Sony has posted a how-to guide on downloading PSP titles to the PlayStation Vita and, along with it, a list of the 275 PSP titles and Minis that will be compatible with the Vita at launch. Obviously, it's a pretty hefty lineup, though some favorites are certainly missing, including Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, Valkyria Chronicles 2, Lumines and others.

That said, Sony promises more titles will be added in "the coming weeks." Head over to the US PlayStation Blog for the current list. And, before you ask, yes, of course Dragon's Lair is compatible.

Update: A couple of industry tweets reveal that some games not mentioned on the official list are already compatible with the Vita, notably Valkyria Chronicles 2 and PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe. It would appear that Sony's official list may not be entirely comprehensive. Then again, the public won't actually get its hands on the Vita for another week, so maybe there's still some tweaking going on.

It will not be possible to get discounted Vita downloads of the disc-based UMD games you bought for PSP in the US. A Sony representative told Kotaku that the "UMD Passport" service will not be available to American Vita owners.

Of course, you'll still be able to buy any digitally-distributed PSP games through the Vita's PlayStation Store and play them on the new hardware -- and you'll be able to play the PSN games you already bought on your PSP. But those UMD games will be of no use unless you keep your PSP.

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Indie devs take note, submissions for IndieCade's 2012 "Festival of Independent Games" are now open on the event's official website.

IndieCade's track record is stellar, giving budding designers and developers the exposure their hard work deserves and the money their growing debt so richly desires. Past winners include darlings like Limbo, VVVVVV, and Superbrothers' Sword and Sworcery EP. Of course, bills only get paid if the games launch -- unlike Fez, which by our heart's count has been in development for the last seven hundred years.

Teams that submit a game will receive a main festival pass and an invitation to a day-long networking and workshop event. Games selected are set to be featured during the annual IndieCade Festival from October 4 through October 7.

Earlier this week Game met with lenders to discuss its credit problems and options for staying in business, and now Game reports it will operate "with lower limits" and under "revised terms for its facilities." As of November 2011, Game had 1,275 stores in Europe and Australia, but has hinted that it could sell off more than half of its overseas locations, and it plans to close 60 stores by 2013. It closed 39 locations last year.

Game's economic problems aren't an issue solely for retailers, but can affect the larger gaming industry as well -- both EA and Take-Two discussed Game's position during their Q3 financial calls.

Sega's "Game Contents" division (i.e. home video games) was down 5.1% for the nine-month period ending December 31, with the company reporting 63.5 billion yen ($833 million) in net game sales from the division ... and 5.5 billion yen in total losses. As for reasoning, Sega said only that "in the overseas markets, sales of the new titles remained slow as affected by adverse market condition." Best we can tell, that "adverse market condition" refers to our economies all being really, really terrible.

The publisher shared sales numbers for its major releases. Sonic Generations sold 1.63 million copies across four platforms (Wii, PS3, PC, and the 3DS Generations game). Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games outsold it with 2.39 million copies -- despite not being released in Japan yet, and only being on one platform at the time, the Wii. And, uh, despite being a Mario & Sonic Olympics minigame collection. Hatsune Miku Project Diva Extend for PSP (released in Japan only) was the other named hit, with 290,000 copies.

Looking up at Sega's sales by platform, it's worth noting that Sega's single PlayStation Vita release, Virtua Tennis 4 (called Power Smash 4 in Japan) sold just 10,000 copies between the Vita launch date of December 17 and the end of the year. That ... doesn't seem very good.

When Kaz Hirai takes over as CEO of Sony on April 1st, he's going to have to roll up the sleeves of his $10,000 suit and get in a good cry before figuring out the future of the struggling giant. The company announced a loss of ¥159 billion ($2.1B) for the third quarter ending December 31, 2011, with an expected loss of ¥220 billion ($2.9B) for the year. We imagine every meeting between Hirai and outgoing CEO Howard Stringer begins with a sarcastic "Thanks, buddy!"

The consumer products and services division, which includes TVs and PlayStation, had an operating loss of over a billion dollars with sales down 24 percent from the same period.

This is likely due more to the declining sales of Sony's TVs, video cameras and PCs, than it is of the PlayStation brand. PS3 sales are staying level with last year, with the company expecting to sell 14 million units or hardware and 148 million units of software. Vita sales were not specified at all, though PSP and PS2 sales were -- and the PSP data is declining, which means the Vita debut wasn't hidden in there.

EA recorded a net loss of $205 million, but its highest operating cash flow in 31 quarters for the fiscal third quarter ending December 31, 2011. In Q3 2011, EA generated $1.06 billion in net revenue, which is up from the previous Q3, with a net revenue of $1.05 billion. EA's cash flow from operations is recorded at $475 million.

EA's Battlefield 3 and FIFA 12 have each sold more than 10 million units, while Madden 12 sold almost 5 million. PopCap, which EA acquired in August, grew revenue 30 percent on a trailing 12-month basis, and its monthly active users for social games rose to 52 million, up from 39 million the previous year.

EA has revealed the sales numbers of a handful of its major titles, including FIFA 12 and Battlefield 3, which have both sold through over 10 million units since their respective launches in September and October. Meanwhile, Madden NFL 12 has sold through over five million units since launching last August.

Remember that "sold through" actually refers to copies that have been sold to consumers -- as opposed to copies sold to retailers -- meaning that it's probably safe to call all three titles "hits" at this point.

Sony has announced on its European forums that maintenance time has been scheduled for the PlayStation Network this Thursday, February 2, from 2PM GMT until 8AM Friday morning. If the maintenance carries over to the US (and it usually does), it'll start at 6AM PST Thursday until midnight PST, or 9AM to 3AM for those of you on the East Coast.

Fortunately, the outage doesn't seem to include gameplay -- Sony says that it will only affect the PS Store, Customer Account Management and Registration services. PlayStation Home, however, will be offline the entire time. So ... that doesn't sound so bad! Just pour yourself a cup of tea, grab something good to read and wrap yourself in a warm blanket, and the outage will be over before you know it.