Consoles: PlayStation Vita

On the eve of highly anticipated Tokyo Games Show that took place these days in Japan, Sony held a press-conference, which has all of the attention on the upcoming PSP successor, next-generation handheld gaming console called PlayStation Vita. Among the other interesting information actual release date of the device become known — unfortunately, only for Japan at the moment.

As the end of this year approaches and many times speculated Sony PlayStation Vita release goes along with it, gamers from Europe and United States still are under confusion by the question — when the PS Vita actually wil be released? Looks like one of the biggest internet markets is ready to unveil this mystery — accordingly to new information from Amazon, release date for PS Vita can be December, 31th.

Bad news, gamers of United States and Europe — hopes for early release of Sony's new portable gaming console were not realized. Kazuo Hirai, Sony vice-president, in interview with Associated Press reporters confirmed that PlayStation Vita will not ship to U.S. and  Europe at least until early 2012, while Japan probably still will get PS Vita this calendar year.

On June, 6th a Sony press-conference took place at E3, where new portable console, known as Next Generation Portable ( NGP ) or PSP 2, was officially presented. As expected, NGP, that was first announced in January, will be released under the name of PlayStation Vita ( PS Vita ). Also actual PS Vita price and scheduled release date was confirmed by Sony, which is planned to late 2011, probably towards holidays season.

Thanks to "reliable sources" of few independed websites and leaked Sony's E3 graphic materials highly probable release name of Sony Next Generation Portable ( also known as NGP or PSP 2 ) became known to the general public. So, accordingly to not yet officially confirmed information, new Sony portable console will be released under the name of PlayStation Vita.

Accordingly to MCV, a United Kingdom portal that covers game industry events, possible release date for NGP in Europe may become 11 November 2011. Unnamed MCV source claims that third-party game developers are told by Sony to finish their launching projects for this console before the end of summer to make it ready for release in autumn.

Not long ago a new Sony's portable gaming console codenamed Next Generation Portable ( NGP ) was announced, when technical specs and actual device was revealed, and now some game engines and middleware developers are happy to claim their support for NGP platform in their products. Following companies announced or already presented their solutions with NGP support: Crytek, Epic Games, FMOD, Havok, Trinigy, Termianl Reality and more. With such tools games on NGP should be really great!

From the time when NGP was announced many people was curious — what will be price for new Sony's portable gaming console ( PSP2 )? How much should we strip from our lunches to afford this cutie, when it will be released? Right after NGP presentation some people was scared that price for such device will be too high — around $700, like PS3 was by the time of it's release, but later experts agreed that NGP cost will not be too high and for platform success should be around 300-400 USD. Whops! Kotaku finds interesting survey about NGP. $250 & $350?..

Right after the NGP announce most of us were curious to see — what will be games on NGP? Now, knowing technical specifications of new Sony handheld console and few videos from different presentations, we have possibility to do so. Let's look at Little Big Planet, Monster Hunter, Wipeout, Lost Planet 2, Killzone and Uncharted for NGP!

Just recently I wrote about Nintendo 3DS announce, and now Sony makes their own turn in epic battle for gamer's hearts, souls and wallets. Yep, that's it — PSP2 ( for now codenamed NGP, Next Generation Portable ) was announced on PlayStation Meeting conference in Tokyo. Many journalists gathered to this event, ready to behold upcoming Sony masterpiece, and their expectations was fulfilled.