Thanks to Sony's revamped PS Plus offerings, we'll get access to original PlayStation, PS2, PSP, and PS4 games – along with PS3 games via cloud streaming. Notice something missing? Sony has not included any PS Vita games. The handheld console – which launched in 2011 and was discontinued in 2019 – has not only been sidelined, but is barely even spoken about by the company. It's no wonder that former PlayStation US boss, Jack Tretton, feels like the PS Vita was "orphaned a little bit".“There were certainly technologies that I thought were good but just didn’t have the level of support they needed,” said Tretton in an interview with Axios. "So, you come up with new technology to introduce to the industry and the consumers. But do you have the marketing budget to really drive the message? Do you have the developer support dollars to incent them to develop games to support this initiative? And sometimes you would birth technology and hope that it caught on.”According to Axios' Stephen Totilo, Tretton was not speaking out against Sony and the company's decisions, but was speaking about the lessons he learned over a long career, which he would apply at his new acquisition company.However, it seems Sony did consider some plans for the handheld console before putting it to rest.
Recently, a pitch for a cancelled EyePet game on the PS Vita was leaked online. EyePet was a hybrid AR game that used the PlayStation camera and allowed you to interact with your pet on screen. You could feed it, clean it, and even give it a makeover.
The leaked pitch presentation revealed that the planned Vita version of EyePet would allow owners to take their pet with them, wherever they went. It would have been "the next stage in Augmented Reality technology", and also made use of Simultaneous Location And Mapping (or SLAM) technology. This version would have made use of the Vita's touchscreen and allowed you to play with your EyePet by swiping the screen, draw toys for it – which would come to life – and even speak to it via the in-built mic.