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The Banner Saga Arrives on PS4 January 12th, 2016

The Vita comments on the PS Blog are very typical. Virtually every PS Blog post even tangentially related to the Vita is flooded with handheld enthusiasts demanding to be acknowledged.

Some are polite.
Most are not.

But it does raise the question: why does the PS Blog seem to go so far out of its way to not mention the Vita? Many games coming to PS4 and Vita only get PS4 coverage, and sometimes neglect the handheld version entirely. There was a lot of confusion over Super Star Wars because the PS Blog only plugged the PS4 version.

Fans should absolutely be more civil and acting like furious children isn't constructive. But as a Vita enthusiast myself, I understand how frustrating it is to have the device deliberately ignored by its parent company. After PSX, people were tweeting at indie devs (myself included) to make sure the Vita versions of their games hadn't been cancelled (like Rain World and Ray's the Dead) because Sony only marketed them as PS4 games.

It's really strange. Sony is incredibly selective when even acknowledging the Vita and usually doesn't at all.

But if the PS Blog (and NeoGAF) is any indication, Vita has many, many, many loyal and passionate fans who buy almost everything that hits the console. We are begging to be sold to, why not sell to us? We are still a ten million player install base. It's not like we aren't profitable for small projects like this.

Banner Saga (along with Bastion and Grim Fandango) are what put me over the edge to finally buy my Vita last year. I've been a faithful ever since, and I only JUST got Bastion and am will waiting for Banner Saga.

But I am used to waiting.
 
Vita news

tl;dr

Same as every other Vita port ever. May happen in the future, but probably not. Expect it to never be mentioned again

Many of you have been asking for status updates on the Playstation Vita port of the Banner Saga. Now that we've completed porting and the certification process for Playstation 4, I thought I'd take a moment to bring my head above water and provide some information.

Our console and Vita porting has been more expensive and time consuming than we had originally expected. We started the porting process only a few months after the initial launch of Banner Saga on PC. In fact, we started console port development work at the same time we started iOS and Android development. I performed the initial proof-of-concept porting myself, to determine what our technological approach should be. Once this was complete, I hired 3 different porting companies to do a 1 week prototype for a fixed price. Of the 3, one of the companies exceed the others in performance by a wide margin. As a result, I decided to hire them to work on the PS4, Xbox One, and Linux ports, and they got underway. Their deadline for completion was November 2014.

The porting company made good progress at first, but suffered some internal personnel turnover which slowed the project. The first deadline was missed, but progress steadily continued. We were able to show a hand-on playable demo of the Banner Saga running on PS4 at the Playstation Experience in Las Vegas, December 2014.

In January, the porting company hired additional programmers and took on the contract for performing the Playstation Vita port. The deadline for completion was July 2015. Over the subsequent months, the porting company suffered more personnel turnover, and the project limped along. Finally, in May 2015, the company folded, went out of business, and failed to complete the project. All of the expenses sunk into that project were lost, with no realistic way for us to recover them.

Over the next few months, we scrambled to find another porting company that was able to pick up the porting where it was left off. Fortunately, we found a great company who has been able to exceed our expectations in every way. They started work in August, and now, 4 months later, we have the Playstation 4 and Xbox One ports completed and ready to launch.

The side effect of this is that we have had to put the Playstation Vita port on the back burner. I have been excited about the Vita port since day one, and I would love to see the Banner Saga running on my own Vita. The realities, however, of a very small team and a limited budget, put an immutable check on the speed of our progress. Stoic is composed of only 4 full time internal team members, all of which are currently working 100% on Banner Saga 2. Our initial budget for porting to Vita has been burned by essentially having to pay twice for the console ports. Once we can recover the substantial costs of initial console porting, we can consider our strategy to move forward with Vita.

One of the most positive results of all this, is that since the Banner Saga 2 shares the same engine with Banner Saga (albeit an upgraded, enhanced, and more featureful version of the engine), all of the porting work so far is directly applicable to our next game. This means that porting should be much, much faster than initially.

Thank you very for your patience and support!
 

kevin1025

Banned
Vita news

tl;dr

Same as every other Vita port ever. May happen in the future, but probably not. Expect it to never be mentioned again

Unless I'm reading this wrong, is this news basically saying that the new port company spent four months making The Banner Saga on consoles? Or did they pick up the pieces? It's reading as the former for me. That's not a negative, just given how it went beforehand, that's fast!

I wonder if this means The Banner Saga 2 will be a shorter timeframe as well for console turnaround.
 

canedaddy

Member
I appreciate their explanation of the Vita issue, but I hope they still come through.

Hell, maybe Sony could help fund the port since they had Gio announce the Vita version with much fanfare at PSX last year. It would be a nice bone to throw to a downtrodden but still loyal segment of customers.

I'm not buying it if they don't. I love tactical RPGs but only on handheld.
 
https://twitter.com/bannersaga/status/677191159119237120

Lots of people are quick to say Banner Saga on Vita has been cancelled, but this is not necessarily the case. They don't want to cancel the Vita version, but they also need to make sure it's worth their investment.

I suggested that they bundle Banner Saga 1 and Banner Saga 2 together as a Vita Collection. They said they are already considering that because it would justify the cost of the port and better recoup the money they have lost. So, if you're supportive and make them confident in the sale, we may get both games.

I highly recommend voting and being vocal in this Twitter thread. Vita games basically come to be out of the pure force of will from the community. If we want this game, we have to support it.

EDIT: Gio Corsi is involved now. https://twitter.com/giocorsi/status/677224444847370246
 

Kalamoj

Member
https://twitter.com/bannersaga/status/677191159119237120

Lots of people are quick to say Banner Saga on Vita has been cancelled, but this is not necessarily the case. They don't want to cancel the Vita version, but they also need to make sure it's worth their investment.

I suggested that they bundle Banner Saga 1 and Banner Saga 2 together as a Vita Collection. They said they are already considering that because it would justify the cost of the port and better recoup the money they have lost. So, if you're supportive and make them confident in the sale, we may get both games.

I highly recommend voting and being vocal in this Twitter thread. Vita games basically come to be out of the pure force of will from the community. If we want this game, we have to support it.
I wonder what kind of people voted 'no'.
I was very pleased when I saw the Limited Run tweets.
Will double dip if they make it happen.
 

Ricker

Member
Tried to enjoy this on PC but never really got into to it...it will be intersting to see how they made it work with a gamepad...it will probably be another game where you have to squint to make out the text and UI as well.
 

canedaddy

Member
It's a shame we have to beg for it on Vita now...

GioBanner_zpsyolrcvtq.jpg


I really hope Sony and Stoic make good on this.
 
Massively disappointed. Thought it was too good to be true for a TRPG like that to be released for Vita, it was just too perfect. :(
 
Played and loved this game last Christmas. It's an amazing game, it made me agonize over decisions more than any telltale game did. One of my favourite games of the gen so far
 
https://twitter.com/bannersaga/status/677191159119237120

Lots of people are quick to say Banner Saga on Vita has been cancelled, but this is not necessarily the case. They don't want to cancel the Vita version, but they also need to make sure it's worth their investment.

I suggested that they bundle Banner Saga 1 and Banner Saga 2 together as a Vita Collection. They said they are already considering that because it would justify the cost of the port and better recoup the money they have lost. So, if you're supportive and make them confident in the sale, we may get both games.

I highly recommend voting and being vocal in this Twitter thread. Vita games basically come to be out of the pure force of will from the community. If we want this game, we have to support it.

EDIT: Gio Corsi is involved now. https://twitter.com/giocorsi/status/677224444847370246

I'm getting tired of begging for games to come out on it. They don't think it's worth it? Don't care, there's plenty of other games I could play.
 

LiquidMetal14

hide your water-based mammals
Gio posted that this is still coming so I'm definitely back on the hype train for the Vita version.

Well, a newer tweet than the one already posted.
 
I had no idea it was out so soon! It's such an incredible game, I've really been looking forward to replaying it on PS4.

Also, trophies! Complete the game without getting low morale. Oh, dear.
 
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