Sony PS Vita up for pre-orders on GameStop
I have been a gamer since the days of the Atari console and over the years the thing that has been a fact of the gaming world is that each successive generation of consoles tends to get more expensive. The gamer might complain about cost but if the console has some compelling features and good games many people will buy the console even if it's expensive. Generally we see the major console developers simply choose the hardware and then price their machines accordingly.
Sony's PSP successor, which has long been dubbed the NGP for next-generation portable was finally unveiled at E3 2011 as the PS Vita. It promises to bring PS3 console quality games to handheld and was slated for this fall just in time for the holiday season. However, recent reports from online pre-orders through Amazon suggest that the device may not ship until January of next year.
One of the major announcements kicking off this past week's E3 2011 conference, was Sony's unveiling of the next-generation portable (NGP) now known as the PS Vita. The new portable gaming device boasts front and rear cameras as well as a unique integration of front and rear touch panels into its gameplay among several new features. Pricing and general timeframe for availability was also revealed. But if you still have more questions, Sony has posted up a long FAQs to answer everything or at least what it can say for now.
![E3 2011: Sony NGP Officially PS Vita [Updated with VIDEO]](https://c.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/sony_ps_vita.jpg)
We've been waiting for this moment, the unveiling of the next-generation portable, the Sony NGP. During Sony's E3 2011 press conference, the company confirmed several rumors for the PSP successor. Sony exec Kazuo Hirai took the stage for the reveal and made it known that the official name for the Sony NGP is indeed the Sony PS VIta.
We all know that Sony is hard at work on a new portable game console to replace the PSP that hasn't sold well. The code name for the new console was NGP and the device is expected to get official for the first time at E3 this week. I mentioned last week that the source code on the PlayStation site had listed a couple occurrences of the PS Vita name, which is thought to be the official name for the NGP when it lands.
Microsoft's new Windows 8 tablet UI got previewed this past week at the D9 Conference. The new OS was later shown running on some actual ARM-powered tablet prototypes at Computex. The major trade show in Taipei also revealed the ASUS Padfone to much fanfare and gimmickry. Other news came from the Qualcomm Uplinq event as well as speculations surrounding next weeks WWDC and E3 events. Continue after the jump for the full video and list of pertinent links.
Just earlier today, Sony confirmed that the NGP handheld will be backwards compatible with all those PSP games you've purchased in the past. The company also decided to do an early preview of select NGP games during its private event at the Sony Pictures soundstage in LA.
The Sony PSP successor codenamed the NGP is expected to debut at the upcoming E3 2011 conference. When the NGP was first announced, it was said that the device would be able to play previously downloaded PSP games. At a press event today, Sony has gone further to confirm and detail this backwards compatibility.
The Sony NGP sounds like it will be a very cool portable game system. Sony is hoping that the NGP will be able to compete with the Nintendo 3DS in sales the way the original PSP was never able to compete with the Nintendo DS. Whether or not the competition will be what Sony hopes for remains to be seen. So far, we really don't know all the official specs for the NGP. We do know a few things though like the console is supposed to come in 3G or WiFi versions.
A few days ago, we mentioned that the Sony NGP might be delayed due to production issues resulting from the disaster in Japan right now. The story of delays in the next portable console from Sony started with Bloomberg and now Sony is saying that the Bloomberg report was not correct.
Sony's PSP successor, the NGP, is readying to launch later this year and sure to have a great line up of games. The manufacturer is promising that from day one digital release games will be available for download at the same time the physical games become available.
