It will be limited? Wow, what a surprise! Games made for Vita won't automatically work on PS3 and vice versa, so developers needs to build their games for both platforms. Some games will be easy to make for both consoles while others will be a huge pain in the butt. It might be worth it for Sony to spend extra time making two versions but 3rd parties might not be as enthusiastic about it. Developers being awsome and giving each version unique and exclusive features (like Sonic Colours) might not want to give one of those versions away for free.

It's a nice idea but expecting huge support for it is extremely naive.

I think he has a point, though -- calling one of those moves desperate but not the other seems pretty heavily biased. Personally I don't think either is "desperate." Both moves are what the consoles need. 3DS couldn't sell at $250, so they dropped the price. It's already selling for a profit again. Most PS3 owners don't see the appeal of the Vita just yet, so Sony offers an excellent incentive to buy one. Both are just good business sense.

Is it something they've been planning to do for awhile? I have no idea. Is it something reactionary and last minute? I have no idea. They haven't allowed me to sit in on any high level meetings. It would be pretty silly of me to pretend I know either way.

However, the possibilities for this were kind of hinted at during last year's E3 by the team that was working on Ruin. I got the impression then that it was something on the table for consideration.

The idea that cross-buy would lose Sony money is flawed, however. 1) few people are going to buy two copies of the same game. 2) on the other hand, this offers a nice incentive for PS3 owners to consider a Vita. 3) increasing Vita sales will increase software sales across the board, obviously. 4) It's pretty easy to see why cross-buy has the potential to be a net gain.

It would boost memory card sales(higher capacity cards), and would draw PS3 only owners to purchase a vita, because sony is giving ps3 owners an option to play some of their favorite ps3 games on the vita anywhere they want..

but I do agree it is reactionary

Don't flatter yourself, my issue isn't your opinion of mobile gaming as a whole or just the threads you create, it's the constant, consistent, railing of Sony that you can and will take at every oppurtunity. It's nice of you to provide a summary of your viewpoint that doesn't reek of anti-sony bias now that I've called you out on it, as have others recently:

BenVTrigger said: Get a grip? 

Give me a break man I buy and play more 360 than games than you do and I only use my PS3 for exclusive stuff.  I vastly prefer MS as a whole over Sony and thats my point.  If your constant digs at anything Sony puts out is even annoying to someone at me at this point then its clear your overdoing it.

My god I'm a MASSIVE 360 supporter and even I get sick of your constant anti Sony everything.......

But you're not fooling anyone that's been on this site for any length of time. We all know we're you're coming from. 

It has to be limited by default. I can see Sony doing this because they need... something. But to expect third parties to do this is highly unlikely in my opinion (unless Sony is willing to pay for development and dedicate one of their studios to a 3rd party IP, which I'm sure they'll do at this point because they need... something. Anything).

It definitely seems interesting and would silence all those people who are saying that the PS3 and Vita combo are the same as the Wii U.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 will sell 11MM units worldwide on the Vita, and there are only 2.7MM units of Vita hardware sold worldwide.

We've just entered... the Twilight Zone.

I disagree. From the start SONY has backed cross-platform games and they know that people aren't going to buy the same game twice just so they can play it on the go. They're not giving away a free game, they're unlocking a feature and making the Vita more appealing to people who are interested in cross-platform play. I think you have to buy the digital version and the only games that support it are 1st party anyway, so this could work quite well for SONY.

wow now THIS I have got to see...can you remember the last positive thing you said about sony and where? I would love to see it

admit it kowen, Sal called your bs out and he is right on the money.

Anywho on topic:

Listen guys, the man is right. This is honest PR right here. Would you have rather have them say something stupid like it's magical or something? Development for vita is real easy but not for ps3. This isn't shocking news. I do think that this is a huge hint about the next PS home console. When I read the statement the first thing I thought of was, to build an enviornment to overcome the current hurdles is to make the PS4 as dev friendly as possible just like the vita. This will build an enviornment that will highly encourage crossbuy for 3rd parties.

And to clarify as kyliedog already mentioned, they have been doing it with DLC already....and we already have examples of 3rd party devs bringing cross buy with games like Retro City Rampage, even before gamescom. And I don't think anyone know this outside of the official vita thread but EA is actually considering doing crossbuy for NFS MW! This is just the start, others do not need to line up for this right away. But with time the support will increase.

oh and just to show how easy it is to port games to vita, outside of many reports of the process taking mere weeks, there was one dev (I wish I could remember which game it was for, but it was a downloadable title) who said he did the porting process to vita on his own, cuz it's so easy.