Making a bunch of PS4 games will just ensure continued irrelevance for SCE in Japan as it's clear that market doesn't want home consoles. Puppeteer, and Knack are going to crater.
PS4 will most likely outsell Vita in Japan. I recently did some research and there's still at least 20-25+ million home console owners in Japan this generation, just like every other generation before it. Home console market in Japan has gotten a bit smaller, but not as much as some folks would like to believe. Maybe this upcoming generation will be different and WiiU+PS4+720 will sell less than 5 million combined, but I doubt it. WiiU has a lot of problems and reasons why it's not selling, being a home console is probably at the bottom of that list. And Puppeteer and Knack > Locorocco and WKC portables in terms of production value by a good green country mile.
you put Santa Monica guy as head of SCE Japan Studio and you get this problem,Allan Becker think it's NA market and his focus on making consoles games and ignoring Vita is weird.
Becker is actually getting good quality games announced and out of the door by Sony Japan. If you noticed, Team ICO got shuffled and Ueda went from employee to contractor after Becker got there. He's straightening things out, but that takes time. What great games did SCEJ develop for PSP before Becker got there? Nothing at all. SS should have been a PSP game, SS for PSV would have been more successful if the IP had been established at the peak of the PSP's life, when MH was exclusive to it.
Soul Sacrifice, Gravity Rush and Hot Shots Golf aren't exactly ignoring the Vita.
Furthermore, iirc the puppeteer was in development before Allan Becker moved over to Japan. I wouldn't be surprised if more SCEJ Vita games were announced in the future as well.
Knack is an interesting one, because it appears to be a Japanese take on the PS2 western platformers. We haven't seen enough gameplay yet, but if it brings enough new ideas to the table and keeps an international appeal it could take-off. That is a big IFF though.
Agreed, even though SS and HSG were developed externally and not by SCEJ.
Looking at Knack's style and design, I feel like it's definitely being catered to the Japanese audience.