These PS Vita Games Had Sequels Coming But Sony Shifted To PS4, Former Exec Says

Two beloved PlayStation Vita games were originally getting sequels before Sony decided to put its focus on PS4 in the mid-2010s, according to Shuhei Yoshida. The former Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios president recently opened up about plans for Soul Sacrifice 2 and Freedom Wars 2.

VGC reports that Yoshida appeared on Sacred Symbols+ and discussed how sequels were in the works for both Vita exclusives at one point. "We were actually working on Soul Sacrifice 2 and Freedom Wars 2, but because of budget limitation we had to stop and move on to PS4," Yoshida said on the podcast.

Soul Sacrifice launched in 2013 for PS Vita and came from a concept created by former Mega Man designer Keiji Inafune. Meanwhile, Freedom Wars arrived the following year in 2014 for the handheld. Both Vita exclusives featured Monster Hunter-like similarities, which is notable because Capcom's popular franchise skipped the Sony handheld after being a juggernaut on PlayStation Portable. Nintendo was able to secure Monster Hunter 4 as an exclusive for 3DS.

The online servers for Soul Sacrifice and Freedom Wars were shut down in 2021. However, Freedom Wars Remastered launched earlier this year, providing a new way to play the game on PC, PS4, PS5, and Nintendo Switch.

As for Yoshida, he's been showing up on other podcasts recently, too. For instance, Yoshida stated that certain $80 games could be a steal because of the hours of entertainment they provide.