Sony speaks Sony, and Vita too

An interview with Sony UK’s managing director suggests the Vita will have an important role to play in the next-generation, and that it’s still possible second-hand games won’t run on the PS4.

Speaking to NowGamer.com, Fergal Gara said the PS Vita and PS4 would work in conjunction and fuel each other’s success.

“How important is it to PS4? I almost feel in a way, it’s how important is Playstation 4 to PS Vita," he said.

"I think the answer there is very. I think it was a big, big step for PS Vita, what was announced...we often use the adage PS Vita was aiming to be a PS3 in your pocket...actually, it’s more than that. It’s a PS4 in your pocket.”

He says the Vita will be more capable of stretching the limits of handheld consoles, especially in comparison to iOS and Android games that simply don’t have the same power.

Addressing the two primary rumours that were floating around before the console’s announcement, namely that next-gen consoles would have mandatory always online connections, and that second-hand games would be blocked, Gara was vague.

“Well first of all, we haven’t stated that second-hand games...we haven’t made a statement on the second-hand games question," he said.

"There was a lot of reaction to a patent that was filed, which is a matter of course for a technology business like us...the answer to the pre-owned question isn’t clarified just yet and we’re working through that and we’ll announced our position in more detail as and when we can.”

As for the future of the PS3 console so many of us have sitting in our living rooms, Gara says there’s always room for the older Sony consoles.

“It’s going to have a tremendous year and I think it’s going to have a tremendous multi-year life way beyond this year with the UK consumers maybe graduating that faster onto PS4, but there’s much of the world where they’ll be very happy with PS3 for years to come and they’ll have a slower adoption curve onto PS4.”

Personally, I still have my PS2 and a PS3, and I spend an awful lot of time playing PS classics downloaded from the PS Store anyway – older doesn’t necessarily mean worse. This sentence had ‘PS’ in it far too many times.

Will you keep your old consoles when the next-generation finally hits?