PlayStation Vita
- Manufacturer
- Sony
- Production
- 2011–2019
- Generation
- Gen 8
- Type
- Handheld
- Launch price
- $249
- Media
- Flash
- Units sold
- 16.0M
About PlayStation Vita
The PlayStation Vita is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 17, 2011, then in other international territories on February 22, 2012, and was produced until discontinuation on March 1, 2019. The console is the successor to the PlayStation Portable (PSP), and a part of the PlayStation brand of gaming devices; as part of the eighth generation of video game consoles, it primarily competed with the Nintendo 3DS.
Source: Wikipedia (text under CC BY-SA 4.0).
Lifetime sales
Official manufacturer-reported figures.
15.8Munits
Industry estimate — Sony never officially reported Vita hardware sales.
Source: Sony Interactive Entertainment.
Library & collector facts
1,450licensed games
- North America: 500
- Japan: 1,100
- PAL: 500
Release timeline
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- December 17, 2011
- 🇺🇸 North America
- February 15, 2012
- 🇪🇺 Europe / PAL
- October 19, 2011
- 🇦🇺 Australia
- February 22, 2012
- Lifespan
- 8 years on market
Pricing
Launch price (2011)
- 🇺🇸 USD
- $249
Controller
Touchscreen / Rear touchpad
Launch titles & exclusives
Uncharted: Golden Abyss · Wipeout 2048 · Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational · FIFA Football · Rayman Origins · Little Deviants · ModNation Racers: Road Trip · Touch My Katamari · Lumines: Electronic Symphony · Reality Fighters · Asphalt: Injection
None standard; various First Edition bundles included Little Deviants
Persona 4 Golden · Danganronpa 1 & 2 / Ultra Despair Girls · Gravity Rush · Tearaway · Soul Sacrifice / Delta · Killzone: Mercenary · Uncharted: Golden Abyss · Freedom Wars · Severed · Steins;Gate (Vita port) · Atelier Vita trilogy (Ayesha, Escha & Logy, Shallie Plus) · Ys VIII (Vita first) · The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel I & II (Vita ports) · Demon Gaze · Toukiden series · Muramasa Rebirth · Dragon's Crown
Quite a few small JP indies released into 2019–2020 before Sony closed Vita physical-cartridge production; Russian Subway Dogs (2018) and similar were among the last Western digital titles
Persona 4 Golden Vita CIB Premium Edition (~$200+); Tales of Hearts R Soldier of Sadness Edition (JP, ~$300+); Ys: Memories of Celceta Silver Anniversary Edition; Atelier Premium Boxes; many JP-exclusive collector's editions
Variants of PlayStation Vita
Hardware specs
- Os
- PlayStation Vita system software
- Cpu
- Quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore
- Gpu
- Quad-core PowerVR SGX543MP4+
- Ram
- 512 MB RAM, 128 MB Video RAM
- Power
- 2210 mAh, PCH-1000:, approx. 3–5 hours for games, 5 hours for video, 9 hours for music (in stand-by mode), PCH-2000:, approx. 4–6 hours for games, 7 hours for video, 12 hours for music (in stand-by mode)
- Sound
- Stereo speakers, microphone, 3.5 mm headphone jack, Bluetooth
- Weight
- 260 g
- Dimensions
- 182 × 83.5 × 18.6 mm
- Display Output
- 5-inch (16:9) OLED (PCH-1000)/LCD (PCH-2000) multi-touch capacitive touchscreen, approximately 17 million colors, 960 × 544 qHD @ 220 ppi
- Storage Internal
- 1 GB flash memory (PCH-2000 only)
Hardware revisions
- PS Vita PCH-1000 (OLED)(2011)
original launch hardware, vibrant OLED screen, 3G or WiFi-only variants — the collector-prized model
- PS Vita PCH-2000 (Slim)(2013)
LCD screen replaces OLED (downgrade in vibrancy but better battery), internal 1GB storage, thinner
⚠ eliminated 3G option
- PlayStation TV (VTE-1000)(2013)
non-portable home variant outputting Vita games to TV, region-locked + many compatibility gaps
Launch colorways & special editions
- White
- Aqua Blue
- Cosmic Red
- Lime Green
- Khaki Black
- Glacier White
- JP retailer-exclusive variants in pastel colors
- Persona 4 Golden Limited (JP)
- God Eater 2 Edition (JP)
- Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Edition (JP)
- Soul Sacrifice Edition
- Star Ocean 5 Edition
Modding scene
- Difficulty
- soft-mod
- Custom firmware
- HENkaku / h-encore²; VitaShell; modoru (downgrader)
Reception & legacy
Strong reviews (especially for OLED screen and dual analog sticks); weak commercial response — never gained third-party AAA support after Sony scaled back first-party output by 2013
Proprietary memory cards (4GB cost ~$30, 64GB cost ~$100) widely criticized as price gouging; Sony nearly closed the PS3/Vita/PSP stores in 2021 before reversing course after fan outcry; Western third-party support dried up by 2014 with publishers like Ubisoft, EA pulling out
Cult-classic handheld revered for OLED display and JP RPG library; commercial failure that ended Sony's dedicated-handheld business; the platform Japan didn't quite want to let go of (final JP physical release was as late as 2021)
References
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PlayStation Vita in the news
Recent coverage mentioning the PlayStation Vita, gathered from 80+ gaming-news sources.
Gamescom 2026: Persona 4 Revival Hands-On Preview — Time To (Re)Make History
Released in 2012 as an enhanced port of the original, JRPG Persona 4 Golden is my favourite game of all time and, still, to this day, the only title that’s ever convinced me to buy a whole new console (the PlayStation VITA) just to play it. Yet, it’s absolutely not without its problems, especially...
Danganronpa 2x2 Official PC Specs Are Ridiculously Demanding
Danganronpa 2x2 stands to reinvent one of the most ambitious visual novel sequels that ever hit gaming. When it originally released on the PlayStation Vita in English, it was actually already a remake of the PSP version: Super Danganronpa 2: Sayonara Zetsubou Gakuen. So, it isn’t a surprise that...
PS5 Getting Collection of Beloved PlayStation Vita Adventure Games Soon
PS5 is soon getting a collection of fan-favorite PS Vita and PS4 adventure games, thanks to NIS America. 2015’s Yomawari: Night Alone, 2017’s Yomawari: Midnight Shadows, and 2022’s Yomawari: Lost in the Dark are all headed West for the PS5. NIS America bringing Yomawari horror adventure games to...
EXSTETRA (2026)
Love may be a battlefield, but does throwing kissing willy-nilly into the mix make it more memorable? The remastered version of EXSTETRA (2026), a title originally released on the PlayStation Vita and Nintendo 3DS but never localized into English, reflects on this. While this new HD remaster is a...
Fun 2015 PlayStation Vita Action Game Shadow-Dropped on PS5
An acclaimed PlayStation Vita game from 2015 has been shadow-dropped for the PS5. The title was originally released in 2014 by INSIDE SYSTEM for the Nintendo 3DS before making its way to the PS Vita the following year. The side-scrolling game The Legend of Dark Witch has arrived for PlayStation 5...
2D Action Game ‘The Legend of Dark Witch’ Launches on PS5
Inside System has released a PlayStation 5 version of its side-scrolling action game The Legend of Dark Witch for $6.99. The title was originally launched for the 3DS on August 6, 2014. It later came to PlayStation Vita in May 2015, PC via Steam in December 2015, and Nintendo Switch in October...