Sony Announces PS Vita Price

Sony kicked Nintendo square in the dick at the end of their E3 press conference by announcing the price for the PS Vita. The WiFi model of the handheld will run a very reasonable $249.99, while the 3G equipped model will cost $299.99. Wireless service for the 3G model will come from AT&T, which might end up being more of a deterrent than the premise of ethereal, perennial connectivity.

Some other details about the handheld also trickled out from the conference. The handheld will come with some social trinkets; party functionality supporting cross-game voice chat and “Near,” which will allow you to interact with PS Vita owners around you. Details of this interaction are vague (and that’s being generous), but there was totally a menu for it, so that’s exciting right?

A few new games saw the light of day as well. ModNation Racers for the Vita is an entirely new racer, featuring a robust set of construction tools that utilize the hardware’s touch capabilities. Ruin is a familiar Diablo-esque Action RPG that also has nebulous social hooks — apparently other players manifest in your game as sprawling dungeons, and their actions reflect in the dungeon’s layout and loot. I’m guessing it won’t be long before griefers figure out the algorithm to make the game’s hardest dungeon and spread them everywhere.

LittleBigPlanet will also appear on the handheld, incorporating camera and touchscreen support to the game’s creation tools. Finally, Capcom made an appearance to announce that Street Fighter x Tekken would appear on the console, picking up inFAMOUS’ Cole MacGrath as a playable fighter.

With a strong price, great initial lineup, and just solid looking hardware, the PlayStation Vita is looking downright irresistible. The cynic in me says there has to be a catch somewhere, so we’ll do our best to poke and prod the thing.

In fact, we’ll even get to do that live on our E3 stream, which is starting tomorrow (June 7) and running until June 9. Hit MachinimaE3.com to check it out, and head here for a rough list of what we’ll have on the stream.

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