Sony is releasing it’s Playstation Vita in the U.S. and Canada on Febuary 22nd, and eBay is teaming up with Zavvi to offer a pre-order deal of £199.99. The Vita is region-free, so one can get it a little early through this eBay deal for roughly $315 USD.
£199.99 on eBay is the cheapest online so far, as even on Zavvi’s site, the Vita is £219.45 on pre-order.
The Vita was launched last December in Japan, with a few issues reported with the console. Gamers encountered lag times, screen freezes and full-on crashes with the system. The portable sold 324,859 units in Japan in it’s opening week, but this figure dropped by 78%, when only 72,479 units shipped the following week. It has been said that the Vita’s price point of $380 in Japan was also part of the issue in the drop in sales. Still, Kazuo Hirai, president of Sony’s Consumer & Products Services group, states, “we have a very good product at a very affordable price. There’s no need to lower the price just because somebody else that happens to be in the video game industry decided they were going to,” in reference to the price of the Nintendo DS.
The, Vita, powered by AT&T’s Mobile Broadband Network for 3G/Wi-Fi, is also available for pre-order on Sony’s site, starting at $249.
