Shuhei Yoshida is the president of Sony's worldwide PlayStation software development and oversees all Sony's game studios, from Japan to the US. He has worked at Sony for over 25 years and was a lead executive on the original PlayStation project. I travelled to Tokyo to meet him at his office to find out the processes and challenges of developing games that appear on the PlayStation 3 console and the portable PS Vita system.

What is the process for developing a game that is to be released on PlayStation 3 and PS Vita? Are they separate teams?

We do not have a set process. Some of the games we start as a PS3 title and add in a Vita [version] during development. Some other projects are started as Vita titles and a PS3 [version] is added later. For newer titles, we start both from the beginning. It's different for every title.

The performance is quite similar [for PS3 and Vita] unless you're making something like Uncharted or The Last Of Us, which take every bit of [hardware] performance available. The Vita's smaller screen size allows developers to economize on textures and the level of detail so that it can be played on the Vita. Plus sharing the core gaming engine makes it really easy for developers to enable cross-platform play.

What's the development time like for the average Vita game? How does it compare to developing for the PlayStation?

It's about the same time. Moving one title from PS3 to Vita, depending on the title, takes a couple of months. The additional cost and time involved in having two [versions] is not really that significant because of the similarity of the systems.

Are they different teams that work on each version of the same game?

The idea is that the same developer works on both [versions]. They have the perfect control. But when the developer of, say, the PS3 version does not have any more resources available to do the Vita version, we help find the team that are more specialized in making games for the Vita.

For PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, it's SuperBot Entertainment that's making the PS3 version and Bluepoint Games is doing the Vita version. Because it's a fighting game, and because control and responsiveness is crucial—especially when you want cross-platform play—[both teams] work very closely together.

What made you decide to start making games that worked across both the Vita and PS3?

A lot of the ideas came from the developers but we were not sure how people would react. In the past we had this unwritten rule that games had to be made for one platform, but now people are embracing the idea of having the same game across different devices.

So you believe gamers now expect a game they buy to be available on both PS3 and Vita?

Yes. More and more people expect and like that functionality. Going forward we should be more aggressive about looking at titles for which this makes sense, such as those with multiplayer functions or user-generated content functions like LittleBigPlanet.

Is 3D something you would be interested in doing with glasses on the Vita?

When it comes to the screen technology, the OLED screen is really brilliant at avoiding interference—we tried our [stereoscopic 3D] PS3 games on the Sony OLED TV in the past and it looked beautiful. So it's interesting. We haven't really tried it on the Vita, but never say never.

What Vita games are you most looking forward to releasing?

LittleBigPlanet. I started downloading what users were creating for it and it's already very interesting. There's something about the 2D action platformer works really well with portable. But also PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, especially the online play so I can play with other people over the internet. After that, Soul Sacrifice.

Any games from other developers you're looking forward to playing?

Borderlands 2. I haven't got my copy so I'm considering buying it from the US. I was a big fan of Borderlands, the first game, and what I've read is that everything about that game has improved so I'm super excited about it.

Thank you, Yoshida-san!