Sony's Vice President and Managing Director from the UK and Ireland, Fergal Gara, talked with Eurogamer at the PS Vita launch last night in London, and said there's a lot more in store for the new handheld console. The current pricing and memory concerns are the results of "early days."

On price, for example, Gara says that the system is priced as low as Sony could get it on launch day, "not a lot above an iPod and a hell of a long way below a good tablet." Given the hardware included, Gara says Sony "priced it as attractively as we could afford to, frankly," with an eye toward creating a lasting product over the next few years.

Gara also admitted memory is a concern, with hefty downloadable games filling memory cards up quickly. Having learned from the Japanese Vita release, he says, Sony is already securing memory, chips and deals to release bigger cards in the UK, and presumably in North America as well.

Tiny trucks will take their places on PS3 and Vita on March 6, when MotorStorm RC arrives on the North American PSN, letting you experience the best of the series in little toy trucks. You'll be able to download the same game on both platforms, and buying one gives you access to the other.

If you're playing on PS3, you'll get "SimulView" same-screen support (for TVs fancy enough to support it), 3D, and split-screen four-player. If you're playing on Vita, you're playing on a Vita! Wow!

Game, the UK-based games retailer, was unable to stock any of Ubisoft's Vita day-one titles, breaking the news just hours before the device's midnight launch early this morning. Game still doesn't have definite plans to carry the games, and marketing director Anna-Marie Mason explained why to Eurogamer: "You can see, there's a finite amount of space in a store." No way. Do go on.

"We can't stock absolutely everything. That's just not possible," she said. Mason didn't cite Game's financial troubles as a direct cause of the missing titles, talking past Game's store closures, layoffs, broken credit lines and the potential sale of its international branch.

One possible reason for Game's struggling sales is an influx of cheaper online retailers, but Mason said Game offers something more, citing the store's 2.5 million customers a week. "What our customers get from us, whether they shop with Game or Gamestation, is more than a sterile transaction," Mason said. "They get the opportunity to transact with us in the way they want and they get added value. Our customers will vote with their feet."

Game may stock Ubisoft's Vita launch titles in the future, Mason said, but for now it does offer the games through a "downloadable option," which we're sure will attract dozens of feet.

This is a column by Kat Bailey dedicated to the analysis of the once beloved Japanese RPG sub-genre. Tune in every Wednesday for thoughts on white-haired villains, giant robots, Infinity+1 swords, and everything else the wonderful world of JRPGs have to offer.
A PlayStation Vita will be arriving on my doorstep some time on Thursday. It will be arriving courtesy of Amazon rather than Sony, in case you're wondering, so I did in fact spend money on the thing. I do not, however, plan to purchase any games for it. At least not yet.

As I perused the list of PSP games available for download, I realized that I already had quite a few titles to choose from. So rather than try to justify spending money on Lumines or Uncharted -- both fine games but not my cup of tea -- I decided I would revisit some of my favorite PSP RPGs on the Vita's big, beautiful screen.

It's really a pity the PSP never experienced the renaissance over here that it did in Japan, since it means quality RPGs like Valkyria Chronicles 3 may never be localized. It's only thanks to XSEED that Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky ever saw the light of day in the US, as well as Vanillaware's coming North American launch for Grand Knights History. A select few have made it stateside, and I'm happy to see them available on PSN. Here are the ones that will be making their way to my Vita, and to yours as well, I hope.

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With the retail launch of the Vita hardware comes the arrival of three augmented reality games, using a set of six cards that look an awful lot like the ESP test cards Dr. Venkman used in Ghostbusters. I downloaded them all from the PlayStation Store today, carefully set up a camera between my face and Vita (keeping the table in view) and demonstrated all three.

Of the three, Fireworks is the definite standout. And by "standout" I mean "one I could foresee playing a second time."

[Music: "Shanghai Moon" by USK]

The PlayStation Vita just got moderately more useful. A suite of apps is available today on the PlayStation Store including Flickr, Netflix, and "LiveTweet." That's the name of the Twitter app. No, we don't know why.

If you're a new Vita owner, you can get them all right now through the PlayStation Store. If you're a prospective Vita owner just waiting to see how the Netflix app shook out, you can see for yourself in this walkthrough from Engadget.

Today marks the actual launch date for the PlayStation Vita! Sure, you may have had one for a week, but let's act surprised nonetheless. We continue to update our launch guide, to help you find all the game reviews and features you need to know about.

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Escape Plan makes a far better showcase for the PlayStation Vita's control methods than, say, Little Deviants. It makes logical use of the front and rear touchpads and the accelerometer, as you prod, swipe, tilt, and otherwise cajole two characters out of a series of deadly traps.

Interacting with Lil and Laarg shows exactly what the capabilities of the Vita's alternate control methods are, but unfortunately throws their limitations into sharp contrast as well.

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Another big Vita week for the PSN update. Last week's "early" launch saw the additions of Escape Plan, Hustle Kings, and Super Stardust Delta -- that last one being the free 3G game. This week we see the addition of Touch My Katamari, perennial favorite Plants vs. Zombies and several augmented reality. Of course, for further pertinent PS Vita information, head on over to our Joystiq Vita launch guide.

PSN Plus subscribers can pick up six classic Sega titles for free this week, which includes the first two Sonic the Hedgehog titles, Golden Axe (call dibs on dwarf!) and Altered Beast. Also, don't forget to check out the demos for SSX and Shank 2. Check out the full list of this week's content over on the PlayStation Blog.

The surprisingly profitable Rayman Origins begins its 2012 hop from platform to platform on Vita, followed by 3DS on March 20, and PC on March 29. Yes, you should play it.

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