When the PlayStation Vita hit shelves back in February, it came out alongside a pretty healthy line up of games. Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational, Touch My Katamari, and Uncharted: Golden Abyss were better than you average launch titles. Plus the little handheld supported plenty of classic gold from the PSP. Still, it wasn’t as good as it could have been. Where was the support for PlayStation games? If an Android smartphone can run Crash Bandicoot, surely the Vita should too, right? Sony confirmed at E3 2012 that PSOne Classics support was coming to Vita but it didn’t give a date.
For anyone jonsing to play Final Fantasy VII on that shiny OLED screen, good news: Vita firmware version 1.8 will bring PlayStation games to the handheld. Andriasang reported on Tuesday that Sony confirmed that PSOne Classics support will be in the firmware update during an announcement for PlayStation 2 Game Archives support for Japanese PlayStation 3s.
This announcement is, at least for now, Japan specific though. Japanese support for PSOne Classics has always been a bit more robust than in the US so it’s possible that we won’t see support in the next US update.
Also, it’s unclear whether all PSOne Classics that work on PSP and PS3 will be available for Vita. Sony officially announced a meager line up of just 7 titles at E3, including Final Fantasy VII, Tomb Raider, Twisted Metal 2, Arc the Lad, Cool Boarders 2, Jet Moto, and Wild Arms.
