Loads of new details about the PlayStation Vita have made the airwaves at Gamescom 2011 — including Facebook and Twitter apps, plus the final specs for the Sony gaming portable.
Sony was in full force Tuesday at their big-stage presser at this year’s Gamescom 2011. The company unveiled a proper price cut for the PlayStation 3, among other things, but that wasn’t all they had on their Cologne, Germany plate to share with the audience watching there and around the world.
Although far, far, far away from a North American or European launch (only Japan will be getting their hands on the PSP successor this holiday season,) Sony still managed to dish out some interesting new details about the PlayStation Vita. Happy news especially, if you’re the kind of chap or gal that likes to keep connected through social media.
It was announced at Gamescom that the PSV will offer online social integration by Facebook, foursquare, Skype, and Twitter as free downloadable apps from the PlayStation Store sometime in the future. The four apps will be joining the other Vita-exclusive apps such as Near and Party — all in a sharp effort to connect PlayStation Vita users with each other.
Moving away from Sony’s keynote and on to details that will surely be satisfying for hardcore gadget-head, a full spec-sheet for the PlayStation Vita was released. And while up to now Sony’s been quite dodgy with the final stats for the portable device, all is truly revealed here in this document provided by Sys-Con Media.
Platform Name PlayStation(R)Vita
Model number PCH-1000 series
CPU ARM(R) Cortex(TM)-A9 core (4 core)
GPU SGX543MP4+
External Approx. 182.0 x 18.6 x 83.5mm (width x height x depth)
Dimensions (tentative, excludes largest projection)
5 inches (16:9), 960 x 544, Approx. 16 million colors,
Screen OLED
------ ------------------------------------------------------
(Touch screen) Multi touch screen (capacitive type)
-------------- ------------------------------------
Main memory 512MB
----------- -----
VRAM 128MB
---- -----
Rear touch pad Multi touch pad (capacitive type)
Cameras Front camera, Rear camera
Frame rate : 120fps@320x240(QVGA), 60fps@640x480(VGA)
Resolution : Up to 640x480(VGA)
Sound Built-in stereo speakers
Built-in microphone
Six-axis motion sensing system (three-axis gyroscope,
three-axis accelerometer), Three-axis electronic
Sensors compass
------- ------------------------------------------------------
Location Built-in GPS (3G/Wi-Fi model only)
-------- ----------------------------------
Wi-Fi location service support
------------------------------
Keys / Switches 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 (+/-)
Wireless
communications Mobile network connectivity (3G/Wi-Fi model only)
IEEE 802.11b/g/n (n = 1x1)(Wi-Fi) (Infrastructure
mode/Ad-hoc mode)
Bluetooth(R) 2.1+EDR (A2DP/AVRCP/HSP)
-----------------------------------
Slots/Ports PlayStation(R)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
--------------
Power Built-In Lithium-ion Battery,
----- -----------------------------
AC adaptor
----------
Supported Music
--------- -----
-- MP3 MPEG-1/2 Audio Layer 3, MP4 (MPEG-4 AAC),
AV content WAVE (Linear PCM)
---------- -------------------------------------------------
format Videos
------ ------
-- MPEG-4 Simple Profile (AAC), H.264/MPEG-4 AVC
High/Main/Baseline Profile (AAC)
--------------------------------
Photos
------
-- JPEG (Exif 2.2.1), TIFF, BMP, GIF, PNG
----------------------------------------- Draw your attention most of all to the two entries above — 512MB for the main memory and 128MB for the video ram (VRAM.) That’s some serious power underneath the PS Vita’s hood — leapin’ lizards it has more main memory than a PlayStation 3 or an Xbox 360. Of course what this means overall, is that game studios won’t be constrained trying to fit games onto the platform.
And with the other news of super cheap development kits being around $3,000, confirmed by Sony’s PlayStation European hand, the landscape of potential content for the PlayStation Vita looks quite promising, not only from large game companies but Indie developers too.
If anything, Indie developer support is one area the Vita will need the most help from in order to establish a good presence in the current turbulent world of dedicated gaming devices on the go that are “allegedly” being eradicated by mobile devices.
Via: Engadget