Unsurprisingly, Sony's PS4 led the way during the company's annual press conference at E3 2014 last night, with many big-named PlayStation games being revealed for the system in 2014-2015, including: Little Big Planet 3, Far Cry 4, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End and even Mortal Kombat X, amongst others.
Nevertheless, there was more than a few surprises for fans of Sony's PS Vita handheld as well, with well-loved older titles like Tetris and the ever-popular Minecraft franchise getting their own PS Vita versions in 2014.
Tetris Ultimate was originally announced for the PlayStation 4 and PC markets, but now the PS Vita version will also be released alongside the other formats some time in Winter 2014.
The game will allow for up to four players to take part in six different gameplay modes: Marathon, Endless, Ultra, Sprint, Battle and Power-Up Battle. Players will also be able to engage in some exciting co-op play with friends, and even create their own 'battle teams' to compete with others online.
Meanwhile, the first ever Minecraft game for PS Vita consoles is set to make its debut in August 2014. Essentially, Minecraft is a block-building game, but it has been increasingly popular in recent years due to its capacity for independent, creative gameplay.
The PS Vita version of the game is based on the PS3 version, and as a result, the game's developers, Mojang, have announced that Minecraft PS3 Edition and Minecraft PS Vita Edition will be subject to PlayStation's Cross-Buy functionality.
This means that anyone who buys Minecraft: Playstation 3 Edition from the PlayStation Network store will also get to download it on the PS Vita for free. It doesn't matter if players buy the game for PS3 or PS Vita first, they will automatically own the game for both platforms.
Furthermore, all of the game-saves will be directly transferrable between the Playstation 3 and Vita versions of Minecraft. Players can begin their craft at home on their Playstation 3, and then continue to build their creations outside the home by swapping to the PS Vita. Moreover, all of the downloadable content that has be purchased for Minecraft: Playstation 3 Edition will work on the PS Vita edition as well.
Sony actually announced that more than one hundred PS Vita titles were currently in development, such as Tales from the Borderlands, which is an upcoming adventure game based on the Borderlands series, with a planned release starting in mid-2014 for various platforms including the PS Vita.
The game will follow a similar episodic format that its developers, Telltale Games, have used for their other titles such as The Walking Dead, where player choices and actions will have significant affects on later story elements.
Ubisoft's Child of Light will also be coming to the PS Vita in July 2014. The game centres around Aurora, a girl from Austria in 1895 who contracts a mysterious sleeping sickness that causes her to fall into a deep slumber.
Aurora awakes to find herself in the mythical world of Lemuria which has had all of its natural sources of light, such as its sun, moon and stars stolen by the Dark Queen, Umbra. Aurora is tasked with recovering the celestial bodies and ultimately reuniting with her father.
Another interesting announcement was that the second video game installment of the popular NFC franchise, Disney Infinity, entitled Disney Infinity 2.0: Marvel Superheroes, would be making its debut on the PS Vita some time in 2015.
It is thought that the game may indeed be released in conjunction with Sony's Playstation TV device, which will enable users to stream their Playstation games (especially PS4 games) from their console to a second TV anywhere in the house, but this is yet to be confirmed.
One of the most exciting announcements of the night was that Sony's Playstation Now streaming service will definitely be coming to the PS Vita in Late 2014.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with Playstation Now, The service allows users to pay for access to a selection of original PSOne, PS2, and PS3 titles on either a per-game basis or via an annual subscription. There are plans to offer PS4 titles in the future.
A video of Naughty Dog's The Last Of Us PS3 game being streamed to a PS Vita console via PlayStation Now has been developed by IGN:
(Having trouble viewing this trailer? Please CLICK HERE)
As well as showing new releases for the PS4 and PS Vita consoles, Sony reiterated its commitment to create various Free-To-play titles across its various platforms. The new CEO of Sony Corporation Entertainment America [SCEA], Shawn Layden said that PlayStation is: "Committed to making Playstation the best destination for Free-To-Play games"
Some of the Free-To-Play PS Vita titles that have been announced are Reaper, which is an action-adventure RPG, Big Fest, which is a music festival promotion game and My Singing Monsters, which is a port of an original iOS game for the Apple iPad and iPhones.
In conclusion, although it is clear that the PS4 is set to dominate the majority of the video gaming market over the coming months, Sony has not forgotten about its handheld gaming device, which it yesterday described as: " a key pillar for us." [sourced from: http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/sony-over-100-vita-titles-in-development/0133744]
Given the various popular titles, Free-To-Play games and services set to debut on the PS Vita by the end of 2014, it would seem that Sony's handheld fans have a lot to look forward to this year.
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