Sony Steps in to Help With PlayStation Vita Port of The Banner Saga

Sony has announced it will help publisher Versus Evil bring the PlayStation Vita version of The Banner Saga to market, just days after developer Stoic announced that the game had been put on the back burner due to some serious production issues.

PlayStation's Gio Corsi, who appeared on stage at PlayStation Experience earlier this month to make a string of PS Vita announcements, confirmed the news on Twitter today. No release date for The Banner Saga's PS Vita edition was announced, but more details will be revealed next year.

So what happened with the PS Vita version of The Banner Saga that required Sony to step in? Just last week, Stoic technical director John Watson explained in a forum post that the unspecified developer tasked with porting the game to PS Vita (and Xbox One and PlayStation 4) folded, and there was no way to recover expenses. Thankfully, a replacement developer was quickly found and the console versions are being readied for release in January. The PS Vita version, however, was put on the back burner as a result.

"I have been excited about the Vita port since day one, and I would love to see the Banner Saga running on my own Vita," he said at the time. "The realities, however, of a very small team and a limited budget, put an immutable check on the speed of our progress. Stoic is composed of only four full time internal team members, all of which are currently working 100% on Banner Saga 2."

It's unclear exactly what level of involvement Sony hasn't with The Banner Saga's PS Vita port. We have followed up with the company in an attempt to find out.

The Banner Saga scored a 7 in GameSpot's review, which said it's a beautiful game filled with interesting ideas and enjoyable battles, but its story gets entangled within its own winding web.