Sony NGP officially named PlayStation Vita, pricing unveiled

[Emil]

Sony has announced the name for its PSP successor, codenamed Next Generation Portable (NGP), and the rumors were indeed spot on. The NGP will be dubbed the PlayStation Vita (PS Vita) (PCH-1000 series) – for those wondering, Vita means Life in Latin.

Sony also unveiled the pricing structure: the Wi-Fi model will be available for 25,000 yen (including tax) in Japan, $250.00 in the US, and €250.00 in Europe, while the 3G/Wi-Fi model will be available for 30,000 yen (including tax) in Japan, $300.00 in the US and €300.00 in Europe. Exact release dates are still unknown, all Sony has said is that the PS Vita will launch globally at the end of this year.

Sony is promising that the PS Vita will have give a PS3-level experience with a quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor and a multi-core PowerVR SGX543MP4 graphics chip four times faster than the PSP's. The device will come with a 5-inch OLED screen, two micro-analog sticks to simulate the Dual Shock experience, front and rear facing cameras, and two-finger multitouch pad on the back of the machine. Sony is hoping the front and rear touch screens will offer new three dimension-like motion gameplay experiences never before seen on any device through "touch, grab, trace, push and pull" finger motions. A Sixaxis equivalent with a gyroscope and accelerometer is also available to let players control games by moving and tilting the system itself.

In terms of connectivity you can expect built-in 3G in addition to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, as well as GPS support. The PS Vita will come with a pre-installed app called Party, which lets you use voice chat or text chat when gaming, using other apps, or browsing the Internet. Another app, called Near, will let you share your game information with other users and add them as friends.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/44128-sony-ngp-officially-named-playstation-vita-pricing-unveiled.html

 

[Guest]

1:1 dollar -> euro conversion -.-

Still, you get some pretty amazing hardware for that price if you compare it to smartphones. Either they sell this on a loss or the normal phones have huge profit margins.

Lets hope the games are any good (and actually get released over here in Europe)

 

[Guest]

You assume it's a conversion. There's nothing unusual about a product launching with different price points in different regions. That said, I'm surprised to see it coming in under the $300 mark.

 

[Guest]

What an awful name.

 

[Guest]

They used the "awful name" argument against the Gameboy and Wii, and it didn't stop them selling. UK price is £229, so not as bad as it could be.

Latest game pics and videos for Vita titles - http://psp2roundup.blogspot.com/2011/06/sony-vita-e3-news.html

 

[Guest]

Does it have vibration or force-feedback???

 

[Guest]

I was never much of a handheld type of guy but this one has caught my eyes, and the feature of continuing your game on either the ps3 or vita (name sounds like one of those Chinese knockoffs) is awesome. Will definitely get it if I see a good RPG game on it. Graphics are great btw, night and day between the 3DS and cheaper. This is a great move for Sony.

 

[Guest]

LoL that's cheap.....evebn though Australia's Dollar is above USA's We'll still get ripped off by anoth $100...$350..GAH!! there is not competition in Australia just Eb games ripping evryone off!

 

[Guest]

No, the USD is still higher than the crappy AUD.

 

[Lokalaskurar]

Trying to quote a "Guest" on this "dinner party" will be nearly impossible... so I'll keep it simple:

"Does it have vibration or force-feedback?"

2 rumours are circulating: 1. Yes, it will have haptic technology available just like any ordinary PS controller. 2. No, force feedback (as well as vibration) risks interfering with the gyrometer (or the accelerometer).

I have personally not seen any confirmation of either, but as this thing is loaded with technology, presumably FF or vibration will be a very basic component, thus easy to implement.

As for the price conversion; *laughs* it all reminds me of the Iranian oil selling for the same amount in ? as in $ => Iran wanted to sell oil to EU rather than the US => huge debate. But I would not worry too much about the prices. The prices seem more to be a recommendation than a outright cost, thus the actual prices might actually vary.

 

[Guest]

Sony, is this Vita another fail experiment on your customers like the PSP go? No thanks!

 

[lawfer]

I must admit, the price is nice. $200 would have been perfect, but $250 - $300 is not bad.

 

[Guest]

I feel Sony will need a lot of PR to get consumers interested in their products again.

and to Guest that said "No, the USD is still higher than the crappy AUD. "

The US dollar is being devalued, that's why gold is skyrocketing. Look at the graphs

 

[Vrmithrax]

Guest said:
Sony, is this Vita another fail experiment on your customers like the PSP go? No thanks!

Not likely. The Go was far too divergent from the PSP in many critical areas. They jumped into a grand experiment that failed pretty miserably. If you look at the Vita, it's obvious that Sony learned from mistakes made with the Go, and are listening to what their customers want. Touchscreen? Check! Dual analog sticks? Check! Double the screen resolution? Check! Bluetooth? Check! Extra control options like rear touch, sixaxis motion control, etc? Check!

If you like the original PSP, odds are you'll love the Vita. The only stumbling block I see is one that is a holdover from the Go - no UMD support, so backwards compatibility with an existing PSP library of games becomes an issue. That's the only part that would give me pause when looking to replace my well-worn and aged PSP 2000 right now.

 

[princeton]

So now I can't call it the no games portable? That sucks.

 

[Zecias]

Guest said:
I feel Sony will need a lot of PR to get consumers interested in their products again.

and to Guest that said "No, the USD is still higher than the crappy AUD. "

The US dollar is being devalued, that's why gold is skyrocketing. Look at the graphs

but it is still higher than the AUD so hes correct..... its about 1USD:0.9AUD

 

[Vrmithrax]

zecias said:
but it is still higher than the AUD so hes correct..... its about 1USD:0.9AUD

You guys do realize that you are looking at it backwards, right? By that same comparative logic, the Euro is complete trash next to the USD, because the current rate is 1USD to 0.68EUR. Flip it around to see what I'm saying... 1AUD = 1.07USD today. So, an Australian dollar buys you more than 1 US dollar. Hence, the Aussie dollar is stronger. Just as 1EUR = 1.47USD today, indicating the Euro is stronger than the US dollar.

This concludes Basic International Currency Exchange 101. Carry on.

 

[Relic]

As it's not mentioned here, AT&T will be the exclusive partner for the 3G PSVita (terrible name) in the United States, which is pretty disappointing imo.

 

[Vrmithrax]

It's really not surprising that AT&T are the 3G connection. I'm sure Sony didn't want to put out multiple 3G hardware options, so they standardized on the GSM protocol, which is the most widely used worldwide. That leaves out CDMA-based carriers (like Verizon in the US), and makes AT&T the only real choice to provide decent service coverage for the Vita consumers. Sometimes simplification can be great, but it usually limits options or choices in some way.

 

[princeton]

Vrmithrax said:
It's really not surprising that AT&T are the 3G connection. I'm sure Sony didn't want to put out multiple 3G hardware options, so they standardized on the GSM protocol, which is the most widely used worldwide. That leaves out CDMA-based carriers (like Verizon in the US), and makes AT&T the only real choice to provide decent service coverage for the Vita consumers. Sometimes simplification can be great, but it usually limits options or choices in some way.

Yah using AT&T was the best choice. The bands AT&T uses work on all the major carriers in Canada, most carriers in Europe and of course AT&T itself. Using CDMA would have been completely ridiculous and using T-mobile would limit it to AWS which is barely used in the modern world. Most carriers use 850/900/1900/2100.

 

[Guest]

So let me get this straight. Wi-Fi, 3G, Bluetooth 2.1, and BUILT IN GPS? Once this baby is jail broken, and I can use it to text, talk with my bluetooth headset, AND use it for GPS Navigation, my Tom Tom, gets trashed, my Cellphone will gather dust, and I will be in extacy. Plus, possible data tethering hax. Life is good.

 

[Guest]

Vita? Haha sony's screwed

 

[tacobfm]

I wanna see the battery life on this thing.

 

[R3DP3NGUIN]

I cant wait for this, finally decent graphics on hand held gaming consoles.

Why is there people arguing about the USD and the AUD. Honestly the US is in so much debt money doesn't mean anything. And besides a new currency will change things anyway.

 

[Guest]

the vibration function is what actually brings u into the game and if vita had this it would sell more

sadly i think the battery life is gonna be low cuz of all the features