U.S. consumers won’t get to buy it until February, but Sony starts selling a new handheld video game console, the PlayStation Vita (pronounced “vee-tah”, not “vy-tah”) from 17th December 15, 2011 in Japan. After much rumors and speculation, the company finally launched the new PS, which was formerly code named NGP (Next Generation Portable) with some brilliant specs and features.
The Sony PlayStation Vita video game which was formerly unveiled at Sony’s E3 2011 press conference aims to provide the most comprehensive portable gaming experience around.
The PS Vita video game will also support social networking apps like the PS4, such as Facebook, Skype, Twitter, and foursquare, which will be available for download for free from the PlayStation store.
The Nintendo DS has been the dominant dedicated handheld video game system, selling more than 149 million worldwide since 2004, vs. 73 million for PlayStation Portable. But as the popularity of Smartphone and tablet Video games grew, Sony began devising a handheld to leapfrog current devices.
Consumers want “new kinds of experiences on portable that they can’t necessarily have on their home devices,” says Sony Computer Entertainment Group CEO Andrew House. He succeeded Kazuo Hirai as head of the PlayStation business in September, when Hirai took over responsibility for the Consumer Products & Services Group, including TV, home video/audio and video games.
Ahead of the launch of its new handheld video game Console, Sony Corp. said it is prepared with enough supply of the new PlayStation Vita after pre-orders for the device sold out quickly.
Andrew House, president of Sony Computer Entertainment, the company’s PlayStation video game division, said he is “comfortable” with the Vita supply base and if shortages do arise from strong demand, they will be resolved quickly.
The PlayStation Vita is the first all-new video game system from Sony since the debut of its PlayStation 3 home console in 2006. It will replace the PlayStation Portable as the main handheld gaming platform for the business.
PlayStation Vita Video Game Features
Design and Display:
Design and Display
The PlayStation Vita video game looks quite similar to the PSP; however without any doubt the Vita is more impressive and elegantly designed. It sports a 5-inch OLED multi-touch capacitive touchscreen, 24-bit color with a resolution of 960 × 540 qHD and has pixel density of 220 ppi. The console has a huge size that measures 182 x 84 x 19 mm in size. To give you a fair idea on how huge it is, consider placing an iPhone 4, which will perfectly fit in the space where the display of the PS Vita is. Doesn’t that sound enormous?
Having said that, the PlayStation Vita video game fits comfortably in your hands and with the round edges it makes it easier to play games on it.
Other features include…
* 3G/AT&T:
3G AT&T in PS Vita
The new PS Vita 3G/Wi-Fi, powered by AT&T’s Mobile Broadband Network, will change the way you game with real-time scores and game ranking news feeds, competitive multiplayer game sessions, and cross-game text messaging with Party.
* Front & Rear Cameras:
Front & Rear Cameras
The PlayStation Vita video game has both front and rear cameras with supporting features such as face detection, head detection and head tracking that can be used for personalization and customization.
* Six Axis Motion Sensors:
Six Axis Motion Sensors
3-axis accelerometer and 3-axis gyroscope -With PS Vita’s motion sensor technology actively engage with the game like never before as you touch, tilt, and steer your PS Vita. Discover the endless ways to manipulate your environment, engage with your characters, and utilize in game tools. Along with that, it has another 3-axis compass with integrated GPS and connectivity options such as 3G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR.
* Touchscreen:
Touchscreen: PS Vita
The multi touch display offers new ways to complete challenges and actions alike, all on a stunning 5″ OLED screen.
* Rear Touch Pad:
The rear multi touch pad gives you greater hand control while freeing up the brilliance of the front OLED screen.
* Cross Play:
With cross platform play you can start playing a game on your PS3 console, pause the game and pick up on PS Vita right where you left off. You can also join in multiplayer games on your PS Vita and play against players on their PS3 consoles.
* Dual Analog Sticks:
Discover a fully immersive first person shooter experience with dual analog sticks.
* OLED Screen:
OLED Screen: PS Vita
See your games more brilliantly than ever before with the 5” OLED screen which displays approximately 16 million colors.
* Chatting:
The PlayStation Vita video game supports chatting with your friends while you’re watching a video or playing a multi-player game, in a way to keep you connected.
* Unlike PSP, the PSV will not support video output or contain a removable battery.
* Hardware wise, the device features a quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 MP Core processor (3 of the 4 cores will be usable for applications) and a quad-core SGX543MP4 + GPU. It will have a 512 MB of system RAM and 128 MB of VRAM.
* It was confirmed by Sony that the battery would last for about 3-5 hours of gameplay, 5 hours of video, and up to 9 hours of music listening with the screen off.
* The PS Vita will have a storage media card slot, where users can plug in NVG cards of capacities ranging from 4 GB to 32 GB.
PlayStation Vita Pricing:
Pricewise, the PlayStation Vita Video game is expected to come in two versions – PSV Wi-Fi only and PSV Wi-Fi + 3G. The 3G version is priced at $299.99 USD while the other version could be priced at a $50 lesser price – $249.99 USD. However, there hasn’t been any mention of data pricing. Sources indicate that the Vita could adopt AT&T’s tablet data series, with $15 for 200MB of usage and $25 for 2GB.
Sony PlayStation Vita video game Price in Singapore Dollar (SGD):
- Approximately S$ 395.00 (Wi-Fi + 3G)
- Approximately S$ 330.00 (Wi-Fi Only)
