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By Steve Baltimore / June 26th, 2014

Hello, and welcome to this installment of Vita Corner. This week, I would like to discuss the interview Polygon did with Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios President Shuhei Yoshida, in which he stated the Vita would receive less first-party support from Sony. Now, this has led some people to say, “Oh, the Vita is dead. Sony has abandoned it.” Neither of these is true.

First of all, the third parties and indies are filling out the Vita’s library very nicely, with such titles upcoming as Tales of Hearts R, Minecraft, Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus, Murasuki Baby, and many more. We could be here all day naming off titles that are going to the system, and a lot of these titles look pretty damn good, if I do say so myself. So the fact that Sony isn’t doing first-party games for the console doesn’t mean it has less support, nor is there nothing but crappy games going to the console.

Now, let’s talk about the other big issue people seem to be having: the lack of AAA titles on the Vita. Sorry, folks, I don’t get this one, either. Just because they spend more money to make something doesn’t mean it is better. Anyone else remember Too Human or Aliens: Colonial Marines, two AAA titles that were horrible? What people should be complaining about is the lack of diversity on the Vita. Right now, it is a great machine for indies and JRPGs, but past that, the library is lacking. So maybe that is what they are getting at by complaining about the lack of AAA titles. Make your argument clear before you take to the Net to complain, because if you’re not making it clear what you want, you’re probably not going to get it.

I wanna touch on the whole Final Fantasy Type-0 debacle very quickly. If you blame Sony for this title not being on Vita, you’re blaming the wrong person. It was all Square Enix on this one. In fact, Shahid Ahmed, PlayStation Strategic Content Speaker, says they would very much like it on the Vita. I think Square is being pretty ridiculous with this whole deal. Upscaling a PSP game to current-gen consoles and charging full price for it? Yeah, that seems legit.

In case you missed it, Sony still wants Type-0 on PSVita. pic.twitter.com/t8WOh9PgM3 — Operation Suzaku (@OperationSuzaku) June 20, 2014

I’m not saying Sony is handling the Vita perfectly by any means. But saying the console is dead is not getting anything constructive done, either. Sony did not make nearly enough Borderlands 2 bundles for the new Vita 2000 console launch. I know firsthand, having had to get a replacement console last month, how difficult it is to find one. I couldn’t find a new console within 100 miles of where I lived at any GameStop or Walmart store. The Vita hardware numbers were better on the NDP last month. If they had made enough bundles it would have done much better and likely charted. Furthermore, the memory card prices are still outrageous, and this needs to be corrected as quickly as possible. Though I don’t think their doing less first-party will kill the console, I doubt it will do it any favors, either. I mean, they aren’t Nintendo; their consoles do not solely depend on first-party support to survive.

The release of the PlayStation TV in the U.S. will allow more to get their hands on Vita hardware, even if it is in limited capacity, bringing hardware into more people’s homes and extending the user base. PlayStation Now is coming soon and will let you stream PS2 and PS3 games to the Vita console, making it more versatile than ever before. I don’t see the third-party and indie support slowing down anytime soon as long as current console owners continue to buy games for the hardware. And why shouldn’t they? There are some fantastic titles being made for it.

That’s all I got this time. Leave me a comment below and let me know how you feel on these issues or any other issue you feel the Vita has. Until next time, happy gaming.

About Steve Baltimore Steve started with oprainfall not long after the campaign moved from the IGN forums to Facebook. Ever since, he has been fighting to give all non-mainstream RPGs a fair voice. As the site admin, he will continue to do this and even show there is value in what some would deem "pure ecchi." He loves niche games and anime more than anything... well, except maybe Neptune.

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