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If you want to play BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend (or any BlazBlue for that matter!) on PlayStation Vita you have to buy the game on a Vita cart. Arc System Works already released BlazBlue: Continuum Shift for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. So, will you be able to upgrade?

The answer from BlazBlue series producer Toshimichi Mori is no. You won’t be able to purchase downloadable content to turn Continuum Shift into Continuum Shift Extend.

Apparently, this was supposed to be just a release for the PS Vita, but at the last second Mori decided to have similar releases for the PS3 and the 360. So It's kind of like MvC3 in that you can't download this update and tack it on to your original copy of CS, you can't play online with anyone who owns the newer version, your DLC will probably be worthless after the game is released, and it pushes prospects of an actual sequel back another year at least (which is about the time that CS Extend will arrive in Europe, right mwng?).

The game's proposed release date for all three platforms is December 17, though that might just be for Japan. Personally, I'm tempted to just wait for a sale for this edition or Blazblue 3 to come out, whichever happens first.

@DocHaus: Hopefully my avatar will hint at how much I love the Blazblue series, but maaaaaan - all these releases and updates, it's all kind of a mess! Also, a EU player here as well, so that's another 12 months here! :(

Edit: Though I should say, I'm stoked Makoto will be getting her own story mode - and hopefully playable in Legion!

@mwng said:

@DocHaus: Totally missed this, sorry! I'm glad someone is still making pages for the torrent of updates! Mixed feelings about this being disc based. I mean, they've done well with the 3 characters/balance changes they've released as DLC and Relius doesn't seem so radically different that he couldn't join them as a DLC release. As you mentioned too, since this is a disc release Europe is going to get it AT LEAST 4-5 months late, thought they're getting better, as it's down from a year... (I've cheated and bought a PS3 to just import it this time!). Good news is the DLC characters will feel a little less like additions as they get to take part in other modes now. A disc based release may hint at a major overhaul in terms of balance (new moves?). May also entice more people to play again, though I doubt anyone who doesn't already own CS will be picking this up... In all it seems like a good deal for people like me who like the game and will get a lot of playtime out of it. But I can see why anyone else would have a hard time justifying dropping cash on something they practically already own.

It does offer the benefit of having the previous DLC characters fully integrated into the game, and it's likely that they made some back-end tweaks that would make its existence as another DLC update to Continuum Shift unviable. Either way, I'm fine with it, and I'll definitely pick it up.

@mwng: Remember, CS came out in July 2010. That's a year and a half ago, and it only sold for $40. I think releasing Extend on a disc a year and a half later is fairly justified, considering how much money you'd spend in an arcade playing the same game. CSII was a free arcade patch, and all DLC characters were playable-against even if you didn't buy the DLC. Overall, I think they handled it fairly well. Plus, Extend just about overhauled every character. They may not have new moves except Distortion Drives in Unlimited Mode, but many characters have been tweaked to the point that their old combos no longer work/aren't optimized.

I don't think a Blazblue 3 will be out at least for a year on consoles. They usually take a few months to port an update to consoles anyway, and Extend just released in Japan in November. It'll be a few months before they tweak everything again, and another couple of months before it hits consoles in whatever form.

It really boils down to how much you play. I've been following Extend since it hit the Japanese arcades, and I'll be playing the hell out of it when I get the chance (school...). If you can live without playing Blazblue until next year, it's probably not worth it. But if you enjoy it, I don't think there will be many people still playing CSII after... well, yesterday.

tl;dr- Extend changed a lot if you're into fighting games, not too much if you're not.

I'm confused; is this going to be released on PSN for the Vita eventually or is it actually retail-only, meaning that there is no downloadable version even for the handheld? That would be disappointing, if so, especially since I thought that all launch games would be available on PSN.

@FluxWaveZ: All Vita games are available as a download, period. It just means you can't download this as an addon for an existing disc game on other platforms and have to actually buy the game.