U.S. consumers won’t get to buy it until February, but Sony starts selling a new handheld video game system, the PlayStation Vita, Saturday in Japan.
The Nintendo DS has been the dominant dedicated handheld game system, selling more than 149 million worldwide since 2004, vs. 73 million for PlayStation Portable. But as the popularity of smartphone and tablet games grew, Sony began devising a handheld to leapfrog current devices.
Consumers want “new kinds of experiences on portable that they can’t necessarily have on their home devices,” says Sony Computer Entertainment Group CEO Andrew House. He succeeded Kazuo Hirai as head of the PlayStation business in September, when Hirai took over responsibility for the Consumer Products & Services Group, including TV, home video/audio and games.
House took time to talk to USA TODAY about the launch of the Vita in Japan. The system is scheduled to be available in the U.S. and elsewhere Feb. 22, starting at $ 249.99. The interview was edited for space and clarity.
Q: What special features on the Vita will elevate mobile gaming?
A: Dual analog sticks, the rear touch pad so that you can manipulate the game without obscuring anything on the screen in front of you, a high-quality touch panel display, a 5-inch jaw-droppingly beautiful OLED (organic light-emitting diode) screen, gyro-motion sensors and GPS. We have really tried to take the whole panoply of user interfaces that are important to a portable experience and patch them into this one device. It translates into something magical when you are using your finger to wipe away the dust in Uncharted to uncover some secret clue buried there in the sand. These are the kinds of little magical moments that gamers will not have experienced before.
Q: How has the rise of smartphone and tablet gaming affected Sony’s strategies?
A: It has influenced us to…
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