Every Vita game I own is physical (and I currently own 13). I just don't like digital at all, and to me, buying a game is not only about playing the game itself, but also about the feeling of owning it. May sound wierd, but that's just the way I feel. It's also the reason why I would never pay for something like PS+, and why PC gaming has lost it's value to me.

That said, it is absolutely understandable that people go digital on Vita. It's so annoying having the game symbols on your menu screen at all times, sitting there and being useless.

Yeah it's stupid that it doesn't just have a cartridge channel like the 3DS does but then again it's through those floating useless icons that you can delete patch/save data for the games, no other way to access that stuff.

I've actually suspected for a while that Vita digital purchases are tailing off. Certainly on the UK version of the PS Store, games aren't getting anywhere near as many ratings as comparable titles from this time last year. Certainly not everyone who buys has to rate, but there seems to be a trend.

Personally, if there's a physical version of a game I'll buy that; if not I'll buy digital. It's as simple as that. My memory card space is saved for things that I literally can't get any other way so I'm not wasting potentially 4GB a pop on native Vita games that I can just pick up a cartridge of.

Plus physical copies get discounted; digital copies rarely do.

Ive had my PSV almost a year now and have yet to buy a game digital or physical and have 3 friends in the same situation. Reason?

PS+

Why buy games if I get them for free*

I think Sony are actually onto something making PS+ cross platform, I already had it with PS3 so for me PSV is just gravy.

Also... PS4 or XBONE? Hmm, it would seem my PS+ works on PS4... I'll have a PS4 please.

Can you give us some examples?

I haven't bought any Vita games and don't plan on ever buying any since I basically just play them when they hit PS+.

Sure.  Take any recent indie game for starters:

Castlestorm: 397 (reviews are inflated because you can rate the demo version as well)
Proteus: 122
Lone Survivor: 320

All of them noticeably lower (and not getting anywhere near to the numbers of bigger indie games from earlier in the year):

Farming Simulator: 820
Guacamelee: 2034
Hotline Miami: 1912

Tried to do my best of like-for-like comparisons of games which haven't been on PS+.  Two of those games (Hotline Miami and Guacamelee) have been discounted, but the ratings for those first 3 games aren't going to shoot up by 1500 a pop when they get a discount.

For retail games, recent stuff like:

Batman Arkham Origins: Blackgate: 186
FIFA 14: 99
Rayman Legends: 468

Seems to be low compared to what I expect.  Even this year's biggest exclusive, Killzone Mercenary, is only on 1825.  To draw a few comparisons:

FIFA 13: 896
Need for Speed: Most Wanted: 1982
Rayman Origins: 6127 (reviews are inflated because you can rate the demo version as well)

Obviously, this year's games will grow with time, but titles just seem to be down across the board.  Normally big games get a rush of reviews in the first week or so, but recent titles seem to be struggling with it.

I buy retail games physically but download indies games and whatever ps+ offers. Maybe Playstation plus causes lower software sales. But there are also few vita games on display in game shops

You're adding games that have cross-buy (Guacamelee) and that were made available on PS+ (Hotline Miami). Farming Simulator is much bigger than the games you mentioned as well.

We'll have to wait for next year to know how many reviews FIFA 14 gets to compare it to FIFA 13.  Rayman Origins was free on PS+ as well.

So far, you have compared any games that are equivalent. KZ:Mercenaries has 3,328 reviews so far between US and EU PSN and that with the game at full price.

All the recent games with a poor number of reviews that I was adding (Proteus; Castlestorm; Lone Survivor) are also cross buy.  Every single one of them.

Hotline Miami was indeed on PS+.  In North America.  I do not live in North America, nor do I use the North American PSN - I use the UK PSN, where it was never on PS+, which is why I was using it for these comparisons.

Rayman Origins, fair enough, I missed that that one was plussed. 

If you want to believe that games are still selling okay digitally, that's fine.  I think digital sales are slipping.