Sony launches marketing blitz for PlayStation Vita

Sony is intensifying its push in handheld gaming with a gadget aimed toward hardcore players trying to find something with somewhat more punch than Angry Birds, Words With Friends and other smartphone pastimes.

The PlayStation Vita, already available in Japan, debuts within the U.s.a. and Europe tomorrow. A basic, Wi-Fi version will retail at US$250 ($298), while one which can access 3G cellular networks will opt for US$300 plus monthly service fees from AT&T.

Sony is promoting the device with a US$50 million marketing blitz "everywhere gamers are and where the overall population is", said Jack Tretton, CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America.

The Vita launch is a crucial one for Sony, even though it is unlikely to be as big because the debut of a brand new gaming console. Sony has not announced the subsequent PlayStation, but Nintendo is planning to return out with its Wii U late within the year.

Tretton acknowledges it should not be a straightforward sell. People have grown acquainted with playing games on handheld devices that still make phone calls, shoot videos, connect with the net, play songs and send text messages.

Why buy a gadget that does only 1 thing?

"Ultimately, in case you consider yourself a gamer, you'll end up migrating up the food chain to dedicated gaming consoles and the Vita," Tretton said.

Don't tell that to Christian Thomas, a 20-year-old Big apple student who tried out the Vita at a promotional lounge Sony manage.

"i do not see myself carrying it around," Thomas said, while playing "Marvel vs Capcom 3. "I'm content just picking up Bejewelled on my iPhone." He did call the Vita beautiful and simply the correct handheld gadget he has played.

As a tool, the Vita is sleek and robust, melding the console-like controls gamers are used to with touch screens common in mobile devices. Its dual analog sticks are a primary for a handheld device and a must-have for shooter games played from a primary-person perspective.

The Vita's main screen responds to the touch, however also has a splash screen within the back that gives gamers a completely new way of controlling gameplay.

The Vita has a 12cm screen, front- and rear-facing cameras and a quad-core processor, that is utilized in the fastest tablet computers. It also connects to the PlayStation 3, so players can play an identical game whether they're using a console or a handheld system.

"It is a excellent game platform," said Colin Sebastian, an analyst at Baird. That said, he believes the market has "largely moved beyond one of these experience".

"i feel the dedicated handheld game market is incredibly challenging," he said. "The percentages over the long run are stacked against the Vita."

Another handheld system, the Nintendo 3DS, was a disappointment. The gadget, which lets players see 3-D images without special glasses, has not sold in addition to expected and was one of many reasons Nintendo reported a net loss inside the last nine months of 2011.

Though sales are beginning to pick up after a value cut, Nintendo last month lowered its forecast for 3DS sales.

Challenges aside, Sony hyped the launch of the Vita with a lavish party in Hollywood last week. Transformers co-star Josh Duhamel and The Hunger Games actor Liam Hemsworth were there.

Elsewhere inside the US, stores were planning midnight launch events. Essentially the most dedicated PlayStation fans were expected to line up in anticipation.

Though it could not amount to iPhone proportions, the Vita could become a success with gamers who desire to play shooters and other intense, high-end games that transcend lunging cartoon birds at annoying green pigs.

It's going to even give rival Nintendo a significant challenge.

Fynn Marselli, an 11-year-old who tried out the Vita at Sony's lounge, is now considering the Vita after saving as much as buy the Nintendo 3DS.

He already has an older DS and an iPod Touch for games. With its touch screen and physical controllers, he said, the Vita was "pretty cool, a little of both.

"It is a little strange, using both the touch screen and controls," he said. "i've been twiddling with it for half an hour and i am still figuring some things out."

Because that does not usually happen, he said, "it is a bit fun. Finally something i do not pick up and know everything about."

By December Nintendo had sold greater than 165 million of its handheld DS devices worldwide, including greater than 15 million of the 3DS. Sony, meanwhile, has sold 75.5 million PlayStation Portable devices, the 1st version of which went on sale in 2005 inside the US and the year before in Japan.

- AP