PlayStation Vita release date and pricing announced

PSP News | Portable wars recommence early next year.

While there are still a lot of details about the PlayStation Vita that haven't been unveiled for the Australian market, the release date has been finally confirmed by Sony via press release. While the Japanese release date is locked in for 17 December 2011 along side a fairly impressive launch list, Australia will be sharing the release date with America and Europe: 22 February 2012. For those still playing favourites, this is gives the Nintendo 3DS roughly an 11 month head start.

Sony has also confirmed the pricing for our region. The Wi-Fi model will retail in Europe for €249.99, in Australia for AU$349.95 and in New Zealand for NZ$449.95. The Wi-Fi/3G model will retail in Europe for €299.99, in Australia for AU$449.95 and in New Zealand for NZ$549.95.

“PlayStation Vita is a revolutionary device, which will offer the best possible portable gaming experiences available on the market. Its impressive feature set is designed to provide the ultimate gaming experiences on the go. This, combined with social connectivity means there will be not only innovative new ways to play, but also new ways to connect with others,” said Michael Ephraim, Managing Director, Sony Computer Entertainment Australia and New Zealand.

Unfortunately, the fact sheet included in the press release failed to mention that console is (thankfully) confirmed as region free, nor elaborate on whether the console battery life is still in the midst of three to five hours, as has been previously reported. However, given that the fact sheet mentions of the all the system's social features, it gives us confidence that none of these will be skimped for this region.

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19 Comments

Karai Pantsu

7 months ago

I'm actually tempted to order a Japanese release console... shades of PSP launch all over again.

David No.1

7 months ago

Jeebus, $450 for the 3G model... that's more expensive than the PS3 these days. I'll definitely be picking up the 3G-less model. I hardly play games in public.

Feb 22nd sounds good, but seeing as Japan get's it almost 2 months earlier, it's quite tempting to import as Karai just said.

DarkYoshii

7 months ago

Yeah, I'll order a Japanese release console if it has English menus. Due to the 3Gness of it all I'm a little concerned there might be issues but we'll find out more closer to release I guess.

ZeroX03

7 months ago

Good luck trying to pre-order a japanese model.

Schultzy

7 months ago

Anyone with an idea of how 3G will work, which carriers, pricing etc? I assume something along the lines of how iPad 3g works, but I have no idea about that....

Pilot

7 months ago

I'm interested in the wi-fi version, but only if there's some pre-order offers bringing the price down or including a game. Not overly keen to bite as we're once again getting a poor deal compared to the US prices and I have a massive PSP backlog anyway.

Cyph

7 months ago

Hmm.. surprisingly expensive.

Jarrod

7 months ago

Getting knobbed by Nintendo and Sony? Not sure if want.

LeonJ

7 months ago

3G model is a stupid price and will be a mega battery killer (unless the price includes a FATTER battery).

Bit rich for my blood, 3DS admittedly was significantly worst value and I got burnt a little bit. But I prefer to get burnt by Nintendo who will give me a boatload of games I will heavily enjoy. I'm not interested in one game other then Uncharted coming to the Vita (cause I can get rest on console).

Shadow Wave

7 months ago

Decent price I spose. I played a Vita and Uncharted at a sony product event about 2 weeks ago. I dunno I wasn't overly impressed with it for some reason...

admeister

7 months ago

The Wi-Fi model is the same price as the 3DS was retailed for over here, so I consider that to be a total win. I'm having a lot of trouble deciding on whether to get a 3G model or not though, there's quite a different in price.

john_solids

7 months ago

if the 3g was $350 i would buy one on launch, but a bit out of my league, might have to wait a fair while till the 3g is around that price and pick up the wifi only for hopefully $250 (so not getting one to early in its release)

Jedi_Amara

7 months ago

I'm getting asshole vibes from the price, much as I would like one

Hopefully they pull a 3DS and reduce it to $250 a few months later >_>

ppjim3

7 months ago

I can't see why anyone would bother with a 3G one! That price is way too high and with the prevalence of 3G phones (that give you net access, not to mention tethering) do you really need your heavy-gaming portable to be online at ALL times? As LeonJ says the battery issue is very important given what we know already. WIFI is the way to go with the price difference.

Missing Christmas is a pretty big letdown (though expected of course) as it's gonna give the 3DS (MK7 is gonna kill it) some *actual* momentum. I'll stick with my 3DS for now and see how it goes until later on next year. Love the tech and looking forward to some decent games on it!

admeister

7 months ago

I have my doubts about that. Despite the fact that the price is $100 higher than the U.S one, I still think that $350 is a good price for the console considering how much tech they've crammed into it.

Benza

7 months ago

It's region free isn't it? So if you're not getting the 3G one why not just buy one from the US?

Ciel

7 months ago

I'm not sure how the 3G model will go with the Australian market but in Japan 65% of pre-orders which opened up last week was for the 3G model, then again it's only a 5000¥ difference between the 2 models.

admeister

7 months ago

Of course, that makes perfect sense. The only downside is that you don't really have any warranty. I'm leaning towards getting the 3G version though, I think the extra features will be pretty interesting.

chibiandy

7 months ago

I'll probably wait for the AU version (for all we care DSE might do a special online deal, like what they've done with the 3DS when it first launched), though I'll probably go for the WiFi version (I'll just use my phone as a hotspot, I have 500 MB to burn, and I only burn through 50% at most each month). That and it gives me time to save up

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