Sony’s E3 2011 media briefing just came to a close, and of course the star of the show was the NGP. Oh wait – it’s not the NGP anymore, but rather the PlayStation Vita (said “veeta” and Latin for “life”) as had been previously rumored.
Even bigger news is the price point, which Sony promised would be affordable for the impressive technology packed into the powerful handheld, particularly after the pricing debacle of the PS3 at launch. Thankfully, Sony delivered this time, announcing two models for the PS Vita: a Wi-Fi model for $249.99 and a 3G/Wi-Fi model for $299.99. That puts the low-tiered model in direct price competition with the 3DS, and the higher-end model still within competitive reach. Personally, I was fully expecting the base price to start at $300, so I think Sony has found a good sweet spot to launch with.
The PS Vita itself features a 5-inch multi-touch OLED screen, a multi-touch rear panel, front and rear cameras, Sixaxis motion sensing, twin analog sticks, backwards compatibility with PSP and Minis titles, Trophy support and a variety of pre-installed networking apps to bring players together via cross-game chat, item sharing and more. Interaction with the PS3 will also be a key feature moving forward, with cross-platform multiplayer, cloud saving, mutual user created content sharing and other features confirmed for upcoming titles like ModNation Racers, Wipeout 2048 and a new Diablo/Torchlight style action-RPG called Ruin.
So, what do you think of Sony’s PS Vita showing? Do you plan to buy one now? Or do you still need some convincing?
Below are the final hardware specs and hi-res product images.
[nggallery id=1817]
Platform Name
PlayStation®Vita
Model number
PCH-1000 series
CPU
ARM® Cortex™-A9 core (4 core)
GPU
SGX543MP4+
External Dimensions
Approx. 182.0 x 18.6 x 83.5mm (width x height x depth) (tentative, excludes largest projection)
Screen (Touch screen)
5 inches (16:9), 960 x 544, Approx. 16 million colors, OLED
Multi touch screen (capacitive type)
Rear touch pad
Multi touch pad (capacitive type)
Cameras
Front camera, Rear camera
Frame rate : 120fps@320×240(QVGA), 60fps@640×480(VGA)
Resolution : Up to 640×480(VGA)
Sound
Built-in stereo speakers
Built-in microphone
Sensors
Six-axis motion sensing system (three-axis gyroscope, three-axis accelerometer), Three-axis electronic compass
Location
Built-in GPS (3G/Wi-Fi model only)
Wi-Fi location service support
Keys/Switches
PS button
Power button
Directional buttons (Up/Down/Right/Left)
Action buttons (Triangle, Circle, Cross, Square)
Shoulder buttons (Right/Left)
Right stick, Left stick
START button, SELECT button
Volume buttons (+/-)
Wireless communications
Mobile network connectivity (3G/Wi-Fi model only)
IEEE 802.11b/g/n (n = 1×1)(Wi-Fi) (Infrastructure mode/Ad-hoc mode)
Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR (A2DP/AVRCP/HSP）
Slots/Ports
PlayStation®Vita card slot
Memory card slot
SIM card slot (3G/Wi-Fi model only)
Multi-use port (for USB data communication, DC IN, Audio [Stereo Out / Mono In], Serial data communication),
Headset jack (Stereo mini jack) (for Audio [Stereo Out / Mono In])
Accessory port
Power
Built-In Lithium-ion Battery,
AC adaptor
Supported AV content format
Music
－MP3 MPEG-1/2 Audio Layer 3, MP4 (MPEG-4 AAC), WAVE (Linear PCM)
Videos
－MPEG-4 Simple Profile (AAC), H.264/MPEG-4 AVC Hi/Main/Baseline Profile (AAC)
Photos
－JPEG (Exif 2.2.1), TIFF, BMP, GIF, PNG
Matt Litten is the full-time editor and owner of VGBlogger.com. He is responsible for maintaining the day to day operation of the site, editing all staff content before it is published, and contributing regular news, reviews, previews and other articles.
Matt landed his first gig in the video game review business writing for the now-defunct website BonusStage.com. After the sad and untimely close of BonusStage, the former staff went on to found VGBlogger.com. After a short stint as US Site Manager for AceGamez, Matt assumed full ownership over VGBlogger, and to this day he is dedicated to making it one of the top video game blogs in all the blogosphere.
Matt is a fair-minded reviewer and lover of games of all platforms and types, big or small, hyped or niche, big-budget or indie. But that doesn't mean he will let poor games slide without a good thrashing when necessary! 
I was already pretty well sold. The hardware is in line with the iPad 2, which is amazingly powerful. And you’re right – the price is perfect! I am still not sure about the whole 3G setup – I know it uses AT&T, but it isn’t clear how it will work in terms of requiring data plan, etc …
I think the real problem is that the 3DS is a pretty clear sign that the world has largely moved on from dedicated handheld gaming systems – and in particular from paying $30-40 for games that offer perhaps 2x the value of $5-10 smartphone/tablet games … it should make for an interesting holiday!
Well, I don’t think you’re going to see game pricing be any different on the PS Vita. I’d be shocked if new games are under $40, and wouldn’t be surprised if they’re a bit more (at least the retail version- the digital shop stuff still hasn’t been clarified). And I’m fine with that because, personally, I do think the vast majority of these games offer far more value and production quality than the regular $5-10 iPhone/iPad game.
And I think there is a big audience still there for dedicated handheld gaming. To me the Vita is still very much a dedicated gaming system — at least more so than smartphones and tablets.
The problem with the 3DS is that it’s main feature–the 3D– doesn’t really change anything, and it launched at kind of an odd time when people weren’t ready (and didn’t see the need) to buy a new system. Not to mention the fact that it shipped without its eShop and browser, two major online components. But after Nintendo’s E3 showing today, I think you’ll see the 3DS start to gain some traction into the holidays. I doubt it’ll ever reach the heights of the DS, but it is a great system.
I just hope we can make it through a friendly holiday season without all the console wars nonsense of which platform sells more, and thus which platform is deemed ‘better’. But yeah…who am I kidding, the mainstream gaming blogs love peddling in that shit for hits. Just as I’m sure there’ll be a million posts about who “won” E3 when it doesn’t make any difference.
Oh, I agree that there is a good sized audience, but Nintendo lost a huge amount of the casual market to smartphones, and Sony’s PSP Minis flopped because they were pretty much iPhone ports at 2x the price.
Not to mention how absolutely sweet it will be playing a shooter with dual-sticks on a nice 5″ HD screen with the GPU horsepower of the Vita! I almost hit pre-order on Amazon but need more WiFi/3G details first!
But my point is there is a perception problem with portable games and price … and that could cause issues depending on expectations – and how well Sony wrangles developers and supports the device (cough, cough PSP Go).
As for the Win/Lose thing, it started the week after the 3DS launch (losing) and won’t stop anytime soon – like you say it gathers hits.