The latest hardware…
You can’t play games without good hardware, and there’s certainly a lot of that coming up in the next few weeks.
First up is the Sony PS Vita, a new console that Sony’s looking to launch locally in late February. We’ve mentioned it before, but the new portable gaming system features a 5 inch OLED capacitive touchscreen, WiFi, Bluetooth, motion control, and a quad-core processor.
The PS Vita looks like it’s replacing the PlayStation Portable, although because the Vita takes a memory card, your old PSP cartridges won’t work here. Available from February 23, the Sony PS Vita will fetch $350 for the WiFi-only model and $450 for the 3G and WiFi-equipped model.
Microsoft is also releasing a Star Wars special edition Xbox 360 console in April to coincide with the upcoming Kinect Star Wars title. Designed to match the Star Wars universe, the new Xbox variant paints the Xbox 360 console to look like R2-D2, the controller to look like C3PO, and offers a white Kinect accessory.
At $549, the pack also bundles in a copy of the Kinect Star Wars title, and you’ll find this in stores from April 5.
In time for the new Soul Calibur title, HORI has released arcade-quality sticks for both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. These massive controllers features artwork from the game, eight buttons, and USB ports to plug headsets in. We figure the old school hardcore fighting game fans will love it.
Finally, Razer is releasing accessories geared at the serious gamer. While we’re still waiting for the company to release its 17-inch Blade gaming laptop into the world and the 10.1 inch Project Fiona gaming tablet, the company is talking up the Razer Onza, an Xbox 360 controller with two programmable buttons to let you do things the regular controller would never let you do. The analog sticks can also be tightened depending on how much resistance you want and the buttons have less bounce to make it easy for you to hit them faster. Because gamers want that sort of thing.
