It hit the shops in early 2012, it’s Sony’s big response to the Nintendo 3DS and it’s called the PlayStation PSVita. While the games and the tech don’t necessarily look far and away out of sight in comparison, for any existing PlayStation lovers it’s going to be massively anticipated.
Initial PSVita games include a super slick Ridgracer and Uncharted Golden Abyss, EA Sports FIFA Football, F1 2011, LittleBigPlanet, Virtual Tennis 4, Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 and WipeOut 2048.
However, it’s the PSVita tech that shows its future potential as a hand held console. It’s got a 5-inch, 16 million colours touch screen, a multi-touch rear pad, a built in front and rear camera, GPS for augmented reality gaming and location-based type things, as well as connection to the PlayStation Network through either the 3D Mobile version with Wifi or the Wifi only version.
It’s also got a 6 axis motion sensor to pick up the devices movement, so that you can use it as a steering wheel or other motion sensor control option. It’s also got duel analogue joysticks to give it more than a few options for control innovations in games and a serious gamer appeal.
PSVita launch trailer:
The rear touchpad means that you can interact with games on the Vita from the back of the device, creating new and unique actions to perform in games, and the microphone could mean that voice recognition will feature in the not too distant future.
The PSVita supports most forms of video, music and photo file options and it launched with a small, but inevitably growing list of apps, including Skype, Twitter, Facebook and the PlayStation Store.
With the 3G version you get internet anywhere there’s mobile connectivity and real time game additions to the hand held system. This means that the device can be used for multi-player gaming while you’re on the move without the need for Wifi.
The PlayStation PSVita launches on the 22nd February in the UK. Retailing at £229.99 for the Wifi version and £279.99 for the Wifi and 3G version, it’s well places to take the gaming industry by storm in the lull between the previous and the next generation games consoles.
Since its release in 2012 there have been a number of impressive game releases for the PSVita, including:
