Desperate for success, Sony has announced that it will release the slimline version of its PS Vita handheld console in the UK with Australia set to follow shortly, the struggling Japanese Company is still to make a decision as to whether they will keep their struggling Vaio PC division.
Up until now the Sony PS Vita Slim has only been available
in Japan, the new model is 20 per cent thinner and 15 per cent lighter than the
existing model it also have a 5-inch LCD display, Wi-Fi and a 1GB internal memory
card. Sony claims that it has an additional hour of battery life, due to the
switch from an OLED display to an LCD display.
It also has rounder corners than the original PS Vita, which
Sony claims makes it more comfortable to hold and use, and it comes in six
colours – white, grey, yellow, pink, brown, and black.
The new console will come bundled with a ‘mega pack’ of
games, including Alien Breed, Thomas Was Alone, Velocity Ultra, Men’s Room
Mayhem, Coconut Dodge Revitalized, Limbo, Hotline Miami, Total Recoil,
Superfrog HD, and Floating Cloud God Saves the Pilgrims.
Sony hopes that it will become a popular companion device to
the PlayStation 4, due to the Remote Play feature, which allows two players on
the same Wi-Fi network to play PS4 titles on the Vita screen.
Meanwhile Sony Japan has hit out at reports that it plans to
sell its ailing Vaio computing brand to free-spending Chinese rival Lenovo.
Reuters had reported the pair was in talks over a possible
‘alliance’ which would see Lenovo – the world’s largest PC manufacturer – take
over Sony’s loss-making Vaio unit.
However, Sony immediately branded the reports ‘inaccurate’
and explained that, while it is still looking at options for its computing
division, selling out to Lenovo isn’t one of them.
Speculation is that the Sony Vaio brand is not strong enough
nor does it have a big enough penetration of markets around the world to make
it an attractive acquisition for a PC Company like Lenovo.
