At Gamescom Sony announced a new program called “Cross Buy” that’s sure to please those of us who own both the PS3 and Vita. Cross Buy offers a free Vita version of certain games when the PS3 version is purchased. First up in the Cross Buy program will be Playstation All-Star Battle Royale with Sly Cooper: Thieves In Time and Ratchet & Clank: Qforce joining in at a later date. Playstation All-Star Battle Royale releases later this year in November.

Certain PSN games like the recently released Sound Shapes also give you access to both versions of the game upon purchase  but the difference with Cross Buy is that these are retail games which generally cost more and offer a larger game experience. Hopefully this will bolster the Vita’s sales because it truly is an amazing little device. I’m curious to see if any third-party  publishers will accept the Cross Buy program or if this will only be utilized for Sony developed games. Either way it’s a great program to lure Vita buyers in as well as reward early adopters of the handheld.

The Vita has not sold as well as expected and even combining sales from PSP and Vita have resulted in less than stellar numbers that don’t match up to last years PSP sales during the same time frame. Sadly I’m not sure this is going to help convince the masses to purchase a Vita. I feel Sony may only bring redemption to the Vita by a price cut. It’s not that the handheld is outrageously priced but it  has zero internal storage and you are forced to purchase a memory card or the Vita is basically useless. I chose to get the 32GB card, costing me an additional $100 which puts the Sony Vita well over what a consumer would pay for the PS3. Not great considering everyone with a smartphone has a cheap outlet for gaming on the go.

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