Perhaps you've already read Patrick's plea for sane pricing and continuity among publishers in regards to Sony's UMD Passport program for the Vita. If you haven't, I highly suggest doing so. Once you've finished with that, return to this story and treat it as a sort of epilogue to that whole ordeal.
Now then, presuming you're all read up, today's news from Sony (by way of Siliconera) regarding the Passport program's list of supported titles isn't likely to make you feel too much better about the whole thing. As it happens, the Vita will be launching in Japan with 262 PSP games available to download at a discounted rate via the Passport program. The hitch? There are 606 games currently available for the PSP.
While such noteworthy publishers as Atlus, Nippon Ichi, Acquire, Kaga Create, Alchemist, Tecmo Koei, and SNK are on board with their PSP catalogs, major publishers like Capcom, Konami, Sega, Namco Bandai, and Square Enix are nowhere to be found on the list.
Before alarm bells get sounded, it's worth pointing out that Sony proclaims that all of the above publishers are "planning" to support the Passport service, but no time frame for their inclusion has been set.
While this might be moot to many would-be Vita owners, given that the Passport service hasn't even been officially announced for regions outside of Japan yet, it's safe to assume that some version of this concept will find its way to Vita beyond Japan, and that people who want to play their Monster Hunters, Metal Gears, or Final Fantasies might want to be able to re-download those games at a suitable price. Assuming those titles ever appear at all. Or appear at a suitable price. None of which is even remotely guaranteed in this wild, woolly hinterland that encompasses Sony's online services nowadays.
In the meantime, Japanese Vita owners will just have to settle for the embarrassment of Atlus RPGs and Pachinko simulators at their disposal when the system launches in Japan on December 17.