There’s a huge buzz amongst the PS Vita community right now surrounding the impending release of Jet Set Knights. Not only is this the first commercial game release for the console since 2021, but what is now almost certainly the final physical game release for the console on an official Sony produced cartridge. But amongst all the excitement, there are questions surrounding the release…
A Strange Coincidence…
It was just four days ago when Eastasiasoft first announced that they had “discovered” the game while sorting their warehouse. At first, this may have seemed like an amazing find, but let’s stop and think for a moment. With over 1,000 copies being made available for sale this week this equates to stock with a retail value of approximately £30,000. Shipping in their presentation boxes complete with certificates and CDs, these are not small games either. These are likely to take up a huge amount of space, even just for a single title. Is it really likely that a company would “misplace” so much stock of such a high value?
All Set For Sale
Just 48 hours later, Jet Set Knights was confirmed. Not only was it confirmed, but a release trailer was produced, ready to view on YouTube, a page was up on Eastasiasoft’s website and everything was prepared ready for a retail launch on 8th June though Playasia. Even with products that have been physically with them for two years, it’s been an incredibly quick process to get them ready for sale so rapidly after only just finding them.
Silence From Ratalaika
As this was ported to the PS Vita by the Spanish publisher, you would have thought that they would have mentioned it at least once on their social media accounts but there’s been nothing at all. They do talk about the Vita occasionally still, especially when there are sales on the PlayStation Store when games featuring Cross Buy support are affected so it’s strange to see one of their releases not mentioned. Perhaps they believed that this had been released already?
Beating The Competition
Vita owners have been watching the situation regarding physical releases for some time. It’s no secret that Limited Run Games held back the release of Super Meat Boy for a significant period of time so it was one of the final batch of Vita releases. And the controversy surrounding Nicalis and their three physical games – VVVVVV, 1001 Spikes and Binding Of Isaac – has become a thing of legend. Nicalis have been insistent for years that the only copies of all three titles are the handful of pre-production copies made for Sony, all of which are now fetching four-figure sums on the re-sale market.
If that really is the case then the question has to be asked whether or not Eastasiasoft held back on Jet Set Knights so they could finally claim the honour of releasing the last ever PS Vita game. Also, with this release, will this prompt more hidden gems to be revealed by others thinking that they may finally be able to steal that accolade? If Nicalis are sitting on those stockpiles, we may just yet get to see them…
Facebook Comments