PS Vita Japan Release Date and Launch Games Line-Up

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.

So, PlayStation Vita will be released in Japan on December, 17. There was no new information about actual release dates for USA and Europe — PS Vita still expected "somewhere in early 2012" ( at the same time Amazon recently started taking pre-orders with shipping date set to December, 31 ).

PS Vita price for Japan didn't changed and it will cost same previously announced  ¥29,980 ( $390 ) for 3G version and ¥24,980 ( $325 ) for Wi-FI only model. It's still unclear for now if Sony will remain  announced prices for US and Europe ( 299 and 249 USD and Euro correspondingly ), or prices at release moment will go higher. Probably, such big price difference in terms of dollars for 3G model in Japan ( ~$390 ) and expected price in US ( $299 ) can be explained by the variability of currencies exchange rates or different marketing strategy for this countries. 

Also reporters have been told about 3G possibilities with PS Vita — 3G model owners will be able to use one of the pre-paid subscriptions plans for 3G service by DoCoMo telecom operator, purchasing 20 hours of service for ¥980 ($12.74), or 100 hours for ¥4,980 ($64.75).

Launch titles for PS Vita will include 26 items, with 20 of them available at PS Vita game cards and 6 as downloadable from PlayStation Store only. Square Enix announced two launch-day titles, developed for PS Vita at the moment — it's Action/RPG Lord of Apocalypse and horror-game Army Corps of Hell. Company also announced release of HD remake for Final Fantasy X, that was first released on PS2 in 2001. Final Fantasy X HD will be available on PS3 and PS Vita both, while release date for remake wasn't announced.

PS Vita will be launched with such available games: Disgaea 3 Return, Ridge Racer, Virtua Tennis 4, BlazBlue Continuum Shift Extend, Katamari Damacy, Little Deviants, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, F1 2011, Dark Quest and other ones..