The Tokyo Game Show (TGS) in Japan (where else?) is about to kick off in full force, but at the pre-TGS press conference just now, Sony did unveil a spanking new PlayStation Vita for the masses. Apparently, this particular model was developed to be a more casual model of the PS Vita, not to mention making it easier to use. Hmmm, is that a different lingo for “dumbing down” the PS Vita so that it would eat into the Nintendo 3DS’ market more? Who knows? What we do know about the new PS Vita is this – it will be thinner and lighter than its predecessor (20% thinner and 15% lighter to be exact), sporting a 5” LCD display instead of an OLED display, with a battery life that has improved by an hour. Not only that, you get 1GB of internal memory alongside an all-new memory card slot that lets you stash away another 64GB of data. Expect the new PS Vita to arrive in Japan this October 10th for approximately $190 after conversion in half a dozen colors.
We did spend some time with its predecessor before, and while it did not become the kind of hot portable gaming console that Sony probably hoped for all over the world, it must have done well enough for Sony to turn a profit from hardware as well as software sales to warrant work on a new generation PS Vita. All that hard work has culminated in today’s unveiling of the new PS Vita, and it remains to be seen whether it will take the brand to greater heights than ever before. You can check out a couple more shots from the live stream right after the jump.
