Vita PS Plus Premium
Image: Damien McFerran / Push Square

Ah, the poor old PS Vita. Sony's second generation handheld was largely abandoned just a few years into its life following rather dismal sales and a lack of dedicated software support. But as with any gaming system, the Vita certainly has its hardcore fans — and for what it's worth, we always thought that it was an especially slick little machine.

Anyway, it's 2022, and the Vita's still being snubbed by Sony. The Japanese giant has just revealed its overhauled PlayStation Plus service, which includes three tiers of increasingly expensive subscription. The most pricey of these tiers, PS Plus Premium, is basically PlayStation's answer to full backwards compatibility.

A Premium sub gets you access to a (currently unconfirmed) selection of PS1, PS2, and PSP titles, which — as far as we know — can be either streamed or downloaded on PS5 and PS4. A catalogue of PS3 games will be also be available to stream.

Of course, Vita is the only PlayStation console that's missing out on the fun — there's no mention of the handheld whatsoever in Sony's announcement. Now, it's worth noting that some Vita titles made use of the hardware's additional control methods — like the rear touchpad or gyro motion sensors. This could potentially make it a lot harder to emulate these games on PS5 and PS4, which could explain the Vita's PS Plus absence — at least in part.

But it's still a bit of a shame that the Vita's being overlooked once again. Obviously we don't know what classic games the Premium tier will include yet — we're of the mind that is has to be a pretty damn good selection to warrant the price — but without Vita, many will argue that it paints an incomplete picture of PlayStation history.