Sony’s next big 
hope for the handheld gaming market has made its debut in Japan, and while the numbers aren’t awful, they aren’t exactly stellar, either.
More than 321,000 Vita units were sold in its first two days on store shelves, according to Famitsu. That’s a bit shy of launch figures for Nintendo’s 3DS (371,000), though it nearly doubles what the original PSP boasted when it went on sale seven years ago.
If this were a typical video game console cycle, 
the talk these days would be about things like the PlayStation 4 and the Nintendo Us (or whatever they had decided to call their new machines). But things are different this time around.
The major console systems may not be showing any signs of updating themselves soon, but the handheld marketplace is heating up fast. Both Nintendo and Sony have announced new portable game devices – the 3DS and NGP (a code name that will almost certainly be changed) — that will be in the hands of consumers before the end of the year.
Sony is doubling down in the handheld 
gaming space.
Company unveiled its next-generation handheld system Thursday in Japan, then surprised the gaming world by also announcing a new initiative that will bring games from the original PlayStation to Android-based smartphones and tablets. Both the system and the initiative will launch before the end of the year.
As Apple and Nintendo 
prepare for a showdown in the portable gaming space,Sony won’t be sitting on the sidelines.
The company unveiled its next generation handheld system Thursday – the successor to its six-year old PlayStation Portable (PSP) device. Additionally, Sony announced a new initiative that would bring PlayStation games to Android-based devices, marking the first time the company has opened up its catalog to third-party systems.
Most of the gaming world figured Sony
would be rolling out the successor to the PSP at its Business and Strategy Meeting being held in Tokyo – but no one guessed it would embrace the smart phone market as well.
The company unveiled its next generation handheld system Thursday as well as a new initiative that would bring games from the original PlayStation to Android-based devices, as Sony prepares to launch its own ‘PlayStation Phone’.
We certainly have no problem getting caught up in the
fun of playing games, but the people who create them have their pocketbooks to worry about, too. In this column, finance expert and GameSpy contributor Chris Morris guides you through the tricky corridors the gaming industry’s financial side, touching on big-time business decisions and how they matter to the common gamer.
If the latest whispers are correct, we should get our first official look at Sony’s PlayStation Portable 2 before the end of the month. Sony, it’s said, has scheduled a meeting with select press outlets in Japan for January 27, 2011 to make the announcement. Regardless of the veracity of these particular rumors, we can all agree on one thing: The PSP2 is coming, and probably before the end of the year. And while I’ll give Sony credit for timing this announcement so it’s not caught in the blast zone of the 3DS launch coverage, something about this product has me concerned.
If we’ve learned anything from the iPhone’s success, it’s that the days of single-function devices are rapidly coming to an end — and products that don’t evolve are doomed. We don’t know anything about the PSP2 yet, other than vague talk about performance and graphical improvements. But amidst all the chatter (much of which has been coming from developers working with the systems), we haven’t heard any talk about non-gaming functionality.
Chris Morris: Journalist 