The day has arrived – the new slimmer, lighter PlayStation Vita model is now available at retailers across North America. Pick up the new model today as part of the Borderlands 2 Limited Edition PlayStation Vita Bundle, featuring the first-person role-playing shooter Borderlands 2 with six DLC packs and an 8GB memory card, all for $199.99 (MSRP). This is a limited edition bundle, so don’t miss your opportunity to pick up the new PS Vita model today.
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Hands-on the new with PS Vita
PS Vita’s new design has tons of tweaks and adjustments, aside from the obvious thinner design and weight reduction. The Start, Select, Power, and PS buttons have been raised slightly, making them easier to press. The grips on the back of the system have grown a bit, resulting in a more comfortable experience… and less accidental taps on the rear touch pad. The edges of the system are more rounded, which just feels better. The display is now LCD based, but I didn’t notice a dramatic difference in picture quality.
– Justin Massongill, PlayStation.Blog
The new model is approximately 20 percent slimmer and approximately 15 percent lighter than the original and features 1GB of internal memory, extended battery life, a new high-definition liquid crystal display (LCD) and rounded edges that make PS Vita even more comfortable to hold. PS Vita is the ultimate companion for any gamer with more than 1,000 games available (including classic games from PS one and PSP) and “Remote Play” with PlayStation 4, which allows most PS4 games to be streamed to the PS Vita system over a local Wi-Fi network. Pairing your PS Vita with your PS4 to use Remote Play is even simpler with last week’s system updates. The content library for PS Vita will become even richer when PlayStation Now support launches on the system later this year.
In addition to Borderlands 2, God of War and God of War II are available today for PS Vita as part of God of War Collection. And that’s not all for this month — Soul Sacrifice Delta launches on May 13 and Sly Cooper Collection launches on May 27.
May is a big month for PS Vita, right? Well it doesn’t end there, with Helldivers launching this summer and Minecraft, Metrico, Tales of Hearts R, Freedom Wars, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth and Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number all expected to release in 2014.
Check out the sidebar of this post for the PlayStation.Blog team’s hands-on impressions of the new slimmer, lighter PS Vita and let us know what games you can’t wait to play on the new model in the comments!
Vita, vita, vita!! I got a PS vita but, I don’t play it that much because it don’t have any Wi-Fi. This month is about Vita’s and this month is about my B-DAY!! Just say’n gamers, let’n u know.
Hey Don, since the Borderlands 2 Bundle is limited edition will we be seeing a stand-alone PSVita-2000 any time soon?
I know everyone keep saying 64 gb but now it’s to late I had the 64 gb when it first came from Japan now so many psvita game 64 gb is not enough so if they do bring a new sd card go higher my 64 gb is full 128 gb
I just may upgrade from my original ps vita to the newer one and the games will be awesome as well that’s coming out for it and all the playstation platforms!!!!!!!
@ PantheMan16 – i always turn the brightness up even on my OLED Vitas and what i’m saying is that with the OLED brightness at max and the slim brightness at max you can barely tell the difference, so yes the extended battery life still makes a difference. You don’t know what ur talkin about bro stop reading bias reviews from 3DS owners, stop parroting what the “reviewers” say and go look at it in person. If ppl didn’t know it was an LCD screen u wouldn’t hear any of this nonsense.
PS3 patch for Borderlands 2 should be out by the 13th
mine broke awile ago, waiting for the colored versions like japan has to rebuy it
“you can barely tell the difference”. So you acknoweldge that there IS a difference. What is it with the denial that the slim Vita owners are in? The screen is not as good. OLED > LCD. This is FACT. If you’re happy with your slim, good. If I owned the slim first, I’d probably be fine with it too. Fact is Sony has cut corners with the slim model to save money. Everyone – including me – has seen them compared side by side. Not only does the LCD screen not look as good, but it has a shorter life-span. I am NOT talking about battery life. The screen will begin to dim and look crappier over time, and it will happen faster for the people who max the brightness to look Almost as good as the OLED model. I couldn’t care less about the battery life because I play video games when I’m at home, with a charger nearby. What I do care about is the superior screen and the longer life-span of that screen.
If you prefer the slim design and longer battery life and think that those features outweigh the con of the slightly inferior display, then you made the right choice.
tusunami, stop brown-nosing on EVERY blog post. Yeah, you’re totally going to trade in your $200+ vita for another vita… that makes so much sense. Get off the blog if you aren’t going to be real for once. Your constant “now this looks good at some point maybe i’ll possibly think about buying this at some point!!!!!!!!11” is annoying as hell.
Anyway… I think they should focus more on making good exclusive Vita games than in making a lighter PS4 joyst… sorry, than in making a lighter console.
Some people say that the lack of AAA games is for lack of money to invest, well… this new model disproves that.
When will SCEA stop parading like it cares about the vita though ?
The main support for it’s games now comes mostly from Japan, who manages to produced several high quality games like Soul Sacrifice, Freedom Wars, Gravity Rush and the like while getting also other big developpers like Tecmo Koei or Falcom to actually make games for the system.
You also have SCEE who produced not so long ago Killzone Mercenary and Tearaway which are all fantastic games and show true love for the system and the game they made for it. It also brought a lot of good indie titles to the system.
And then you have SCEA, for when it’s not doing some quite-frankly shoddy ports like the Jak collection which can’t even run at 30fps, has no interest in making any new game for the system, shoving it off to “Well, we have remote play now, so who cares, just go buy a PS4”. What if I want to play it without wifi ? Not to mention the absolutely small amount of focus the console gets during E3, which is now all about the PS4 while Sony seems to be trying to shove away it’s console under the rug like it’s pretending it doesn’t exist.
If SCEA itself doesn’t want to spend the money, effort and faith in it’s own system, why should we ?
Still on the fence on whether I should pick up the vita I like the idea of getting one since I have a bunch of plus games in my DL list for the vita. Making me not have to buy many games after picking one up. At the same time the memory cards are too expensive also I think the game lineup isnt that strong compared to PS3 or PS4. I might have to wait it out longer to see what happens in the future.
Minecraft Ps Vita Bundle?
@ PantheMan16 – I was originally against the slim because i’m extremely picky about screens, resolution, sound quality ect. and all the bs about the “terrible” LCD screen made me go out and buy an extra OLED Vita b4 they were all gone, but my gf really wanted the slim so we preordered it and when we picked it up i was so impressed that i decided to get my own. I was just like u until i saw the screens compared IN PERSON not online but in person and when i said u can “barely tell the difference” i didn’t mean that one was slightly crappier than the other i meant u can not really tell which is which unless u have a trained eye. The slim is actually slightly brighter and seems to look a little more clear while the OLED is a tiny bit punchier – the colors are ever so slightly richer, so i am saying there is a slight difference – not saying crappier but just a TINY bit different. I have 3 Vitas so screen life isn’t a concern and honestly how long until the next iteration is out? 3 yrs maybe? It’s not a tv i don’t need 10,000 hrs of screen life in 3 yrs there will be a new Sony handheld with better specs and a yr later PS5 will be out. Slim or OLED is just a matter of preference.
+ Don Mesa: wait, are you saying that we will not see new AAA psvita games? what the hell?
Great then,PSvita is now just a controller for PS3 and PS4 streaming.
… Really,why did I buy this thing?
Please continue to improve on the PS Vita, the reviews were only not so great because there wasn’t a wide variety of games to choose from. If you put Jak and Daxter collection on the Vita, God of War collection on the vita, AND are going for Sly Cooper collection on the Vita, then it makes sense to put Ratchet and Clank collection on the Vita. We know the PS4 needs its perks but the Vita needs more games. If I were to see more games on the Vita I would rate the handheld system a 9.5 out of 10.
Screw you Don Mesa. Economics don’t work on the Vita? You are just really lazy to convince people to buy your overpriced handheld system. You are getting ass kicked by Nintendo in terms of sales in the handheld division. If you think that ports and indies is the way to go, then enjoy earning losses per Vita that you sell. Your marketing is pure garbage for the Vita and you’re not even trying. You talk 5 minutes about the Vita then jump ship to consoles.
Why do you hate the Vita? And where’s the console quality games that I was promised? You just realized that Nintendo is better at you at handhelds and that’s why you gave up.
The PS Vita is one of my biggest disappointment, I deeply regret buying it. The Vita has no identity of its own and isn’t Sony’s Priority. The Vita needs its own AAA big title games exclusively on the vita. Lets not forget the god-awful expensive memory card. No memory card that’s is 32 or 64 gigs is over $60. Sony should reevaluate the price of memory cards and cut the price in half.
Don Mesa should be fired for his reply to #26.
His disillusioned thought processes are exactly why the Vita isn’t living up to its potential in the West.
Sony clearly does not understand how the handheld division works. They think that Remote Play and PS Now will solve their problem. It’s the games, we want games. Can’t you understand? Not ports or bloody indies, we want good games.
#170 I agreed with you. Don Mesa just screwed it up.
The commented (#26) is right. What separates Nintendo from Sony overall in gaming is that Sony doesn’t keep it 100 on all its platforms. When it comes to getting 3rd party exclusives, deals, etc then hide behind indies. (Indies supplement platforms, not initiate them for if true, then ultimately PlayStation doesn’t need retail space, but it does) YET PlayStation Japan does. However SCEJA only makes a part of PlayStation globally. Its PlayStation North America and Europe that keeps tarnishing the legacy (losing exclusives like Monster Hunter, Final Fantasy XV, Kingdom Hearts III, only for PlayStation Japan to do more work then it has to in its own territory because of some misguided “Western” view) by not adhering to that.
Nintendo’s 1st party will fully support all of its platforms. Compile Heart has on record stated that they would have dropped the Vita if Sony didn’t set an example on support which they did with Soul Sacrifice. However, Naughty Dog on the other hand stated on record that they wouldn’t support the Vita so what message does that send to the rest of the Western market.
Retro Studios would never have even been allowed by its OWNER, Nintendo, to talk down on the 3DS.
I think we can all agree on that 3DS is the king in the handheld market. Even Sony can’t deny that.
Its bs that despite the fact that PlayStation Japan can get 3rd party exclusive games for all active PlayStation platforms there, yet PlayStation North America and PlayStation Europe (West) can’t, yet SCE diverts mostly all attention to those branches.
I know it bothers SCE greatly that The Last Guardian gets more attention than any game from their Western Worldwide Studios.
Or how the most talked about E3 rumor is Project Beast.
Or how they pitted Driveclub over Gran Turismo 6 and lost when in fact GT6 should have been released on PS4 (which rumor has it, Sony will “apologize” via an E3 announcement.
They could have went for the kill last year at E3 by keeping FF XV and KH III as exclusives so that MS would have no air at all in JPN which then would have sent a clear message.
People always talk nonsense about “hate for 3rd party exclusives” when in reality its stealth for covering Sony’s inability to acquire or retain them and/or just an excuse not to buy another system. That view which Sony hides behind with its now indies, is why PS Vita doesn’t sell well in the West.
Software sells hardware. Sony needs to refocus more on JPN software.
I can tell you all first hand that when I went to the PS Vita Social Club in Austin, TX back in January of 2012, I knew it was gonna flop here. The campaign was actually designed around the theme of some hidden club that people had to found out about the event themselves. When the Playboy model, Jo Garcia had her party there, virtually no one knew what was on display at the tables.
What they should have done instead at the party was had the model do an introduction of the PS Vita when the room was at capacity, which it well was.
PlayStation Japan is the only reason why I even give a damn about PlayStation at all.
I love my vita. Its an awesome system but theres no reason to take it if Sony themself have on plans on supporting there own system. I understand that making big budget titles for vita isnt profitable but having game that appeal only to a small audience isnt goin to move vitas (especially in the west)..
What i wanna know is will the older version of PS Vita be still available for purchase….or will there only the slimmer one…???
The 1000 model has been discontinued. You can find it online i.e. Amazon, but at original MSRP of $249.99 or higher.
Maybe we can get a LE PSVITA Slim console. You know one with designs on it. Maybe a unique color. (Hint) (Hint)
Add a lot of awesome indie games like Outlast for this system. I’m getting it so I expect a lot go games on the PS store
I think a lack of respect for its users, all bought up now even playstations and psp vita, but if so that sony comes in, I’ll go to the competition. 3ds has a much more complete catalog of the vita, at least Nintendo seems to care more.
We want games, not new models from the same console we already have.
@aelurio1980
*Joystick
Why do crappy games get Vita bundles? Assassins Creed on the Vita sucked, Call of Duty was supposedly garbage, now this game is plagued with technical issues and a downgraded 2 player mode. SCEA, you guys are dodo birds.
We don’t want to own the PS Vita to use for REMOTE PLAY. We want AAA games!!!
“The economics simply don’t work with the traditional process. We have to do something different to get AAA games on Vita. We accomplished it to a certain degree by making PS4 games work on Vita via remote play. PS Now will be another way, streaming PS3 games on Vita. I can’t wait until PS Now is out on Vita – I hope you’ll try out the experience and let me know what you think.”
why say this, ps vita will die faster. it’s over good games in Japan either. I do not understand sony :/
Lots of great suggestions here! But honestly, I’d love to see more remote play. Full PS3 remote play capability would be awesome! There’s got to be a firmware soluation to make that happen.
Other than that, I’m really happy with my Vita. Can’t wait to try out Borderlands this afternoon!
Hi Mr @Don Mesa I hope the native big game can login the psvita. I recognition psvita remote play ps4 game and psnow is a good idea. but I more hope the traditional big game can login the psvita. Will you make the native big game for psvita? thanks
My english level is not good, I am so sorry for these, I hope you can understand
Hi zhouxingtianxia, we will continue building “native big game(s)” for PS Vita. We just need to look at how to develop them differently from how they have been created in the past.