Sega to have two launch titles at Vita launch

Sega West CEO Mike Hayes has told VG247 the company will have two games ready for Vita’s launch.

One title that has been confirmed for the launch from Sega is Virtua Tennis 4, as announced at E3, whie the other is an unknown. But Hayes said it will give its full backing to the system.

“On Vita, we can came out pretty early on and said we were going to give support to the hardware,” Hayes told us in a phone interview yesterday.

“And we will have at least two titles at the launch of Vita. When exactly that’s going to be of course, we don’t know, but we’re assuming it’s going to be by the end of the Sony financial year, we guess, so we’ve got that.”

Sony has confirmed it’ll launch Vita in Japan by the end of this year, with a launch in the US and Europe by early 2012.

PS Vita is 'technically brilliant,' says SEGA West boss

SEGA West overlord Mike Hayes has heaped praise on PlayStation Vita, labelling Sony’s shiny new pocket brick as ‘technically brilliant.’

Chatting with IndustryGamers, Hayes made it clear that the company is fully behind the tech-heavy handheld, making note of Sony’s desire to target hardcore gamers with the device.

"We had Virtua Tennis World Tour on PSP when it first came out. It was one of the biggest 3rd party sellers - obviously bigger in Europe than it will be in the States, but we've managed to use a lot of the functionality of Vita. And we've made it very clear we're going to support Sony with that title," said Hayes.

"It's interesting on Vita - technically it's brilliant, it's beautiful, and it's really great to play. And Sony has made it very clear they want to target core gamers primarily. So we take that on board with the titles that we're going to bring out."

Hayes added that he thinks one of Vita’s main attractions will be its diverse range of software prices, noting the scales won’t just be tipped in favour of high-end releases.

"The nice thing about the Vita, I think, is ultimately going to be the range of software pricing types that you can put on it so it's not just the high end game at the high end price,” he offered.

"You can do the mid-point, more like your XBLA or PSN titles and of course maybe even a small bite size of more app type software. For me, the strength of that device is the whole spectrum of software, that will either sell as physical or as digital. That, I think, is a big point of difference for us as a developer."

Sega's Mystery PS Vita Game Re-appears

A little while back, Sega promised to bring an "extremely innovative and purpose built new IP" to the PlayStation Vita. Other than mentioning it was exclusively built for the PS Vita, there wasn't much more announced.

But now a job listing for a Tools Programmer over at MCV unveils a genre and release window for the game:

...SEGA’s third UK based studio...is focused exclusively on creating high quality, innovative game experiences for both current and future platforms. Their first project, due for late 2012, will be a unique action adventure developed exclusively for the brand new Sony PSVita platform.

Sega has certainly been willing to take risks on new Intellectual Properties on innovative new platforms. Heck, look at MadWorld on Wii. It featured some of the most unique thug-crushing mechanics the system has ever seen. And it sold terribly. Let's hope things pan out a bit better this time around.

Sega opens new UK dev, first project is for Vita

SEGA has opened a new studio in the UK and it will work on projects for the new hardware that is yet to come. There first game will be an action-adventure and will be made for Sony's PlayStation Vita.

The new studio is still without a name, but it is SEGA's third developer in the UK. For the moment the team consist of 15 people, however this can still grow if SEGA decides to bring there game to multiple consoles. No info around the title yet, but the game is slated for a late 2012 release.