PlayStation Vita is the Life of the Party
PS Vita announcement.
Sony PSV. Doesn’t quite roll off the tongue as easily as NGP did, and neither sounds as good as their predecessor, the PSP.
Vita is what we’re calling Sony’s new handheld, and considering all that we know about it, the finalized name might just fit, as silly as it sounds.
Its technical features are nothing to scoff at. Sony has already confirmed two analog sticks (not nubs), a 5-inch OLED multi-touch capacitive touchscreen, a rear touchpad, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, and Wi-Fi in b/g/n flavors. Powering the handheld is a 4 core ARM Cortex-A9 core processor and a 4 core SGX543MP4+ graphics processing unit.
In terms of input, it’s decked out with a d-pad, the classic PlayStation face buttons, L and R shoulder buttons, Sixaxis control via 3-axis accelerometer and 3-axis gyroscope, a PlayStation button, and Start and Select. Additional hardware includes front and rear cameras, a microphone, 3-axis electronic compass, GPS, and 3G connectivity in some models.
Add in backwards compatibility with PlayStation Portable downloadable titles, PlayStation minis, PlayStation Suite games, PSOne Classics, videos, and comics from the PlayStation Store, and you get a machine already fully stocked with media upon launch, which is a stark contrast to Nintendo’s 3DS release. Up to now, Nintendo has yet to deliver the promised Netflix and internet browser capabilities for its handheld.
All of this is sweetened by the as of yet unconfirmed rumor of region-free gaming. When that rumor comes from Michael Denny, Vice President of Sony Worldwide Studios Europe, it tastes extra sweet indeed.
Expect the new handheld generation to be a fierce fight this time around. Sony’s PlayStation Vita will retail for USD $249.99 ($299.99 for 3G-enabled models) and will be available in the 4th quarter of this year.
Games confirmed for Sony PlayStation Vita:
- Bioshock NGP (tentative name)
- Dust 514
- LittleBigPlanet (tentative name)
- ModNation Racers
- Ruin (tentative name)
- Super Street Fighter x Tekken
- Uncharted: Golden Abyss
- WipEOut 2048