantastic setting and a brilliant soundtrack.

It was most likely moved to PS4. A dev said when we see GR2 we will know why it's been so long.

Meh, i'll be getting it anyways.

I just feel they'll have to step up in a lot of ways before considering a home console release, not just buff the graphics.

GR1 has got its share of 6's and 7's for a good reason.

As fun and charismatic as the game was, the variety just isn't there.

Portable games can get away with it, console games - not so much.

Hardly. Nintendo doesn't treat the Wii U second class the way Sony does the Vita, where the latter is seen as nothing more than a remote play device for their consoles.

Sony: "who needs games?? We have chump consumers that will buy our consoles/gaming platforms for absolutely no reason at all. :-D"

Lol