PlayStation Vita’s Rear Touch Pad Was Almost Scrapped From Handheld [Sony Executive Shuhei Yoshida Reveals That They Almost Cut The Touchpad Over Cost Concerns]

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One of the more unique features of the PlayStation Vita is its rear touch panel. That’s something unique that we haven’t seen elsewhere on gaming handhelds or any sort of mobile device yet. However, it almost was cut from the handheld. That’s according to Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide President Shuhei Yoshida, talking to Japanese gaming outlet Famitsu.

Yoshida told the magazine that they almost cut the rear touch panel due to cost concerns. Sony’s hardware designers were concerned over the extra costs it would add, and they questioned if it would be any fun to use. However, after trying it, they knew that it need to stay, according to Yoshida.

He went on to say in the interview that they tried to help the development process by creating a development environment that would allow developers to skip the step of building a game engine for the game, and instead get more quickly to the process of building their game.  Your guess is as good as mine as to if this will be a hit with developers, or if it will just affect their workflow.

Yoshida closed the interview by confirming that the PlayStation Vita shown at E3 was not the final hardware and something could change before it finally comes out. He added that the button layout would not probably change, and that they worked with developers in deciding where the buttons should be placed.

Do you think the rear touchpad will be cool? Or just a gimmick? Are you planning to pick up the PlayStation Vita handheld, or are you skipping this one? Tell us all about it in the comments section.

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