Are people really questioning why a Pet game and Disney game would get priority over a Japanese niche, new IP game? Really? Freedom Wars is only an AAA release in the context of the Vita, it probably won't hit 500k worldwide, most of that from Japan.
Retail is more than just game stores. Freedom Wars is dead inventory in supermarkets or chain electronic stores. Walk-in kids and parents are a real market and one that Sony wouldn't be adverse to. The audience for Freedom Wars are the hardcore gamer who are older and completely capable of purchasing a digital game. Evidently they probably will, and I'm Sony knows the numbers behind the digital sales of their first party.
I don't think there's much of a problem of why stuff like Vita Pets gets a retail release.
But is it too much asking a retail release for one of the biggest vita international releases this year, a FIRST PARTY game ? When even the US gets one, where the vita sells the least ? When even a game like Natural Doctrine, that failed sales-wise even in Japan, is getting a physical release for all platforms in Europe ?
Or is Sony such a pinchpenny that it can't justify spending the costs for that ? Is it really THAT expensive to have a phyiscal release on the european continent ?
It doesn't help that the memory cards are so outrageously expensive that it's basically bleeding yourself everytime you gotta purchase a new one. And it does happen a lot now. Because a lot of long time vita owners are now coming to the point where their cards are getting full. My 32gb surely is and I'm getting tired of deleting games I didn't necessarily want to delete.
For me, this just looks like a fruitless moneygrab from SCEE who thinks nothing of it's supporters.
