Vita Gets Social and Sony Plans for a “Five to Ten Year” Lifespan

Only two more sleeps!!! Like waiting for St. Nick, many gamers around the world are counting down the hours until Sony’s second stab at the handheld market comes out. For those that are social network junkies, Twitter, Facebook and Flickr will be available to download for the Vita as soon as the handheld’s online store is live – which could even be tomorrow! Twitter also has a feature called LiveTweet, which is custom made for the Vita that has many of the regular Twitter features. Skype and Foursquare will be following at a later date.

For those that are tentative about dropping a couple of hundred monies on the system at launch, fear not dear reader, Sony’s got plans for this thing! Guy Longworth, Sony’s Senior Vice-President of PlayStation brand marketing spoke to GameTrailers about the console and how they want it to be, “the number one handheld console in the world”.

“If you listen to gamers, if you listen to the response people have had, who’ve actually got their hands on this thing, it’s just been a tremendous response, way ahead of our expectations actually…Our customers and our third parties are also very excited about this. We see this as a five-to-ten year platform, so we’ll judge the success of this in 12, 24 to 36 months. We expect to have a great launch, but it’s really in 12 or 24 months we’ll know how successful it has been…We really want to establish this as the number one handheld console in the world, we think it’s the most insane console you can get your hands on, we think it’s the greatest console, so that’s what we’re aiming to deliver.”

Sony are going hell for leather with the Vita, and it’s a joy to see. The PSP was received well in some markets and not so well in others, so all at Sony are keen to make this a worldwide success. The fact that the “five to ten” year lifespan was mentioned is great. Sony have been a huge proponent of this strategy already – PlayStation nearly lasted that long and there are still games coming out for the PlayStation 2, which was released in March of 2000 in Japan. Now, I now what you’re saying…yes, the PSOne wasn’t Sony’s main focus all that time because of the PS2 and likewise with the PS2, because of the release of the PS3. However, games consoles don’t seem to be as disposable as they once were, just take a look at the current generation. I’m excited for the Vita and to see a lengthy lifespan being mentioned for it, is terrific.

But wait, there’s more! Every retail game that is coming out on the Vita at launch, will be available to buy on the PSN in the UK. US and Japan Vita games have proven to be cheaper via the PSN, so, here’s hoping that the UK digital prices follow suit.

Source: Develop-Online

Source: MCV UK