Featured Post

PSP2, Switch 2 and an Xbox handheld... a brighter portable future?

Small battles the Vita is losing that could cost it big

Hmmm, in the last week I've noticed a bunch of multi-format games all missing a little bit of Vita love in their roster. The Olympic Games? Not on any handheld. The film tie-in with Dreamwork's Rise of the Guardians from Namco Bandai? Everything but Vita. The next Ben 10 game? Most of them hit the PSP, but that and Vita are missing from a very wide range of formats.

All of these games would have hit every format imaginable in generations gone by. The Vita certainly has no right to host any of them, but at least one should be heading its way, based on the law of averages. And, in some cases the Vita is getting its share, I wouldn't consider Sonic All-Star Racing as a AAA release but that, at least, is coming.

Even so, the general release games that fill the shelves for a format over the years, that fight in the trenches for every sale, to help small to mid-level publishers survive, seem to be missing from the Vita's roster. Perhaps that will improve in 2013 as sales increase to support the investment (Vita hasn't sold that many units, yet) but it needs to garner some support quickly to help fill out the slack roster.

Sure, there are the smaller PSN titles, but for younger gamers who exist beyond blogs and games websites, the next Ben 10 or movie game is a big deal, and if the Vita doesn't have them, it could lose customers quickly.

Currently playing on my Vita/PS4/PS5