A year after the initial Playstation Vita announcement, Sony have confirmed that the first units have gone on sale here in the UK from midnight this morning.
The Oxford Street GAME store headed up the release, showcasing the little console in the ‘Vita Rooms’ set-up for gamers to try before they buy.
With the release at midnight many were surprised to see such a turnout to todays release. Numbers were greater than those seen at the Kinect and Nintendo 3DS’s release.
21 Year Old Zohaib Ali headed up the queue having waited since SUNDAY for the next-generation handheld console. He did in fact comment on this being the “next-genration” handheld hence his excitement and patience.
Sony VP Michael Denny commented on the new Vita saying, “We have a truly next-gen piece of hardware and a great software line-up.”
“There’s no question that gamers have been waiting for something new, something that is truly next-gen, so certainly we expect to start with people who care about their games to want a PlayStation Vita.
“You look at the specs of the hardware in terms of a portable device… there’s nothing out there like it – there’s nothing that competes with it. It really is a great device, but when you marry with that the great software – 50 titles announced so far – I think it really will appeal to core gamers.
“But going forward, I think it has enough about it with social connectivity and the touch screens to appeal to a wider audience down the tracks.”
As for how popular the console will be SCEA’s Gul Longworth said, “We expect to have a great launch, but it’s really in 12 or 24 months we’ll know how successful it has been.”
The PlayStation Vita is currently retailing for around £200.
