I am not super big into online play, although I do find much enjoyment in it on occassion. Not a big online chatter either so features like Cross Game Chat don't mean much to me. Yet when I finally was able to play my own music in background while playing a game that I love, I was sold. I enjoy listening to my own trancee tunes while I get in the zone in things like Super Stardust, Dead Nation, etc. Unfortunately it was not a default hardware feature for PS3 or PSP.

Vita came on the scene and it boasts hardware/software default custom soundtracks, and I was loving it. BUT......

of recent.....too many games I buy are actively blocking my ability to use this feature. Why the hell is this?! The Vita has reserved ram for such features as this so unline on PS3 where devs could not be bothered to implement such a thing, they are now going out of their way to block it. Persona 4 Golden is a awesome game, and I LOVE the in game soundtrack. I still would like to be able to play my own stuff while playing. Ironically what I desire to do most while playing P4G is to play the game's soundtrack off my Memory Card but in my own personal arrangement (mmmmm "Heaven" so guud). I understand that certain games that entire gameply is based on sound.....they would want to block this feature. Sound Shapes, Lumines, hell I'll even give Little Big Planet a pass on that one. P4G does not have anything of note that really warrents this, Ive played through this game enough times to know there is nothing sound wise that you must hear to progress in game. I feel like it was done simply out of pride. They worked hard on the soundtrack so they wanna force you to listen to it. Total disregard for the desire of the customer.

Then there is Playstation All Stars.....which upon release actually did have Custom Soundtracks, yet after a few updates the feature dissappeared never to be spoken of again. Fucking WHY?! I wanna listen to some ass woopin music while I pummel Kratos into the ground with Kat! Why have they made no effort to put this feature back?!

Then you have the PS4 and XBO....that have both mysteriously opted to NOT ALLOW MP3 IMPORTS TO THE SYSTEM....BAFFLING!!!!! It is a total farce that they didn't know people did that with their systems, they just wanted to try and force people into their paid subscription music options, as everything is trying to gilt you into a subscription today. I can not believe they did that. I was super excited for RetroGun....then they tell me I can't use my own music, I gotta use Music Unlimited(which I find to be a completely redundant service when music is so easy to find and cheaper elsewhere).... which really killed my hype. I have played with Custom Soundtracks with every HouseMarque game and it heightens my enjoyment of those games.

Has anyone else noticed this? Does this outrage anyone else?

I ain't gonna be the one that tells forevercloud3000 that microsoft has patented that.. http://www.google.com/patents/US6981918?dq=gaming+soundtrack

We all know how he feels about MS.. No need to feed the hate..

I miss it, I used it alot on the x360. I havent really messed with the xbo much, but it doesnt seem as easy as it was on x360.

I always find it a hassle to have to import my cd's first, then get it back in lower quality. Plus a lot of games keep restarting tracks. At least GT6 does.

Much easier solution, use amp for music, game sound through tv. Best quality, no loss of pro-logic encoding and loss in quality from resampling to 48khz. I have an extra hdmi cable in my av cabinet for a direct connection to tv, just for that purpose. Maybe one day I can find an amp that can route the console sound with the picture while playing music from another source. It can do the latter but the game sound is lost.

Usually when I want to listen to my own music it's because I'm bored of the game sounds altogether, so I simply select a different source for audio on the amp and keep on playing.

what are you talking about?

The Vita HAS custom soundtracks capability in the hardware, it was a feature announced way back when. I am complaining about developers making the decision whether I should be able to use this feature at all while playing select games.

It means you have to pay MS royalties for using it (depending if its the same way deactiveren in their patents).. when a business can save that on a feature 80% of the users don't use they'll do that..

but Whats stopping you from turning down the in game music and Up the sound of your own music player?

Maybe because other people in the vicinity dont want to listen to him blast his boombox (do they still make them these days) while he plays his Vita on the train? Or perhaps it wouldn't do any good while he has headphones on to hear the in-game SFX? Or maybe because he just prefers to have it play on his Vita like it has since the day he bought it?