Sony prepared to be flexible with Vita software pricing

The concerns of MCV and others have seemingly been taken on board.

Right at the beginning of 2011 MCV warned that Vita and the 3DS could both struggle in the market unless they adapted their software offer to account to the bite-sized low-cost gaming model pioneered by the likes of Apple.

And now Sony has said that it will utilise a flexible pricing strategy for Vita games that will accommodate both triple-A premium-priced titles and more portable-centric low-cost offerings.

"I think it would be safe to assume we will take a more tailored approach than perhaps we’ve done in the past,” European PlayStation boss Jim Ryan told Games Industry.

[It would be] "foolish and nave to ignore what’s happening [in the smartphone sector]. It’s our challenge to ensure that the gaming experience that we provide is closer to that TV console experience than it is to your 69p thing that you’ve downloaded on your iPhone.

"If we do that and we provide great value to the consumer on games like Uncharted, I think the possibility to sustain historic console type price points is there."

It will be fascinating to see which titles from Vita’s launch line-up Sony feels it can charge full-price” for and which it feels the need to discount.

Sony’s Japanese Vita prices suggest that titles will sell for around the same price as is currently charged for PS3 games. Sony will also be selling many Vita games for less via PSN that it does at retail.