The PlayStation Vita is the Best Handheld Gaming Device Ever, Sony Says

Sony has once again praised its upcoming PlayStation Vita, which has just been released in Japan, saying that it’s the best handheld gaming device ever made by the Japanese company, being designed to trump the experiences delivered by other dedicated portable game consoles as well as tablets or smartphones.

The PlayStation Vita was just released in its native Japan and is now getting ready for its launch in the rest of the world, appearing in North America and Europe at the end of February, alongside a wide variety of games.

As you can imagine, Sony is quite confident in its new device, praising it with every chance it gets, highlighting the serious games lineup and saying that it will be marketed straight to core gamers, at least in the first couple of years.

Now, Sony’s director of hardware marketing, John Koller, has taken the praise to new heights, calling the Vita one of the best mobile gaming devices ever made, once again mentioning the ‘PS3 in your pocket’ comparison.

“Seeing how those gamers played and seeing the frustrations they have with control and with graphics and with longer-form content, really allowed us to build a system that took advantage of everything we do well at PlayStation: the biggest and best gaming experiences, great franchises, and integrating new ways to control them, new ways to play as we call them,” said Koller to Fast Company.

“We think we have created unequivocally the best handheld gaming system ever designed. I think that when people get their hands on it, it is a beautiful, near-HD experience. A lot of people have called it a PS3 in your pocket. And I think that it is exactly what we wanted to get when we first started to design it three and a half years ago.”

Koller did mention, however, that the whole research and development process involved not just looking at the old PlayStation Portable and trying to come up with better features, but also included looking at the current mobile gaming scene and trying to figure out ways of trumping smartphones or tablets.

The Vita has already delighted Japanese customers, although there were some problems with its new firmware, so it’s up to Sony to polish everything up and make sure the global release won’t have any such issues.