Sony has a very nice piece of hardware in the Vita it will be launching in just over two weeks. It has a strong launch lineup and a lot going in its favor, but for seemingly every positive, there is some negative to go along with it: pricey memory cards, a confusing requirement for memory cards in some retail games, a limit of one PSN (SEN) account per system, an insubstantial discount on digital games. Now we can add to the list the inability to transfer PlayStation Portable UMD games to Vita.

With the Vita's launch so near -- it will be out on February 22 -- it was starting to look like the conversion program might not make it out of Japan. When I contacted Sony recently regarding the subject it had nothing to say, although it has now come out and revealed the unpleasant truth: North American gamers will not see any form of the UMD Passport program those in Japan did. The news was confirmed with Kotaku today and means Vita's backwards compatibility with PSP is limited only to digital games.

When I need to shut off my brain, I turn to reality TV, specifically any show that revolves around finding hidden treasures in piles of junk -- basically everything on A&E at this point. The producers of these shows coach their casts into childish conflicts for the sake of drama, but the merchandise is the real star. Every now and then someone discovers something incredible -- a first edition of The Old Man and the Sea, original sketches by Picasso, ancient artifacts -- items of real historical value. The men and women of these shows take their newly found treasure and sell it to the highest bidder, and no one objects, but what would happen if they found a historically valuable game -- like an unreleased Resident Evil title for the Game Boy Color.

Video game fans long ago reconciled themselves to the fact that they would never be able to play hundreds of different historically significant games on their original systems -- especially those that came close but never saw retail shelves. Over time, a small community grew around tracking down prototypes and unreleased titles. These lost games would otherwise sit in storage until magnetic and optical data degradation rendered them unplayable, destroying a piece of video game history in the process. There are only so many Stadium Events cartridges out there, and original Akalabeth floppies probably died long ago, effectively making emulation the only way to play these and many other classic titles. This emulation can be legitimate and endorsed by rights holders -- think of the virtual console and countless retro collections released on modern console -- or done through third party emulators and illegally downloaded files and ROMs. Since many of these important games never received a proper release and publishers are often selective about what titles they make available, the latter option won out amongst the small lost games community, which needed to cooperate and focus their efforts in order to uncover new finds.

Used game sales hurt the bottom line of all console game developers, as the entirety of each sale goes to the retailer and not the game's makers. It's a familiar line we've heard from several developers and publishers in the past five years. With used game sales taking heat from fans and game makers alike, digital distribution, like Steam or GOG.com, seems to offer the chance to get cheap games with a clear conscience, but that's not quite true. Even new games suffer from the same issue as used sales; none of the money actually goes to the people who made the game.

As brought to attention by Rock, Paper, Shotgun, last week, developer Simon Roth created a quick list of "games that no longer support their creators," and classic titles from defunct developers or publishers make up most of it -- Ion Storm and Deus Ex, Looking Glass and Thief, Black Isle and Fallout 2. Other titles still maintain their original publisher but not the developer -- EA collects on Syndicate and Populous, Peter Molyneux does not. You may read the titles of these games and think that the issue only affects older games, but do you think the former members of Team Bondi are seeing any money for copies of L.A. Noire sold today? If you don't purchase used games for ethical reasons, you might have to give up many new games as well.

Used game sales hurt the bottom line of all console game developers, as the entirety of each sale goes to the retailer and not the game's makers. It's a familiar line we've heard from several developers and publishers in the past five years. With used game sales taking heat from fans and game makers alike, digital distribution, like Steam or GOG.com, seems to offer the chance to get cheap games with a clear conscience, but that's not quite true. Even new games suffer from the same issue as used sales; none of the money actually goes to the people who made the game.

As brought to attention by Rock, Paper, Shotgun, last week, developer Simon Roth created a quick list of "games that no longer support their creators," and classic titles from defunct developers or publishers make up most of it -- Ion Storm and Deus Ex, Looking Glass and Thief, Black Isle and Fallout 2. Other titles still maintain their original publisher but not the developer -- EA collects on Syndicate and Populous, Peter Molyneux does not. You may read the titles of these games and think that the issue only affects older games, but do you think the former members of Team Bondi are seeing any money for copies of L.A. Noire sold today? If you don't purchase used games for ethical reasons, you might have to give up many new games as well.

Those expecting a proper remake of Final Fantasy X for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita should start tempering their expectations. Although we still have very little in the way of details, it's been clarified that the project Square Enix has in the works is an HD remaster, not a remake.

Square Enix's Shinji Hashimoto made this clear at the recent Taipei Game Show, according to GNN (via Joystiq). The difference between "remake" and "remaster" may sound like semantics, but in fact there are entirely different expectations that come along with the two. Depending upon how you feel about FFX, the reality of this being a remaster may or may not be welcome news.

The final of three games Microsoft announced in 2010 as a demonstration of its support for PC gaming, Microsoft Flight, finally comes out later this month. Several pieces of downloadable content are releasing along with it, though they are priced in a way that could make it hard to interest those who are not hardcore fans.

Many gamers take issue with downloadable content being made available right at a game's launch. In the case of a free-to-play game like Flight, launching on February 29, it's a different situation as the game itself is being given away for free and Microsoft hopes it's good enough that gamers decide to spend money on new locales, planes, and so on.

The final of three games Microsoft announced in 2010 as a demonstration of its support for PC gaming, Microsoft Flight, finally comes out later this month. Several pieces of downloadable content release along with it, though it's priced in such a way that could make it hard to attract those who are not hardcore fans.

Many gamers take issue with downloadable content being made available right at a game's launch. In the case of a free-to-play game like Flight, launching on February 29, it's a different situation as the game itself is being given away for free and Microsoft hopes it's good enough that gamers decide to spend money on new locales, planes, and so on.

Not unlike the situation Nintendo was faced with in the months after the launch of the 3DS, there has been talk of doom and gloom regarding the Vita. Sales of the new handheld have not been particularly mind-blowing in Japan since launch, and Sony has not attempted to portray its launch as anything it is not. More importantly, it has not yet begun to panic -- and nor should it.

After 325,000 units were sold in its opening week, Vita sales in Japan have declined week-over-week more often than not. 3DS, PlayStation 3, and even the PlayStation Portable have routinely outsold it, although this finally changed last week when the Vita sold almost 3,000 units more than the PSP. Still, that's nothing to write home about, which is perhaps why Sony CFO Masaru Kato didn't go as far as it seemed he was going to when describing Vita's sales.