It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that porting a game is a simple process. Especially as the prevalence of PlayStation 4 and Vita simultaneous releases with cross-buy and cross-save has grown, we often don’t consider that there are challenges in delivering the whole package.
We quite enjoyed Axiom Verge when it was released last year (our review), and many of us have been eagerly awaiting the Vita port. Unlike some unfortunate late-stage cancelations, Axiom Verge is still coming to the handheld, and when it does, it will be cross-buy with the PlayStation 4 version (though not cross-save right away).
Developer Thomas Happ has laid out the features that need to be polished and implemented. Those in the image below labeled critical are necessary prior to shipment.
While Happ doesn’t promise a specific release window, he does contextualize the above list a bit. “The proper way to read this is not to add up all of the different timeframes to come up with the total time,” he says. “Many of these things will happen in parallel. For example, fixing the graphics glitches is part of general QA. Fixing the memory issues will also help with load times. And so on. In fact, when I first started drafting this update, the list was quite a bit longer. In the time it took me to record the video, the to do list had shrunk by about a third.”
The video in question? Footage of the game running on Sony’s handheld.
(Please visit the site to view this media)
In addition to giving us an update on an anticipated release, Happ’s transparency helps remind us that bringing a PlayStation 4 game to the Vita isn’t an instantaneous process.
So if you’re waiting for The Banner Saga or are disappointed that Not a Hero isn’t coming to Vita anymore, this might help clear up why. Axiom Verge is coming for Vita. When Happ is ready to share when that’s happening, we’ll let you know.
[Source: Thomas Happ]
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