Sony Announces PlayStation Vita At E3

Hardcore PSP fans rejoice! Sony has finally taken the curtains off its Next Generation Portable (NGP) gaming console at E3. The new portable gaming console is called PlayStation Vita or PSVita, and will be made available towards the end of this year at around Christmas.

PSVita(front and rear)

Kaz Hirai, Sony's CEO talked about the new Android-friendly PlayStation Suite, and added that Sony would continue to have very high expectations for PSP in the years to come. He added, "So, I'm very proud to showcase for the first time in North America, the successor to the PlayStation Portable, PlayStation Vita or PSVita for short".

Ruin for PSVita

He then demonstrated the PSVita, which sports two cameras, motion-sensors, 5" multi-touch OLED screen, two analogue sticks and rear touchpad. Scott Rohde, VP of Sony's Worldwide Studios Product Development, then showed off the demo of the forthcoming Uncharted Golden: Abyss to demonstrate cool-looking HD graphics and touchscreen motion-control capability of the handheld gaming console. Another PSVita title: Ruin, which is an action-RPG fantasy, was then demoed. This title, which will also be available on the PS3, will allow gamers to switch seamlessly between the game on the PSVita and the PS3. The PSVita also has a party mode in which, users can chat with friends using the handheld. There is also a location-based service called Near, which shows friends and discoveries in your vicinity.

The PSVita will be available in Christmas with a price tag of US$249 in U.S.A. for the Wi-Fi only model, while pricing for the rest of the world is yet to be announced. This makes it priced similar to the PS3 slim, which is not really going to be a good thing from the sales point of view.
The video below demonstrates Uncharted: Golden Abyss gameplay on the PSVita: