The many protections of the Playstation Vita

December 26th, 2011, 22:19 Posted By: wraggster

Last week, the shock of a Day1 exploit on the Playstation Vita generated lots of buzz, discussions, and other various related events (Kim Jong Il couldn’t take it anymore and decided that living in a world where consoles get hacked on the day of their release was not worth it)

Now, as I said before, don’t get your hopes too high, as this is not really a Vita exploit rather than a PSP exploit within the sandboxed emulator. That being said, in the current state of our knowledge, there is strong hope that this could lead to PSP homebrew running on the vita, possibly through HBL. Developer Teck4, with the help of J416, plans to try and port HBL to this exploit. J416 was the first person to adapt HBL to a new game after we released it publicly for the patapon exploit, so I’m confident that the task is in good hands. I will of course do my best on my side to see if I can help solve some of the issues along the way.

That exploit set aside, I had the opportunity to look quickly at the PS Vita in the past few days. I don’t have the free time I wish I had to test everything within a few days, but what I can say so far is that Sony intends this console to be as secure as possible.

technical protections


Sony introduced not one but two new formats of memory cards for the Vita. As explained by a spokesperson from the Hardware division at Sony, this is part of a plan to make piracy more difficult. Until the format of the cards is reverse engineered, no reader will exist to try and read/write what’s on those cards. It is arguable why Sony added two new formats instead of one, although the paranoid guy inside of me thinks it’s to prevent piracy as much as possible (manufacturers will probably focus their efforts on duplicating the read/write cards rather than the PSVita cards)

In order to make this even more efficient, Sony removed one of the key features of the PSP: the possibility to use it as a USB drive when you plug in to a computer. Instead, a piece of software (the content management assistant) needs to be run on your PC and your PS Vita, which will allow you to import files from the PC to the Vita. I will give details on that piece of crapware tool from a user’s perspective in another post (hint: it’s very bad), but from a security point of view, this is a strong system. Unlike the iTunes pattern where iTunes runs on your computer and copies files to your iPhone, the “contents management assistant” runs on the PS Vita while your PC is just a fairly passive client. This is clever because a PC binary could have easily been decompiled, analyzed, and modified, but in this case, the Vita is the one that chooses which files go in, which files don’t. I can already foresee updates coming to that tool for every hack we will find involving the copy of files to the Vita.


The Content management assistant...yuck
In other words, Sony made it practically impossible to copy anything to the Vita, besides a very restricted list of file formats: jpg, png, tiff, mp3, wav, PSP savedata, psp games/apps, vita games/apps. The PSP/Vita games of course need to be correctly signed and packaged in the vita format (forget about your PSP homebrews for now), and potentially already linked one way or another to your Vita account. Bottom line: forget about using it as a convenient storage format, that super expensive memory card you bought for the Vita will be used exclusively to store stuff you buy on the Playstation Store. For the hackers, it means that attack vectors are limited.

Additionally, it seems the memory cards are tightly linked to the system itself. When a memory card is inserted/removed, the system requires a restart before being able to use the card. Is it in order to prevent some of the clever hacks that appeared in the early days of the PSP, and that consisted in quickly swapping 2 memory sticks? Whatever reason that is, it is highly probable that the data on the card is entirely encrypted, and bound to the playstation network account (which would be why switching accounts require a different memory card?).



I quickly tried some of the old crashes and exploits that were lying on my hard drives. Some of these involved for example mp3 files or image files… None of them was fully exploited, but I wanted to see the results on the Vita. So far all my “damaged” files that would make the PSP crash or display “hello world” types of messages are recognized as “corrupted” by the tool. It still agrees to copy damaged audio or photo files to the console, but simply refuses for games.



Legal protections
As mentioned before, the Terms and Conditions of the PS Vita are fairly restrictive. The “funny” part in particular is this one:

You may not
(i) use any unauthorized, illegal, counterfeit or modified hardware or software with System Software;

(ii) use tools to bypass, disable or circumvent any PS Vita encryption, security or authentication mechanism;

(iii) re-install earlier versions of the System Software (“downgrading”),

(iv) violate any laws, regulations or statutes or rights of SCE or third parties in connection with your access to or use of System Software; (v) use any hardware or software to cause System Software to accept or use unauthorized, illegal or pirated software or hardware;

(vi) obtain System Software in any manner other than through SCE’s authorized distribution methods; or

(vii) exploit System Software in any manner other than to use it with your PS Vita according to the accompanying documentation and with authorized software or hardware, including use of System Software to design, develop, update or distribute unauthorized software or hardware for use in connection with the PS Vita.

These restrictions will be construed to apply to the greatest extent permitted by the law in your jurisdiction.

The legality of this contract is doubtful, and this section is actually entirely illegal in some countries (at least in France as far as I know), but in some third-world countries where strong individual censorship is enforced such as the United States, this kind of contract has sometimes been used successfully in court.

There’s no choice but to accept that contract on the Vita as soon as you want to use the playstation store, which is the only way to acquire PSP games on the system. Hackers living in the US who would want to look for vulnerabilities in PSP games will need to take that into account.

On top of that, and as I mentioned a while ago, Sony is “learning” from some of their mistakes, and any firmware upgrade now contractually prevents US citizen from suing Sony in a class action, without some major constraints (this is in response to the class action suit that was taken against Sony for removing OtherOS from the PS3 in a firmware update). To be honest I don’t live in the US and I fell asleep in the middle of the second sentence, so I don’t know exactly what this does, I just find it creepy that there are countries in the world were Sony can change the way people can access their own country’s legal system…

The following terms in this Section 8, to the fullest extent permitted under law, only apply to you if you are a resident of the United States or a country in North, Central or South America.
[...]

If you have a Dispute with any Sony Entity or a Sony Entity’s officers, directors, employees and agents (“Adverse Sony Entity”) that cannot be resolved through negotiation as required as further described below. Other than those matters listed in the Exclusions from Arbitration clause, you and the Adverse Sony Entity must seek resolution of the Dispute only through arbitration of that Dispute according to Section 8′s terms and not litigate that Dispute in court. Arbitration means that the Dispute will be resolved by a neutral arbitrator instead of in a court by a judge or jury.
[...]

IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO BE BOUND BY THE BINDING ARBITRATION AND CLASS ACTION WAIVER IN THIS SECTION 8, YOU MUST NOTIFY SCE IN WRITING WITHIN 30 DAYS OF THE DATE THAT YOU ACCEPT THIS AGREEMENT. YOUR WRITTEN NOTIFICATION MUST BE MAILED TO SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT INC. CARE OF SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT AMERICA LLC, 919 EAST HILLSDALE BLVD., FOSTER CITY, CA 94404, ATTN: LEGAL DEPARTMENT – WAIVER AND MUST INCLUDE: (1) YOUR NAME, (2) YOUR ADDRESS, (3) YOUR PLAYSTATION®NETWORK ID, IF YOU HAVE ONE, AND (4) A CLEAR STATEMENT THAT YOU DO NOT WISH TO RESOLVE DISPUTES WITH ANY SONY ENTITY THROUGH ARBITRATION.

IF YOU HAVE A DISPUTE WITH ANY SONY ENTITY, YOU MUST SEND WRITTEN NOTICE TO SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT INC. CARE OF SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT AMERICA LLC, 919 EAST HILLSDALE BLVD., FOSTER CITY, CA 94404 ATTN: LEGAL DEPARTMENT – DISPUTE RESOLUTION TO GIVE THE ADVERSE SONY ENTITY AN OPPORTUNITY TO RESOLVE THE DISPUTE INFORMALLY THROUGH NEGOTIATION.

[...]
ANY DISPUTE RESOLUTION PROCEEDINGS, WHETHER IN ARBITRATION OR COURT, WILL BE CONDUCTED ONLY ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS AND NOT IN A CLASS OR REPRESENTATIVE ACTION OR AS A NAMED OR UNNAMED MEMBER IN A CLASS, CONSOLIDATED, REPRESENTATIVE OR PRIVATE ATTORNEY GENERAL ACTION, UNLESS BOTH YOU AND THE ADVERSE SONY ENTITY SPECIFICALLY AGREE TO DO SO IN WRITING FOLLOWING INITIATION OF THE ARBITRATION.

[...]

This Section 8 survives this Agreement’s termination.

What’s next?
This is only the surface of the security on the PS Vita. As we dig more, we will find more security, get more specific information about the system, find stronger locks, but also, who knows, weaknesses.

Sony are protecting their assets with any possible way. Personally I would have preferred if they had spent less time on security/legal terms and more time on making good games (*cough* ridge racer sucks *cough*), but given that they are probably today in the “hate list” of many hackers in the world, it’s understandable that they had to think about it a little bit.

Putting files (homebrews) on the Vita system seems to be the most interesting challenge for now. Clearly, updates to the content management tool will protect the console from hacks involving the copy of some specific files to the system, and that tool overall makes it fairly difficult to copy homebrews to the console. On that part, the help of hardware hacks will probably be needed, but I’m confident that Datel and the likes will be trying to provide third party memory cards as soon as possible… Or maybe other vectors such as the PS3 connectivity could be leveraged.

From the legal point of view…well basically until the US change their laws against reverse engineering, Sony is sending the message that they are not done harassing hackers if they find it’s the only way to protect their business. Those interesting to see details about how bad that can go can read the legal section of the excellent book “Hacking the XBox“. Good times ahead…

http://wololo.net/wagic/2011/12/21/t...ystation-vita/

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Star Ocean developers worked some magic on Final Fantasy XIII-2

December 26th, 2011, 21:50 Posted By: wraggster

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2011 round-up: PlayStation

December 26th, 2011, 21:33 Posted By: wraggster

The year ended well with Vita's release, but Sony's 2011 was defined by the PS3 and PSN hacks.


PlayStation 3

Sony's year got off to the worst possible start with the news that the PlayStation 3 had been hacked. George "Geohot" Hotz, the man who devised the iPhone jailbreak, published the PS3's root key online, opening up the console to mass piracy. Less than a week after telling us it would re-secure PlayStation 3 with a series of firmware updates, Sony filed a lawsuit against Hotz and 100 unnamed members of fail0verflow, a hacking group also credited with the breakthrough.

Sony won the first round - a court granting it a restraining order on the same day a firmware update pushed pirates off PSN - but the case soon got bogged down in an argument over jurisdiction, Hotz arguing his home state of New Jersey, rather than SCEA's California base, would be the better venue. Sony set about resecuring its console and online network, sending an email to those running custom firmware telling them to change their ways or face PSN bans. Sony accused Hotz of "dodging the court's authority" after he went to South America and failed to comply with an order to hand over computer hard drives. Hotz insisted he was on vacation, but the hacking group Anonymous decided it had had enough. Which is where things went from bad to worse.

PSN

First, Anonymous released a statement slamming Sony for its treatment of Hotz and Graf Chokolo, a hacker who was working to restore the OtherOS feature Sony had removed from PS3 in 2010. A splinter group, Sony Recon, began gathering personal information on Sony employees and their families, but Anonymous backed down after an attack on PSN provoked the ire of gamers unable to play online. Days later, Hotz and Sony settled out of court. We like to think it was Hotz's YouTube rap that sealed the deal.

It didn't end there, of course. On April 21 Sony said it had taken PSN offline for maintenance. Then it said it was an "emergency outage." Six days later it admitted that the personal information of 77 million PSN users had been compromised, and that while it had found no evidence of credit card data being taken it could not rule it out. The company's MMOG wing, Sony Online Entertainment, later warned of the potential loss of 24.6 million users' data.

Kaz Hirai apologised and announced the Welcome Back programme, a choice of free games designed at tempting users back online once PSN was back up and running. But with the outage in its fourth week, we revealed that it was beginning to impact on retail, with die-hard online gamers running out of patience and trading their PS3s in for 360s. On May 16, Sony finally began restoring PSN - though the Store itself wouldn't return until June 2, with Japan forced to wait a further month. It was a protracted, thoroughly embarrassing saga, and to see how it all panned out we suggest a look at our PSN attack timeline.

Vita

Sony announced its PSP successor at a Tokyo event in January, smartly held just eight days after Nintendo's European 3DS launch event, codenamed Next Generation Portable. With its 5-inch OLED screen running at four times the resolution of a PSP, dual sticks, front and rear touch pads and cameras, and a quad-core ARM CPU it was clearly a high-end gaming device, but what was most surprising about the announcement was PlayStation Suite. The cross-platform, hardware-neutral framework meant Vita, as well as Sony tablets and other Android devices, would be capable of playing PlayStation Certified content. It showed that, unlike Nintendo, Sony understood how the portable gaming landscape had changed since the release of PSP and DS.

Much was also made of Vita being far easier to develop for than its predecessor, with Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida saying PS3 ports would be easy, Andrew House acknowledging PSP's "development challenges," with both WipeOut 2048 developer Studio Liverpool and SCEE saying it was the most dev-friendly PlayStation yet.

At E3, Kaz Hirai revealed NGP's final name, as well as confirming its US price - $249 for WiFi only, $299 with 3G - though his announcement of AT&T as Vita's 3G provider of choice didn't go down so well. Hirai said the machine would be released in 2011, but Sony spent much of the year managing expectations, warning that a worldwide release was difficult, and even more so following the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in March.

As such it was little surprise when Hirai confirmed Vita would only be released in Japan in 2011, with other territories to follow next year. The system eventually hit shelves on December 17, and sold 324,000 units - 65 per cent of its launch allocation - in the first two days. The system will be released in the US, Europe and Australia on February 22.

http://www.next-gen.biz/news/2011-round-playstation

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2011 round-up: PlayStation

December 26th, 2011, 21:33 Posted By: wraggster

The year ended well with Vita's release, but Sony's 2011 was defined by the PS3 and PSN hacks.


PlayStation 3

Sony's year got off to the worst possible start with the news that the PlayStation 3 had been hacked. George "Geohot" Hotz, the man who devised the iPhone jailbreak, published the PS3's root key online, opening up the console to mass piracy. Less than a week after telling us it would re-secure PlayStation 3 with a series of firmware updates, Sony filed a lawsuit against Hotz and 100 unnamed members of fail0verflow, a hacking group also credited with the breakthrough.

Sony won the first round - a court granting it a restraining order on the same day a firmware update pushed pirates off PSN - but the case soon got bogged down in an argument over jurisdiction, Hotz arguing his home state of New Jersey, rather than SCEA's California base, would be the better venue. Sony set about resecuring its console and online network, sending an email to those running custom firmware telling them to change their ways or face PSN bans. Sony accused Hotz of "dodging the court's authority" after he went to South America and failed to comply with an order to hand over computer hard drives. Hotz insisted he was on vacation, but the hacking group Anonymous decided it had had enough. Which is where things went from bad to worse.

PSN

First, Anonymous released a statement slamming Sony for its treatment of Hotz and Graf Chokolo, a hacker who was working to restore the OtherOS feature Sony had removed from PS3 in 2010. A splinter group, Sony Recon, began gathering personal information on Sony employees and their families, but Anonymous backed down after an attack on PSN provoked the ire of gamers unable to play online. Days later, Hotz and Sony settled out of court. We like to think it was Hotz's YouTube rap that sealed the deal.

It didn't end there, of course. On April 21 Sony said it had taken PSN offline for maintenance. Then it said it was an "emergency outage." Six days later it admitted that the personal information of 77 million PSN users had been compromised, and that while it had found no evidence of credit card data being taken it could not rule it out. The company's MMOG wing, Sony Online Entertainment, later warned of the potential loss of 24.6 million users' data.

Kaz Hirai apologised and announced the Welcome Back programme, a choice of free games designed at tempting users back online once PSN was back up and running. But with the outage in its fourth week, we revealed that it was beginning to impact on retail, with die-hard online gamers running out of patience and trading their PS3s in for 360s. On May 16, Sony finally began restoring PSN - though the Store itself wouldn't return until June 2, with Japan forced to wait a further month. It was a protracted, thoroughly embarrassing saga, and to see how it all panned out we suggest a look at our PSN attack timeline.

Vita

Sony announced its PSP successor at a Tokyo event in January, smartly held just eight days after Nintendo's European 3DS launch event, codenamed Next Generation Portable. With its 5-inch OLED screen running at four times the resolution of a PSP, dual sticks, front and rear touch pads and cameras, and a quad-core ARM CPU it was clearly a high-end gaming device, but what was most surprising about the announcement was PlayStation Suite. The cross-platform, hardware-neutral framework meant Vita, as well as Sony tablets and other Android devices, would be capable of playing PlayStation Certified content. It showed that, unlike Nintendo, Sony understood how the portable gaming landscape had changed since the release of PSP and DS.

Much was also made of Vita being far easier to develop for than its predecessor, with Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida saying PS3 ports would be easy, Andrew House acknowledging PSP's "development challenges," with both WipeOut 2048 developer Studio Liverpool and SCEE saying it was the most dev-friendly PlayStation yet.

At E3, Kaz Hirai revealed NGP's final name, as well as confirming its US price - $249 for WiFi only, $299 with 3G - though his announcement of AT&T as Vita's 3G provider of choice didn't go down so well. Hirai said the machine would be released in 2011, but Sony spent much of the year managing expectations, warning that a worldwide release was difficult, and even more so following the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in March.

As such it was little surprise when Hirai confirmed Vita would only be released in Japan in 2011, with other territories to follow next year. The system eventually hit shelves on December 17, and sold 324,000 units - 65 per cent of its launch allocation - in the first two days. The system will be released in the US, Europe and Australia on February 22.

http://www.next-gen.biz/news/2011-round-playstation

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OnLive now available on Xperia Play

December 25th, 2011, 00:04 Posted By: wraggster

Cloud gaming service OnLive has updated its free app for Android devices to support Xperia Play's slide-out controls.
The move enables gameplay of almost all OnLive titles, and makes Xperia Play the first mobile device to play console-performance games using in-built controls."From the moment we launched our OnLive Android app, gamers began asking about Sony Ericsson Xperia Play game control support," said OnLive CEO Steve Perlman. "We listened and delivered.
"Now Xperia Play gamers in the US and UK can play almost all of OnLive's 200 premium titles-including hit AAA games like Saints Row: The Third and Assassin's Creed: Revelations-on their Xperia Play smartphone with a full console-class experience, including multiplayer and social features."
Other Android tablet and smartphone owners can play OnLive demos of 24 games, such as Dirt 3 and Defense Grid Gold, which have been either redesigned with native touch controls or include various virtual gamepads on-screen. Alternatively, they can play nearly every game in OnLive's library using the recently released OnLive Wireless Controller.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...n-xperia-play/

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GameStop apologises for announcing The Last Guardian cancellation

December 24th, 2011, 23:34 Posted By: wraggster

GameStop has apologised for wrongly informing customers thatThe Last Guardian, Team Ico's in-production PlayStation game, had been cancelled via an automated email.
The game was removed from the company's website and in-store systems at the same time that the email was sent.
Sony quickly moved to quash the rumour, senior director of corporate communications Patrick Seybold issuing a statement saying this wasn't the case.
GameStop has now issued its own statement to Kotaku which reads:
"The Last Guardian has not been cancelled by Sony as we incorrectly stated in an automated call to reservation customers. Because the game did not have a specific release date, GameStop made the decision to remove the game from our system. The Last Guardian will be reinstated for pre-order when a firm launch date is known."
Former Team Ico boss Fumito Ueda left Sony earlier this month, but continues to work on the project.

http://www.next-gen.biz/news/gamesto...n-cancellation

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European Vita software line-up and pricing announced

December 24th, 2011, 23:29 Posted By: wraggster

Sony has revealed line-up and prices for the European launch of Vita next February 22.
As previously reported, the console will come six AR Play cards and a voucher for three free AR games.
The full software line-up is as follows:

• Uncharted: Golden Abyss – £44.99 (€49.99)
• ModNation Racers: Road Trip – £34.99 (€39.99)
• Everybody’s Golf – £34.99 (€39.99)
• WipEout 2048 – £34.99 (€39.99)
• Unit 13 – £34.99 (€39.99)
• Little Deviants – £24.99 (€29.99)
• Reality Fighters – £24.99 (€29.99)

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No 32GB Vita memory card for Europe at launch

December 23rd, 2011, 00:48 Posted By: wraggster

If you're planning on splashing out on the largest memory card you can get for Vita, you may have to seek the help of an importer.
While Europe and PAL territories (New Zealand, Australia) will be getting the 4GB, 8GB and 16GB cards, they will not be getting the largest card - at 32GB - available in Japan and confirmed for launch in US.
"At this time we are not planning to launch with the 32GB Vita Memory Card," said Sony's PS Vita European Product Manager Adam Grant.
Sony today confirmed the full lineup of 25 Vita games for the US launch on February 22. While Vita will be out in EU on the same day, SCEE is yet to confirm a full lineup.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...ope-at-launch/

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Vita download game sales "exceeding expectations" - Sony

December 23rd, 2011, 00:46 Posted By: wraggster

Sony has said that the sales figures for digital download versions of Vita software are "exceeding expectations".
As reported earlier, PlayStation Vita's 20 launch games sold a combined total of 300,000 copies in the system's first two days of availability, according to Japanese retail tracker Media Create.That compares unfavourably to the 0.95 first week attach rate of 3DS and the 1.06 first week attach rate of PSP, but that does not take in account the games Vita owners have purchased digitally via PSN.
Speaking at a press conference for Gung Ho Entertainment's Ragnarok Odyssey in Japan this week, Sony Computer Entertainment Japan CEO Hiroshi Kawano said the retail sales were "a figure in accordance with expectations".
But he went on to add: "Sales of the download versions of titles are exceeding expectations," and that games and peripherals are selling extremely well."
Kawano refrained from revealing any hint of the download figures.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...ctations-sony/

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Sony accepting PlanetSide 2 beta applications

December 23rd, 2011, 00:44 Posted By: wraggster

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Atlus announces Gungnir, teases another 'G' game

December 23rd, 2011, 00:32 Posted By: wraggster

Did you guess Atlus's mystery SRPG to be Gungnir for PSP? Congratulations! For your excellent guessing skills, you win ... the chance to purchase Gungnir on June 12! Atlus has officially unveiled the next game in Sting's "Dept. Heaven" series, an SRPG about a small resistance group who, in addition to fighting its rebellion, must protect a magical spear and a young woman who fell from the sky.

The gameplay assigns predetermined numerical time intervals to all actions, allowing players to plot their movements precisely in terms of how long each will take. It's possible to accelerate combat actions using "tactical points."

Atlus isn't done teasing yet. Immediately after announcing Gungnir, it sent another email teasing the upcoming announcement of another game whose title starts with G.

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/12/22/at...nother-g-game/

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Shuhei Yoshida expects a focus on new IP for Vita

December 23rd, 2011, 00:29 Posted By: wraggster

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Step into 'Welcome Park,' the PS Vita's tutorial minigame collection

December 23rd, 2011, 00:26 Posted By: wraggster

The PlayStation Vita comes pre-loaded with a suite of minigames, under the delightfully Japanese heading of "Welcome Park." Each of the five games is designed to give users practice with one of the Vita's interface methods: the touchscreen (and touch panel), the mic, the camera, and the gyroscope/accelerometer.

I get the feeling they were designed not only to enable practice, but to familiarize users with the fact that these interfaces exist. They're even suggested to you in a particular order. Something about tapping numbers in sequence as my first Vita experience made me feel that just maybe Sony doesn't have the most confidence in its users.

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/12/22/st...nigame-collec/

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Ridge Racer Vita's development cycle was also a race

December 23rd, 2011, 00:24 Posted By: wraggster

This may or may not be a surprise to you, depending on your level of cynicism about the relative lack of content in Ridge Racer for PlayStation Vita, but it was developed at a quick pace. A Famitsu interview with director Hideo Teramoto (translated by Andriasang) notes that development started in "spring," which likely refers to March at the earliest -- giving the team about eight months to have the game ready for the Vita's Japanese launch.

Teramoto said that the development schedule was "tight," as Andriasang puts it, but that the Vita hardware was easy to develop for, with the development kit in an "advanced state." The content was in an advanced state as well, on account of having already been designed for other Ridge Racer games. Oh, there we go being cynical again.

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/12/22/ri...s-also-a-race/

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Official Vita memory card pricing is slightly better than expected

December 23rd, 2011, 00:16 Posted By: wraggster

Last month, GameStop posted pre-order listings for Vita memory cards, with dire, dire prices -- from $30 for a 4GB card to $120 for the 32GB card. In its launch lineup announcement, the PlayStation Blog revealed the "official" pricing for the unimaginably tiny accessories, and it's ... better.

Still pretty expensive.

According to Sony, the 4GB card will retail for $19.99, 8GB for $29.99, 16GB for $59.99, and the 32GB for $99.99. In addition, you'll be able to get a 4GB card along with a "Pocket Pouch," screen cover, card case, headphones, and cleaning cloth in a $40 "Starter Kit." GameStop still has yet to update its listings, but we're sure it will soon. If it doesn't, you should really look elsewhere.

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/12/22/of...r-than-expect/

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PlayStation Vita's North American launch details: 25 games, $10 to $50 apiece

December 22nd, 2011, 23:31 Posted By: wraggster

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Jurassic Park finally arrives on Euro PSN

December 22nd, 2011, 01:13 Posted By: wraggster

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Atlus to localise PSP strategy RPG Gungnir

December 22nd, 2011, 01:11 Posted By: wraggster

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First Modern Warfare 3 DLC drops January 24 on Xbox [update: first screen]

December 22nd, 2011, 00:20 Posted By: wraggster

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Sony UK: no evidence of 'widespread glitches' among Japanese Vitas

December 22nd, 2011, 00:17 Posted By: wraggster

Sony UK is downplaying the scope of reported freezing issues with the PlayStation Vita. Speaking to The Guardian, SCE UK head of public relations David Wilson said, "We're annoyed with these stories, because we can't find any evidence of widespread glitches."

He went on to clarify that there has been no apology issued from Sony on the subject of glitches. "The stories even said that Sony has issued an apology for PS Vita glitches, which simply isn't true – there's an apology on our Japanese website for people who are having trouble getting through to our technical help line, but that's it." The page with the apology also links directly to a list oftroubleshooting measures in case of a freeze.

But don't take the overwhelmed tech support, and addressing "freezes" in a shortlist of frequently asked questions, as evidence that freezing is a common issue.

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/12/21/so...-japanese-vit/

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