New IP From SEGA Taking Full Advantage Of The PlayStation Vita? Yes Please.

To be fair to SEGA though, they've been about the only publisher consistently pushing new franchises throughout the entirety of this generation. We've seen Madworld, Vanquish and Bayonetta from the publisher over the past few years, and now SEGA's got something new lined up for Sony's latest handheld, the PlayStation Vita.

In fact, SEGA's so keen on the project that it's opened up a brand new studio to work on the game. The team is so new that it doesn't even have a name yet. SEGA's staying pretty tight-lipped about the title, but has confirmed that it's not a racing game.

"I'll tell you the story," SEGA's European development gaffer, Gary Dunn, told Eurogamer. "Sega Racing studio we closed three years ago. What people probably don't know is we retained half a dozen of the brightest minds and set up the Sega Technology Group. We used them across the Sega Corporation in America, Japan and Europe as a product support group - going in at the end of games and making sure everything was working as best it could.

"As people got familiar with PS3 and Xbox 360 their need for support was diminished, but then we started to see opportunities open up on other platforms. We changed their focus to start looking at prototypes: doing innovative concepts on new platforms which really stretched the new technology. Get the first kits from the hardware manufacturers and say, 'Go and play with it, see what it does, and from that give us a pitch.' That's what they've been doing for the last year or so. They've worked on 3DS, Vita and Wii U. They had all that kit through very early doors.

"One of the concepts - that I can't announce in the interview - we were so blown away with that it has gone through our green-light process and we wanted to make. And we thought what better place to make it than to set up a studio? We're very keen to start and grow a production facility adjacent to that Sega Technology Group, and that's the studio we're starting up today."

That concept was developed for the PlayStation Vita, for which the game is currently an exclusive. Dunn clarified that the game "really does stretch the technology and facets [of Vita]". That's a very exciting claim, considering the wealth of Vita's input options. It's also properly exciting to see developers tease unique and interesting concepts for Sony's handheld rather than just talk about ports.

SEGA hopes to get the game out within Vita's launch window, but because Sony hasn't put a date on the PlayStation Vita yet, that's a hard target to pin down. Dunn clarified that the game should launch "sometime after Christmas". Presumably we'll be seeing the game in action sooner than that. GamesCom perhaps?

You don't start up entire new studios for bad ideas, so we can't wait to see what SEGA's cooking up.