PlayStation Vita ( Sony NGP ) - Price and Release Date Confirmed

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 for yet unnamed region ( highly probably that this will be Japan ) was confirmed by Sony, which is planned to late 2011, expected towards holidays season ( update: PS Vita will be released in Japan on December, 17 ).

On this press-conference few new features was announced, including one that will allow to use Saves from PS Vita games in PlayStation 3 games. Save files will be stored in the "cloud" on Sony remote servers, and players will have access to them from both PS Vita and PS3. In other words, players can start play a game at home on PS3, then take portable console by Sony, went outside and continue to play same game on PS Vita from the same level.

Also a Cross-play feature was announced, which allows to play in multiplayer together for PS3 and Vita owners. It's worth to mention that there is no limitations on how many of each platform can be in the game simultaneously — it may be 7 PS Vita and 1 PS3, or vise versa — 7 PS3 and 1 PS Vita, for example.

PlayStation Vita price fulfills optimistic expectations — model with Wi-Fi and no 3G module will be priced at $249 for american customers, while one with 3G will cost $299. PS Vita price for Europe will be €249 и €299 respectively.

Just few days before that Sony also mentioned that PS Vita will have backward compatibility with PSP original games that distributes over PlayStation Network. Picture will be resized and filtered by Vita hardware to match increased screen resolution and size, and old games will have an option to use both analog sticks. Compatibility is implemented by a software emulator that will be embedded into PS Vita.

Launch titles for Vita ( update: Japan launch titles revealed ) includes such grandes as LittleBigPlanet, Uncharted, Wipeout, Street Fighter X Tekken and other. More detailed list of games, intended to be released at the same time with console, with screenshots and other information can be viewed at PlayStation Website.

And for dinner — few videos from E3. 

PlayStation Vita Release Date Update

Unfortunately Sony's official Kazuo Hirai in recent inteview with AP reporters told that Sony doesn't have plans on releasing PlayStation Vita in Europe and U.S. this calendar year — meaning that PS Vita release date moved to early 2012.

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P.S. Also I'd like to pay your attention to one of the PS Vita launch titles — it's a Ruin, Action/RPG game in Diablo and Torchlight style. This game looks promising, and I definitely would like to have such a game in my pocket. There is some screenshots — look for yourself, looks pretty interesting for me.