PlayStation Vita Released in Japan

The newest handheld portable gaming system from Sony was just released to the masses in Japan. Japan had initially set aside approximately 700,000 units for launch day. Reports are indicating that the PS Vita has sold out on its first day. "I'm so happy to see so many people lining up for PS Vita so early in the morning," Sony Computer Entertainment Japan President Hiroshi Kono wrote in his official blog after touring several Tokyo stores. "I can tell they had anxiously waited for today's launch."

The PS Vita arrived in stores with an impressive game list for buyers to purchase. Their are twenty-four games that launched with the PS Vita. A great feature of the PS Vita is that it is backwards compatible with PSP-downloadable games, PlayStation minis, the PlayStation Suite (aka PlayStation Certified titles) and PSOne Classics. It's not compatible with PSP games and doesn't support the UMD format Sony introduced with that handheld.

In Tokyo’s Ikebukuro shopping district, some 300 game enthusiasts lined up outside a major electronics chain that opened a few hours earlier than usual for the event. Many of the purchasers had made advance orders on the Internet so they could start playing immediately.


The device is a touch-interface and motion-sensitive handheld seen as a successor to the PlayStation Portable. Gamers can connect over cell phone networks and Wi-Fi hotspots, and use GPS location-tracking technology.
Television footage showed some shoppers unwrapping their new purchases and starting to try them out at the store.


The Vita has front and back cameras, a touchscreen in front, a touch pad on the back and two knob-like joysticks. It will enable gamers to play against each other using PlayStation 3 consoles over the Internet-based PlayStation Network, a system that was hit with a massive hacking attack earlier this year.