Moon Hunters PlayStation Vita port cancelled
Yes, that's right. Moon Hunters on PS Vita has been cancelled. The news come by way of the game's Kickstarter page where the cancellation is explained in more detail. In short, in order to make the game playable on PSVita, the Kitfox games team would have had to lower the quality.
We have examined every possible variant of the next few months/years of our lives, and we have sadly decided that releasing the game on PSVita is not going to be a good effort after all. :(
Why? Well, one factor is the engine we're using, but with all of the advantages Unity offers, I'm loathe to seem like I'm complaining about lack of low-level resource control. And one factor is the platform itself, which is more demanding technically than PS4 or desktop, but I'm loathe to seem like I'm complaining about such a beautiful, well-made piece of hardware.
So, the honest and blunt truth is that the only way we could realistically make it work on Vita is to make the game worse. What this means is that when we looked at how to get it running properly, we had to permanently remove the character portraits, real-time shadows, and loading times were absolutely intolerable. And that was just the beginning -- we still had a long, long way to go. So we felt that, with those sacrifices already made, it was unacceptable to reduce the game's quality further.
The Kitfox team does have something for those that backed the Vita version to make it up to them.
What does this mean for Vita backers? If you would like any other key, we will immediately give you one of that platform. If the only key you ever wanted was a PSVita key, we may even be able to find 2 keys for you, to make sure you can play with a friend, which helps take out more of the sting.
Can I get a refund? We deeply appreciate your patience and we know we have broken your trust. If you wish, we will be able to refund the $15 CAD of the game key value itself -- as we delivered on all of the other rewards, we will not refund anything remaining from your pledge. However, the CAD has fallen in worth compared to the USD, so those of you internationally may find that taking the platform key and reselling it (alas) could be more profitable.
As much as this hurts Vita owners, it isn't all that shocking. The promise to come to Vita then see it go unfulfilled has happened far more times than any of us want to admit. Still, this is a loss for Vita owners and another reminder that for a lot of developers the PS Vita is not the priority platform, which is a shame considering the strength of the system, especially for a handheld.
