The PS Vita was mostly an unfortunate failure, but it managed to marshal an enviable library of indie games and niche Japanese titles. On the former front, we already know the Switch has inherited the mantle, but what about the latter?
According to PQube, which publishes niche Japanese games, such as visual novels, the Switch has inherited that title from the Vita, too—and not a moment too soon, since it seems like all the other traditional markets for those kinds of games were becoming unviable.
“I’m really confident that that audience is going to move to Switch,” said PQube’s head of marketing Geraint Evans to Twinfinite. “I think the PC market is starting to become more challenging. It’s not necessarily a Japanese game issue, but more of an issue about the volume of content.There’s just so much stuff on there, and I’m kind of concerned that lots of people won’t be able to weather that storm…”
In fact, he argued, the Switch is already doing so, and not a moment too soon, either.
“I think it’s already on its way to do that for sure. The hardware itself is fantastic and sales on the platform are really good. As a publisher that’s kind of a relief, because we were seeing Vita going down and we were wondering what would things be like in the future.
“When we first saw the Switch we were like ‘okay, the hardware is really cool, but we don’t really know how the ecosystem is going to work,’ and then we realized ‘wow, it is selling well!’ The first things that we published on the Switch did really great.”
It’s great to hear that the niche games on Switch put out by PQube—which include the superlative Steins;Gate Elite, the new adaptation of the classic visual novel that melds the original game with its own anime adaptation to great effect—have been doing well. As someone who does enjoy visual novels, I am glad that there is a portable home for them going forward, too.