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
More from Sony
No PlayStation Vita listings yet. List yours or browse similar items.
PlayStation Vita in the news
Recent coverage mentioning the PlayStation Vita, gathered from 80+ gaming-news sources.
Sony’s PlayStation Vita Streams Halo and Forza After Its 2019 Demise, As Modders Turn It Into a Portable Xbox
Although it never managed to be an incredibly popular system, there's no denying that the PlayStation Vita was an impressive handheld when it launched back in 2012, thanks to its close integration with the PlayStation 3 and its gorgeous OLED screen, among other things. While the system was...
PlayStation Vita can now stream Xbox Game Pass games with new homebrew app
The PlayStation Vita has gained an unexpected new feature thanks to a homebrew developer, with a new app allowing Sony’s handheld to stream Xbox Cloud Gaming titles through Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
Ciel Nosurge and Ar nosurge Digital Sales End, PS3/Vita Online Services Closing in September
Koei Tecmo has announced that it will end online services for the original PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita versions of Ciel Nosurge and Ar nosurge, and that digital sales for the affected titles have already closed. Digital sales ended on July 2, 2026, with the games and all DLC removed from...
13 years after raising $1 million on Kickstarter, dev of infamous JRPG breaks silence to say work will continue through 2031
Remember Project Phoenix? No? I can't blame you. The project, a real-time strategy game with "strong" JRPG influences, was announced way back in 2013 on Kickstarter, where it very quickly racked up $1 million in crowdfunds. These days, the campaign page looks like a graveyard, with PlayStation Vita...
"How much innovation can the end-user handle?" - Shawn Layden explains why he said Sony should have made PlayStation Portable 2 rather than PS Vita
Former PlayStation leader Shawn Layden has given more context to comments he made recently about how Sony shouldn't have made PlayStation Vita - but instead made PlayStation Portable 2. Read more
Top 20 PlayStation Vita RPGs
Update July 1st, 2026: Along with Sony’s announcement of discontinuing disc-based games in 2028, they also revealed, after years of (welcome) false starts, the real closure of the PS3 and PS Vita stores starting later this year and into 2027 in different locales. See Sony’s blog post for details on...