By the time Sony officially announced the next-gen PlayStation Vita handheld, everyone expected them to release it in time for the holidays. If you’re part of the gaming population who expected to own a PS Vita by year’s end, we’ve got some bad news for you. According to Sony deputy Kaz Hirai, the PlayStation Vita won’t be out in the US and European markets until early 2012.
Sony has officially introduced the PSP’s heir at E3, the device formally known as the Next-Gen Portable or “NGP.” While it generally kept all the previously known features, it didn’t keep the NGP name, and they unveiled it as the PlayStation Vita – or PS Vita if you want to keep it short (for the record, we kind of liked “NGP” better).
While the details of the next-gen Wii are still very slim, they’re slowly coming in. After the recently leaked info that says the next Wii will pack a highly improved and updated spec that could possibly trump the Xbox 360 and PS3’s hardware, here’s another bit of info that should be as telling, but just as vague. According to a Game Informer source, the new console’s controller will also pack a built-in HD screen.
Sony has just unveiled what certainly looks like the next-gen PSP, but called it the NGP (or Next Generation Portable). Whether the name sticks or not doesn’t matter (they could call it the Magical Hand Banana and we wouldn’t care), because at least we know what to expect now. According to the presentation, Sony’s new portable console will focus on five concepts: Revolutionary User Interface, Social Connectivity, Location-based Entertainment, Converging Real and Virtual Reality. Another key feature for loyal PSP gamers: this thing’s going to be backwards-compatible with downloadable PSP games, as well as PS1 games from the PlayStation Suite.
Heads-up, gaming geeks, Sony just released the PlayStation app over at the App Store. In case you haven’t heard of it yet, let’s just get this out of the way: despite the name, it doesn’t come with any PlayStation-type games, nor will it in any way give you access to any kind of mobile gaming whatsoever. The app is simply a way for you to access your PSN account while you’re out and about, so yeah, it’s obviously for PS-players of the hardcore variety.
