Many vita games rarely use the DPad for movement at all. Uncharted, for instance, only uses it for switching weapons and reloading. The right face buttons are only really used for jumping. The "freelook" is more used with the tilt controls than the stick on uncharted anyway. I also can't remember using the d-pad at all for Gravity Rush. Uncharted does use zoom/sights on the left trigger and right trigger for firing. Which games are you playing that you are getting different controls?

Game controls are almost universally a learned motor skill. I've used my left hand for controls on the PC that I now use my right hand for with no real problems...

Hopefully when they release the PSM suite, you'll be able to develop for tablets, phones, and the Vita with one common language. Though only if you like C# and Mono.

@Keith Thomson I already develop for Tablets and Phones in a common language: C++. The problem is doing it for Vita too requires dealing with our game industries product approval legacy (though from what I understand, the Sony is one of the better ones here of late... still, the approval machine takes time).

That's what I was hinting at. C++ requires much more approval time to develop with on the Vita, and more expensive dev tools. C# would go through a different approval process with less expensive development tools. ($100 when its released.)

"C# would go through a different approval process with less expensive development tools."

And those development tools are incompatible with every other platform.

Third parties don't want to invest in a platform that's installing worse than the Dreamcast...
...unless they're Japanese and Microsoft's moneyhatting. Go figure.

Last time I checked, MS and Nintendo consoles are the most close system of them all, and yet, 3DS just celebrated their 20 million sell last month.

Nuttachai, Nintendo hardware is notorious for its lack of third party support, and the 360 reaps a lot of its success based on its PC like architecture. In fact many of its top developers used to be predominantly PC developers. The 3DS is if anything an anomaly, thanks to properties like Mario and Pokemon.

Your argument is ridiculous:
NES : Closed, Supported and Successful
Gameboy : Closed, Supported and Successful
SNES : Closed, Supported and Successful
PSX : Closed, Supported and Successful
GBA : Closed, Supported and Successful
PS2 : Closed, Supported and Successful

You're right, 3DS, DS and Wii are all anomalies, because for the first time we have successful consoles that are going unsupported. For the first time open development has become more important to developers than actually supporting the market. Oh wait! The platforms they supported instead were closed too!

For the last 7-8 years console developers have predominantly been interested in power and nothing else. Certainly not making money. We could make a list of the profits, losses and deaths of developers and parent publishers over this period but it would make for depressing reading. One might argue they're interested in ease of development, and that Nintendo doesn't support developers very well, but then I don't think there's anything easy about a $100 million production. When you have to worry about the manpower costs of having artists draw unique buttons for every shirt of every character in your next city based game, I'd say the powerful platforms developers HAVE chosen are creating more headaches than they're relieving.

Maybe this explains why virtually all games on the mobile platforms use only a tiny fraction of the power available. Perhaps weak support of Vita is the first sign of a reversal of the console developer trend: maybe 3rd parties are finally balking at the prospect of the power/cost phenomenon repeating on handhelds.

@Merc - you are comparing platforms from the past when there was no internet everywhere, when digital distribution was not here yet -- and when there was no open platform alternative.

Now that open platform alternative is about to become the biggest gaming platform ever (iOS)

The initial argument from Dan stands

What an odd thing to say. The implication being that the past has zero effect on the future.

First of all I'd point out, you know, that uh, PC exists, is open and has been since the beginning of, well, the entire industry. Second of all, the internet was everywhere since like 2000 at least. Third, calling iOS the biggest platform ever is patently ridiculous on multiple fronts: In number of gamers? Uncountable. Given the number of non-players, the level of upgrading and the redundancy of accounts across iOS devices almost certainly much lower than everyone seems to think. In total number? Smaller than both Android devices and, oh yeah, PC. In revenue? Across 600,000 apps It's only made 5 billion for devs...ever. The DS by comparison has conservatively made more than 15 billion in revenue. Fourth of all, actually the trend is the reverse of Dan's argument if anything:

Developers have migrated to more closed platforms, not the other way around: Today's console developers are, as Dan himself suggested, yesterday's PC developers. How is that moving towards openness? The iOS marketplace is, practically by definition, more regulated, controlled and curated than the PC market before it. Or even Windows Phone 6 before it. It says a lot that Microsoft is closing their platforms down on PC and mobile to be more like Apple rather than opening them up. People are referring to iOS and Steam as a new golden age of distribution. Surely it's totally counter to the actual age of untempered freedom back in the wild west days of flash games and Newgrounds. Why do you think Apple was so adamant to never support flash outside of video? I always though it was mostly because they wanted to protect the Appstore platform they were still cultivating from the freedom of the internet via Safari. Don't you forget, the Appstore certainly ain't the internet. And the internet came first. Developers aren't being liberated by freedom. They're being monetized by control. Else PC would have killed consoles long ago. I'm actually afraid of this new age, where people refer to what they've made as apps rather than programs. Where Gabe Newell bemoans the level of store integration and control of the next Windows. Where I now need to get a pass from the biggest and most litigious corporations in the world if I want to put my shit out there. Where Skype is owned and run (and one day monitored) by Microsoft for Pete's sake. THAT is what developers have been jumping into.

Today's console developers (who are yesterday's PC developers) are interested in power and that has left them high and dry. Today's iOS developers (who are yesterday's PC hobbyists) are interested in monetisation and that has left them censored. 3rd party abandonment of Nintendo platforms happened long before Apple's 'new world order' and probably remains a bad idea.

Merc, I think the point you're maybe missing about the 360 being a "closed" platform, is that it is still very similar to the PC platform---much more so than any "closed" gaming console prior to it. The 360's developers are publishing on both PC and the 360 and the PS3. Among those three platforms, the PS3 consistently gets the shorter end of the stick because it has proprietary architecture. Likewise iOS is an incredibly vibrant gaming platform, because regardless of which iPhone you own, you are always accessing the same App store, with a large section of universally compatible software. The ability of developers to transport their products from platform to platform is of utmost importance in today's industry.

I think ambidextrous/symmetrical controller designs are the way to go. Few controllers are truly ambidextrous/symmetrical- at the moment, I can only think of the Wii Remote, some rhythm game peripherals, and some kinds of computer mice. However, everyone is different... so there's no such thing as a "one size fits all" controller.

You got a point there. Discovery is a problem for the PS Store, it's hard to evaluate if a game is good or bad solely on information from the store. Having demos for some of the Vita games is nice though. For the games that do have screenshots, they're really tiny and hardly of use. It's the same problem with the PS3.