Sony's PS Vita Slim to Cost $199 with Borderlands 2
Device was previously only available in Japan and the United Kingdom.
Sony has confirmed that the PS Vita Slim, announced last fall in Japan, is finally coming to the United States. Sony's PS Vita Slim made its way to the UK at the end of January. At the time, Sony said it didn't have anything to announce for North America. Today, at its February Showcase event in Los Angeles, the company confirmed that the PS Vita Slim is headed for these shores. Sony hasn't offered full details on the launch just yet, but we've heard it will be coming as part of a $199 Borderlands 2 bundle.
A U.S. launch for the PS Vita Slim was inevitable once Sony Europe confirmed that the device would eventually replace the current generation model. The PS Vita Slim is 20 percent thinner than the original PS Vita and 15 percent lighter. Size aside, the PS Vita Slim is available in various colors (though folks in the UK will only have access to the black model and it's not clear what the U.S. will get), has a curvier body, a smaller rear-touchpad, 1 GB of built-in memory, micro-USB support, and an LCD instead of an OLED panel.
Update: We asked a Sony representative whether or not users would be able to buy the new Vita separately from the bundle and the short answer is no. The reasoning behind this is that at $199 it's the same price as the outgoing Vita but with new hardware and Borderlands 2, which presents a better value at the same price point. The bundle also includes an 8GB memory card, which means it's perfectly adequate for storage right out of the box.
Sony seems to deem the $200 mark as the sweet spot, so don't expect to see anything priced higher. This pretty much means no more 3G models too.
Also, it appears that you can have it in any color you like so long as it's black. Expect the line to add more shades and colors as time goes on.
Follow Jane McEntegart @JaneMcEntegart. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.
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eklipz330 3g model was basically useless. if you can't play games over it, it serves no purposeReply -
mman74 Dumb move putting in Borderlands 2. That game is so sweet you'll not need to buy another game for 6 months.Reply -
iamadev Dumb move putting in Borderlands 2. That game is so sweet you'll not need to buy another game for 6 months.
So very very true -
bustapr Dumb move putting in Borderlands 2. That game is so sweet you'll not need to buy another game for 6 months.
lol makes sense. all that loot aint gonna find itself. we;;, anyway, this seems like a good deal regardless. the value in this bundle is above average. -
Murissokah I'd rather have the OLED than thinner/bit better battery life
That was a major turn off for me. -
somebodyspecial So how do you sell this vs T4/shield (or Asus model now) for $50 more and even cheaper if you buy a gpu at the same time? You buy a GTX and get shield for $199. Even at $50 more without a card you get far more power, more battery, seriously long movie play out to TV so kind of a portable VLC player that plays everything, PC streaming at some point (already if you own a GTX 650 or up, a cheap $100 card right now on newegg with $20 off), a metric TON of android games with high quality unreal 3 engine games coming out right and left among other great looking games on the way or already here.Reply
No game is currently aimed above T3 so I can't wait until we see what T4/K1/S805/810 games look like. I see a shield r2 or K1 tablet in my future as long as they enable streaming to it like shield (odd if they didn't considering it sells GPU cards). I just don't understand how these sell with all the Shield advantages unless you really must fit it in your pocket. Vita has no games coming except from Sony pretty much as GDC 2013 showed, and I expect GDC 2014 next month to show worse. -
epiczombiekill so this handheld can play borderlands 2 by it self?i might have to get me one if soReply -
bustapr So how do you sell this vs T4/shield (or Asus model now) for $50 more and even cheaper if you buy a gpu at the same time? You buy a GTX and get shield for $199. Even at $50 more without a card you get far more power, more battery, seriously long movie play out to TV so kind of a portable VLC player that plays everything, PC streaming at some point (already if you own a GTX 650 or up, a cheap $100 card right now on newegg with $20 off), a metric TON of android games with high quality unreal 3 engine games coming out right and left among other great looking games on the way or already here. No game is currently aimed above T3 so I can't wait until we see what T4/K1/S805/810 games look like. I see a shield r2 or K1 tablet in my future as long as they enable streaming to it like shield (odd if they didn't considering it sells GPU cards). I just don't understand how these sell with all the Shield advantages unless you really must fit it in your pocket. Vita has no games coming except from Sony pretty much as GDC 2013 showed, and I expect GDC 2014 next month to show worse.
Im pretty sure the few games VITA has are generally better than the metric TON of crappy android games out there. really, the VITA library might not be huge, but it certainly has quality that isnt too hard to find. and with the ps4 release, vita sales have skyrocketed and devs have definitely noticed this. there arent much advantages to having a shield other than pc game streaming. and it doesnt really matter how much more power a T4 or whatever new android chip is over the VITAs performance, the performance matters nothing if all the games on android are dung, which 99% are.