Amid a slew of E3 announcements — and in the wake of hack attacks — Sony on Monday announced its next competitive move in the mobile-gaming-console market: The PlayStation Vita. The name means “life” in Latin.
Sony will sell a Wi-Fi model for $ 249 and a 3G/Wi-Fi version for $ 299 in the U.S. The product is set to debut at the end of the year and will go head to head against Nintendo’s 3DS handheld gaming device.
“Sony is really trying to drive the mobile experience forward and kick it up a notch,” said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Gartner. “The key is going to be offering a differentiated experience that you can’t get on a phone device, which has been one of the challenges. The question is whether consumers will pay for that premium gaming experience or is their mobile phone going to be good enough?”
A Smartphone Experience
Here’s the specs on Vita: It comes equipped with a five-inch multi-touch organic light-emitting diode as the front display and a multi-touch pad on the rear. Vita lets users interact directly with games in 3D-like motion by finger motions of touching, grabbing, tracing, pushing and pulling. Vita also comes with two analog sticks for shooting, action and fighting games.
Sony promises Vita will empower social gaming by letting users meet, connect, share and play with friends in different locations. The Vita comes with an application called “near” that lets users see what games other Vita users nearby are playing or recently played. The app also lets users share their game information and enables location-based game features like gifting.
With gifting, a user can access virtual game-related items that others are sharing by checking in at geographic locations others have visited. Those virtual items range from unlocked gaming content to character costumes, weapons and treasures. Gifting…
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