CES 2012 had some interesting new tidbits about Sony’s next handheld offering, the PlayStation Vita, like holiday sales in Japan, Netflix, and so much more.
To borrow a famous line, if I may, reports of the PlayStation Vita’s death have been greatly exaggerated… or at least super premature, and despite of what you might have gathered around the web, Sony’s next portable outing is still on tap for a retail release in about a months time. February 15th for Europe, and February 22nd in North America to be exact.
A sheer fact that the company made well known at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. During their own CES presentation on Monday, Sony outlined a few interesting bullet points during their presser, including holiday sales for the Vita, plans of Netflix, and an assortment of other keen details.
First, let’s get sales-talk out of the way, shall we? Over the holiday period in Japan, which occurred from the launch of the Vita, December 17, to January 5, the twin-analog stick portable managed to sell 500,000 units. In the grand scheme of things, this total, while not bad, is still dwarfed by the Nintendo 3DS, which broke the monthly sales record for consoles with a whopping 1,492,931 units sold (yes, do call it a comeback.)
Moving on, Sony hopes to have Netflix, the video streaming service that can’t be beat, in time for the North American and European launch of the Vita. Good news indeed, and if reports of the Vita’s impressive OLED screen are up to snuff, there might be no better pairing to get your favorite movies and TV shows on the go.
Also available day one, will be Music Unlimited; Sony’s cloud-based music service which has been in the pipe-works for the system even before it had an actual name. Ah, Next Generation Portable, such sweet memories. Oh, speaking of which. PlayStation Vita users will be able to create, edit, and share their own with the introduction of the PlayMemories Studio app, also launch date approved. The media editing app won’t be just available for Vita either, as all product lines with-in the Sony family, this means the PlayStation 3 too, will carry the program.
Okay — so you might recall at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2011 when telecom giant AT&T was announced as the 3G provider for the 3G-enabled version of the PlayStation Vita? Well this week we finally receive official data pricing: two plans in fact, one priced at $14.99 with a usage cap of 250MB per month, and the other at $25, with a cap of 2GB per month. Both plans are month-to-month and don’t require a contract.
Winter can be hell for us warm-blooded creatures, but it can also be quite heavenly. These unbelievably magnificent Chinese ice sculpturescertainly make me wish that the season could last forever (not really), so we could see such beauties all year round. Now like I mentioned, these pieces of ice art are located in China, so perhaps you’ll need a this ultramodern ZERO helicopter to visit them.
