Sony's PlayStation Vita Handheld Finally Launches

The Vita finally launches, but only in Japan.

It feels like we've been waiting for the PlayStation Vita for an age. Sony announced the PSP2, codenamed NGP, way back in January. However, while the company was pretty forthcoming with specs, it wasn’t quite ready to divulge pricing and a release date. Then, at a pre-E3 press conference in June, Sony filled in some of the blanks and renamed the device the PlayStation Vita. The company priced the device and said it would arrive by the end of the year.

This past weekend, Sony delivered on that promise as the PlayStation Vita hit Japanese stores on Saturday. Sadly, while Japanese gamers might be able to put in special, last-minute requests to old St. Nick, those of us in the U.S. and Europe will have to wait, and instead pin on our hopes on Cupid delivering us a late-Valentine's Day gift. The PlayStation Vita handheld is scheduled to launch on February 22 in the United States and across Europe. Kotaku reports that Sony's Kaz Hirai appeared at a countdown event in Shibuya, which drew a line of about sixty or more by 7am on Saturday. Other locations around Japan also attracted lines of moderate length, though nothing as crazy as the queues the country saw for the launch of the PlayStation 3. 

For those that need reminding (it has been an awfully long time since the device launched, after all), the PS Vita boasts a quad-core ARM Cortex A9 CPU; a 5-inch 960x544 multitouch OLED display; a rear touchpad with multitouch; both front-facing and rear-facing cameras with frame rates of 120fps at 320x240 (QVGA) and 60fps at 640x480 (VGA); GPS; Bluetooth 2.1+EDR; PlayStation Vita card slot; memory card slot; a SIM card slot; and a multi-use port for USB data communication, DC IN, Audio (Stereo Out / Mono In), Serial data communication, and WiFi and 3G support. There's also a WiFi-only model for those with an aversion to data contracts.