Limbo on PS Vita Not Getting Touch Controls

Playdead CEO Dino Patti confirmed that Limbo on PS Vita will be a straight port and will not have touchscreen controls.  The Danish developer indicates that they didn’t think that the Vita’s front and rear touch controls suited the game.

“[The Vita port] cost us more than the other ports because we put a lot of effort into it,” Patti said according to Eurogamer. “When we ported to PC we put a lot of effort into making the keyboard work. It wasn’t straight. It took months and months of testing and trying out. We did a lot of QA around keyboard controls. It’s the same with the Vita. It needs to be perfect for that screen. There are some things that are different for when the screen is smaller we do to make it work better.”

“We’re not using any touch. We didn’t feel it would suit Limbo at all. It would feel like a patch if we did it. And we really like the original experience. The Vita allows you to have the original experience,” he added. “It would require a lot from us to rethink the game. We would probably make another game if we were going to do that. Vita was a no-brainer because we could keep the same experience. It has all of these great features, but we didn’t have to use them.”

Patti indicated that this version of the game is about reaching all new consumers since it doesn’t add anything new. “This is not primarily for people who have played it before because they won’t get anything new,” Patti said. “I tend to buy the IPs I love in several places. But this is primarily for a new market. We don’t expect people to buy it again. We don’t mind people doing it either!

“Sometimes I have a game I haven’t completed, and it comes on a new platform, and I think I might complete it on that platform. I maybe play it even longer, perhaps to the end. I did that with SpaceChem. I bought it on Steam. But I felt it was perfect for being on a bus, so I ditched those save games and bought it on the iPad.”