The PlayStation Vita port of the Viking-themed tactical role-playing game The Banner Saga has been canceled, according to a post from the developers on the game's official website.
The announcement of the cancellation comes after over two years of work by Stoic, Versus Evil, and Sony working together to make the game playable on Sony's handheld console. Rather than go into extended detail about past history, the developers pointed toward a late 2015 forum post that detailed their early problems with a third-party porting company attempting to bring the game to the PlayStation Vita. Following some turnover at their initial choice, a subsequent company was able to complete the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions of the game - but the Vita version still proved troublesome. As a result of increasing costs and having spent more time than anticipated on the project, the Vita port was put on the back burner.
Sony eventually stepped in to team up with Stoic, Versus Evil, and Code Mystics to attempt to make the port a reality. Unfortunately, the particular quirks of The Banner Saga engine made this a difficult prospect. The game needed to be in a playable state in order to be properly tested, and after getting up to speed a number of problems surfaced that weren't up to par with the quality expectations of the developer. Moreover, the PlayStation Vita version lacked the enhancements and polish that versions on other systems had received at that time.
In the end, it was decided that porting The Banner Saga to the PlayStation Vita would take a lot of work, funding, and time to get the port up to par. After over two years of serious effort from multiple teams, all parties involved decided that it was best to cancel the project, and there will be no Banner Saga Vita release.
What do you think of the PlayStation Vita port of The Banner Saga being canceled? Were you looking forward to playing the game on this particular handheld? Do you think the team should have worked to make sure that the Banner Saga Vita release happened? What other platforms would you like to see the game made available on? Let us know in the comments below!
