Why are some Sony fans so opposed to 3DS development?

[Salnax]

As a PlayStation fan myself, I have no problem with Sony going third party. I've considered owning a Vita, but the prospect of Sony games on more interesting and innovative hardware is really appealing and exciting to me. On top of that, I would finally get the chance to try out some games that aren't available on Nintendo handhelds without the huge cost of buying a new console to do so. It seems like consumers would benefit from Sony as a third party publisher.

In terms of Sony as a company, they would definitely benefit from access to the far larger userbase the 3DS can offer. If Tearaway,  one of the biggest Vita games of the year, can't even make a mark on the sales charts, it shows that Sony isn't reaching a wide enough audience to maximise revenue at the moment. In the long term, the value of their IP's, new and old will diminish as well. The concept of Sony's various handheld series being even less relevant may be laughable now, but if sales remain poor over the long term, it could eventually be reality.

The business would also be able to rid itself of the costs and risk associated with console production. The string of operating losses experienced by Sony are largely due to the performance of the Vita, and removing this cost would definitely be beneficial and viewed favourably upon by shareholders. Being a handheld maker makes little sense when third parties aren't developing and selling units on your system, as the platform royalty income can't compensate the cost of production.

Sony would also benefit from business relationships with Nintendo. If Nintendo is willing to pay for Monster Hunter 4 as an exclusive, imagine what they'd pay for Killzone exclusitivity. Nintendo may be willing to forego platform royalty to bring Sony software to their platform.

The main argument against going third party I constantly hear is "look at what happened to Sega." This is completely incomparable to the situation Sony finds itself in. When Sega went third party they were in financial ruin and had to completely restructure their entire workforce and lay off a lot of employees. The quality of their releases declined as a result of this. If Sony were to go third party, their development teams wouldn't have to undergo such a massive turnover. They are in a financial position where first party studios can carry on work as usual without letting anyone go.

The other thing I have heard before is that Sony is able to create such masterpieces because they have such impressive hardware to work with compared to Nintendo handhelds. This is just patently false. Some of the best selling Vita games, like LittleBigPlanet and Hot Shots Golf, are perfectly capable of running on less powerful hardware, such as the 3DS.

So why are we so scared of Sony going third party?