I Just Realized How Genius the Back TouchPad On the Vita Is

Before you judge me, it's not because it's great design or adds to gaming in anyway, it's actually the opposite of that. The touchpad is such a specific thing to the vita, it can't be copied by anything else, meaning emulation is completely impossible for any game that uses the back touch pad. Touchscreen gaming is different because a mouse can substitute for the touchscreen. Yes, a mouse can substitute for the back touchpad, but they're meant to be used in unison, on the fly, so it would be wanky flipping back and forth between using the touch pad and the touch screen with a mouse.

And yes, I know this was probably unintentional, but it still works out well for sony

Honestly, it probably doesn't matter either way, because the vita has been a shit show (sales wise) for sony.

Maybe there could be a workaround? I'd appreciate some theories

What you say could be true but so far I've mostly seen the rear touchpad used as a replacement for shoulder buttons or the R3 or L3 buttons. Little Deviants and Modnation Racers both had that thing where you could raise the world with the rear touchpad, but that could easily be done with a standard controller, mouse, or touchscreen. There are very specific gameplay scenarios where the rear touchpad couldn't be replaced by some other control scheme, but I honestly doubt very many games will utilize it in any meaningful way. It will mostly serve as a poor replacement for all the missing buttons on the Vita compared to the PS3, speaking that Sony seems to really be pushing the whole "console games in your hand" thing. I think if developers actually made a game with the Vita in mind, instead of porting an existing game design to it, then it could have some fun usages. The only game I see coming up that might do that, though, is Tearaway. Everything else seems to be a portable version of a console series.

@grantheaslip: Honestly, console gaming will probably die before then. The way things are going makes it seem that way, anyway. Sadly, there probably wont be a good avenue to play these games, besides taking care of your consoles and keeping them forever. I plan on doing what jeff does when I'm his age. Have a garage full of shit I don't really need, but it's there if I ever want to play an old ass game you can't buy anymore

Are there any petting zoo sims on the Vita? Seems like the best use of that touchpad.