Indoor Sports dents Super Icon's dev hopes

Indoor Sports World on the Vita wasn't a big hit, as the dev's own post-mortem suggests. I picked it up on the back of Life of Pixel to support them, and the upcoming Vektor Wars which I think will do a lot better. I'd have written a review, but it arrived among several big-name indie ports.

Bad timing and this semi-desperate focus on any big game as a Vita-seller thing threatens any smaller indies and their release, but that's part of the landscape in 2014. Indoor Sports could have been better tested, by their own admission, but also better planned. Call a game Sports World and people expect big things. Perhaps by sticking to its pub roots, throw in some cheeky/glam/funky bar staff and you're not setting new trends, but have a more friendly and expectation-meeting scene.

I won't comment on Sony's approvals process, but hope it will change, if the Vita is going to attract games and developers perhaps a less strict entry route and a few more updates are the way to go. Good luck to Super Icon this year and better luck with Vektor Wars.

Looking wider afield, the Vita became an indie beacon in 2013, but now it has to deliver sales, otherwise indies will move on and look elsewhere. That's down to hardware units shifting and Sony promoting its solid line-up continually. These games need to sell for months and months make money and Sony - as a platform not drowning in titles like iOS and Android - needs a better way to promote quality and variety, not just this week's new game.