PlayStation Vita First Edition Bundle offers early access… for a price

By Rick Marshall October 28, 2011

For those who think an extra $50 is a small price to pay for the right to own a PlayStation Vita a week ahead of the common people, Sony has a deal for you.

Announced this week on the official PlayStation Blog, the PlayStation Vita First Edition Bundle puts the handheld system in gamers’ hands February 15 — a full seven days before everyone else. (Everyone who didn’t also pre-order it, that is.)

However, the ability to show off the Vita’s array of bells, whistles, and fancy sensors comes with a price, folks.

For consumers here in North America, the First Edition Bundle will cost $350 for the 3G + Wi-Fi model, a case, a 4GB memory card, and a copy of Little Deviants (a mini-game that shows off the Vita’s abilities) — which amounts to $50 more than the same package will cost on February 22. The non-3G Vita will also get a First Edition Bundle, but it will only be available in Canada and will cost $300 — a price tag that also adds $50 to the standard retail price.

The PlayStation Vita First Edition Bundle goes on sale today at “select” retailers.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

A veteran journalist with more than two decades of experience covering local and national news, arts and entertainment, and…

Gaming

3 big things I need to see from the next PlayStation Showcase

Peter and Miles from Marvel's Spider-Man 2.

It’s that time of the year again when industry insiders are teasing that a big PlayStation Showcase will happen around June. A third-party focused State of Play happened in 2022, but now Video Games Chronicle’s Andy Robinson and Giant Bomb’s Jeff Grubb are both suggesting that a more first-party oriented "Showcase" could be on the way sometime during the next month, potentially during the week of May 25.
PlayStation has had a rough start to 2023, with console exclusive Forspoken garnering mixed reviews, the PlayStation VR2 impressing critics while underperforming in sales, and The Last of Us Part 1’s PC port being broken at launch. With only Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 confirmed to be on the horizon for 2023, Sony has a lot to prove during its next showcase. There are three specific things I need to see from Sony if that PlayStation Showcase does come to fruition.
Give PSVR2 purpose
The PlayStation VR2 is an impressive piece of virtual reality technology, but it lacks killer apps outside of Horizon: Call of the Mountain. New game releases for the headset have been slow since its February 2022 launch, which is likely why the $550 headset has underperformed. Sony has opted to mainly relegate PSVR2 to State of Plays or PlayStation Blog posts, but it needs to revitalize excitement for the platform by giving some of its games a spotlight in a big PlayStation Showcase.

Hopefully, there’s more on the way in terms of new AAA VR exclusives from first-party studios, as well as much-demanded ports like Half-Life: Alyx. Already announced PSVR2 games like Journey to Foundation and Synapse could also use release dates. A PlayStation Showcase is the perfect time for Sony to put out a clear road map for PSVR2’s future game library, just as the September 2021 PlayStation did for PS5. Give me a reason to strap on that headset yet again.
Flesh out the system’s 2023 exclusives lineup
PS5 needs a strong lineup for this fall as well. With the exception of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, things look pretty barren for PS5 this year after the launch of Final Fantasy XVI. Several previously announced PS5 games still lack concrete release dates and could arrive in the second half of this year. It’d be nice to get a clearer picture of Sony’s PS5 game lineup for the rest of the year; hopefully, it includes titles like Stellar Blade, the Silent Hill 2 remake, Lost Soul Aside, Death Stranding 2, and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.

Gaming

The best games on PlayStation Plus, Extra, and Premium

A person plays Crash Bandicoot using a PS5 DualSense controller.

0person shooterPlayStation Plus has gone through several iterations and changes since it was first introduced. Originally, the service wasn't required for online play at all and rewarded subscribers with extra discounts and free monthly games. Once the PlayStation 4 generation began, it was required for online play, but still offered those same benefits.

Now, PS Plus is divided into three different tiers of subscriptions. The basic tier, PS Plus Essential, still gets three games per month added, while the Extra and Premium tiers will have a varying number of games added to their catalogs. With hundreds of games already and more coming and going all the time, even the most dedicated gamer won't be able to play everything on offer. To help you get the most bang for your buck, and so that no hidden gems go under your radar, here are all the best games to play on PS Plus Essential, Extra, and Premium right now.

Gaming

Dreams live support is ending — and that’s a big misstep for PlayStation

Art fights a giant bird in Dreams.

Sony could’ve had its own popular proprietary game engine and metaverse. Instead, it just let it slip through its fingers.

Media Molecule is ending live support for Dreams, its highly ambitious game-creating and playing tool for PS4, on September 1. Its servers are staying online for now -- and it has a few more content updates in the pipeline before then -- but after August, there will be no new tools, ports, or events for Dreams. That means it’s not coming to PS5, PlayStation VR2, and, most critically, PC.