Assuming they weren't paid in advance for a finished product by SCE, which is generally not how any developer works (I'm sure it would be really nice), or received payment in exchange for exclusivity, about the only contracts they could be bound to would be any contract preventing them from releasing a product on another platform. If the rights to a game were bought by another publisher, then it would be their job to settle any release disputes rather than the developer.

I hope everything goes ok for the vita...

....AND smartphone gaming.

And they decided to publish it in launch week of PSV in west? ;)

Meh, Vita will do just fine once its feet hit the ground.

I can see some games moving over to the 3DS (especially Capcom and Square-Enix), but ALL of them? Unless Vita absolutely fails in the west (which isn't impossible), I don't see it happening.

Then again, these are Japanese companies, so maybe a lack of interest compared to the 3DS is enough to scare them away from Vita...

Sony really caught between a rock and a hard place. If they don't cut I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of devs moved onto 3DS, yet if they do, it's yet more losses.

Nikkei can be wrong sometimes...

...I don't think this is one of them. And I honestly don't know what Sony can do to turn things around.

The problem is that the PS3 and the PSP were both saved by different degrees of third party problems with Nintendo. If third party development had really shifted away from HD and to Wii, PS3 would never have recovered. If DS had been strong enough for them to easily port PS2 Monster Hunter engines, the Japanese PSP revival that saved the platform would never have occurred.

Something of Monster Hunter level, new and unlooked for, is needed for Vita, that or a fundamental rethink of Sony's first-party publishing strategy

PSVita will certainly grow out of the launch doldrums, but can it ever really grow to PSP levels?

I need to find an additional source of revenue if this turns out to be true.