PlayStation Vita Release Date for US and Europe Moved to Early 2012

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 ( update: Japan will get PS Vita on December, 17 ).

Sony's senior official stated that company wants to ensure strong starting line-up for PS Vita launch, while they expecting that such game titles will not be ready by the end of the year. And there is more — despite the fact that Sony wants to launch Vita this year in Japan, no exact dates were given — meaning that Sony itself doesn't know for sure when Vita will be ready for a launch even in Japan.

Previously there was information that Sony prepares simultaneous global launch for PS Vita ( codenamed Next Generation Portable by the time of announce ), and some time later rumors appeared about November, 11 as the release date for Vita. Thus Sony officially confirmed that there will not be PS Vita for Europe and US in 2011.

Also Hirai answered the question regarding possible price cut for Vita in the light of recent cut by Nintendo for it's 3DS console, which will be priced in U.S. at $170 after August, 12. "We packed so much into the device and made it very affordable. There is no need to lower the price just because somebody else that happens to be in the video game business decided that they were going to lower their price."

Thus situation with PlayStation Vita for now looks like this: Japan release in late 2011 ( probably by the Christmas ), U.S. and Europe release — early 2012 ( expected before the end of a March, probably February ), priced at $249 for Wi-Fi model and $299 for 3G.