[Update: Missed the press conference? Here's our handy wrap-up]
In what will come as no surprise to anyone, Sony has renamed the NGP to PlayStation Vita, or PS Vita for short.
The specs (which we've included after the jump) for the device seem to be the same, and the only thing that has really changed is the name on the shell. And with that name change comes a highly reasonable price tag of $249 for the WiFi model (the price of the 3DS!) and $299 for the model with both WiFi and 3G. Gamers in Europe will unfortunately be paying a hefty 249 and 299 euros, respectively. The superpowered handheld will release during the 2011 holiday season in all regions.
More interesting is the announcement of the Party system. It allows players to voice chat via headset or built-in microphone in party rooms across any game, similar to Xbox Live's party system. They also reaffirmed the Near system, which is also similar to Xbox Live's friend features.
Finally, those of us in America will have to suffer with AT&T's exclusive service for the new handheld. The telecom giant will have a complete monopoly when it comes to 3G connectivity.
There's some great news here -- an amazing pricetag for Americans that is highly competitive with Nintendo's 3DS and a party system that should have been on PS3 years ago. But Europe is getting the shaft, and there was an audible groan in the conference hall when AT&T's name came up. With 80 titles in development, will you be grabbing one of the models despite AT&T's spotty service, or are memories of the pre-Verizon iPhone too bad?
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Platform Name
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PlayStation®Vita
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Model number
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PCH-1000 series
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CPU
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ARM® Cortex™-A9 core (4 core)
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GPU
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SGX543MP4+
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External Dimensions
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Approx. 182.0 x 18.6 x 83.5mm (width x height x depth) (tentative, excludes largest projection)
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Screen
(Touch screen)
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5 inches (16:9), 960 x 544, Approx. 16 million colors, OLED
Multi touch screen (capacitive type)
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Rear touch pad
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Multi touch pad (capacitive type)
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Cameras
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Front camera, Rear camera
Frame rate : 120fps@320x240(QVGA), 60fps@640x480(VGA)
Resolution : Up to 640x480(VGA)
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Sound
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Built-in stereo speakers
Built-in microphone
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Sensors
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Six-axis motion sensing system (three-axis gyroscope, three-axis accelerometer), Three-axis electronic compass
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Location
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Built-in GPS (3G/Wi-Fi model only)
Wi-Fi location service support
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Keys/Switches
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PS button
Power button
Directional buttons (Up/Down/Right/Left)
Action buttons (Triangle, Circle, Cross, Square)
Shoulder buttons (Right/Left)
Right stick, Left stick
START button, SELECT button
Volume buttons (+/-)
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Wireless communications
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Mobile network connectivity (3G/Wi-Fi model only)
IEEE 802.11b/g/n (n = 1x1)(Wi-Fi) (Infrastructure mode/Ad-hoc mode)
Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR (A2DP/AVRCP/HSP）
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Slots/Ports
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PlayStation®Vita card slot
Memory card slot
SIM card slot (3G/Wi-Fi model only)
Multi-use port (for USB data communication, DC IN, Audio [Stereo Out / Mono In], Serial data communication),
Headset jack (Stereo mini jack) (for Audio [Stereo Out / Mono In])
Accessory port
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Power
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Built-In Lithium-ion Battery,
AC adaptor
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Supported
AV content
format
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Music
－MP3 MPEG-1/2 Audio Layer 3, MP4 (MPEG-4 AAC), WAVE (Linear PCM)
Videos
－MPEG-4 Simple Profile (AAC), H.264/MPEG-4 AVC Hi/Main/Baseline Profile (AAC)
Photos
－JPEG (Exif 2.2.1), TIFF, BMP, GIF, PNG
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Contest:
8:35 PM on 06.06.2011 | 
Nintendo's stubborn greed and demand to make mad profit from day one screwed them big time. I can't believe I'm tempted to buy vita over 3ds
still, great price
I'll be waiting a bit until there's a larger library of games, but still.
I still most likely won't get one, but this great for those who plan to purchase this. Nintendo better keep a close eye on this thing.
whoa whoa whoa, hold that fuckin horse! PARTY SYSTEM!? BRING THAT SHIT TO PS3 NOW!
Nah. I'll go with the smaller model.
Christ man, it's so annoying, we europeans always get boned when it comes to prices....
Hahahaha! You mean the system that has undersold despite supermakrets offering discounts?
Whilst the online chat thing sounds interesting, I think Sony's pricing will mean people will simply pass over the thing. It doesn't even havea strong gimmick like the 3DS and it seems like Sony haven't learnt their lesson with the PS3 in that no matter how much you boast about the tech and features, people tend to want an affordable console with the valued essentials and a unique offering.
So I publicly state that this console won't sell as much as the 3DS and that this console will definetely sell less than the PSP.
im very tempted to get one of these, i have a 3ds and still have yet to get a 3ds game for it (had eb games/game spot credit i needed to use) but the games on this are sounding awesome
glad sony made it the same price as a 3DS :P
what about ram? is it still 500 something or what?
Sony wins e3
Great news though, can totally live with this price. Here's hoping the Vita and Project Café don't launch too close to eachother, will get them both. ^^
Also, how do they not learn from the apple/at&t hate? at&t exclusive 3g? Yikes...
Great move, Sony. Now, let's just see how you'll manage to fuck it all up this time.