Sony Will Not Make Its Winter 2011 PS Vita Debut Release Date...

Sony has announced that it will not be able to make its original PS Vita release date. The PS Vita was expected to be released by Christmas 2011 in many regions, in order to take advantage of the holiday sales. However, this is no longer the case.

In a  recent statement issued to the Associated Press, Sony's Executive Vice President, Kazuo Hirai confirmed that the American and European PS Vita launches would now be delayed until the beginning of 2012, and it is still not clear whether the PS Vita will even launch in Japan by the end of the current year.

Hirai claimed that the reason for the delay is so that the new console could launch with "solid game software offerings timed with the hardware launches." [sourced from: http://money.msn.com/business-news/article.aspx?feed=AP&date=20110804&id=14046022]

This will come as disappointing news to the many Sony PSP fans who were expecting to find a shiny new PS Vita at the bottom of their Christmas Stockings, but hopefully means that the new console can have a stronger launch campaign, which should help it to avoid the sales pitfalls that the Nintendo 3DS console has recently succumbed to.

More details about the PS Vita are expected to be announced at Sony's Gamescom conference on the 16th of August 2011.

Keep checking in with Mini Gamers for all the news on this story as it develops.

Gamescom 2010 Gets Started In Cologne

2010

The European equivalent of E3 got underway in the German city of Cologne yesterday. At least five hundred invited guests were expected to attend the four day games and music event which will continue until the 22nd of August 2010.

The Gamescom tradeshow commenced yesterday evening at the Theater am Tanzbrunnen and was followed by a music concert featuring German Rock acts Revolverheld and Stanfour.

The official Gamescom Congress will take place later today at the Rheinsaal of Congress Centre North at Koelnmesse. The Congress is a free one-day event, whereby gaming industry representatives can meet and discuss current videogame and entertainment trends, and to showcase new ideas.

The games featured at the tradeshow are expected to include:

FIFA 11 (Electronic Arts)
Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep (Square Enix)
Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock (Activision Blizzard)
Call of Duty: Black Ops (Activision Blizzard)
Rock Band 3 (MTV Games)

Once again at gamescom 2010, the BÄM! Award will be presented to the most popular computer games of the past year. The awards are based on online voting by more than 1.5 million gamers.

Participants in the voting were encouraged to pick their favorites in nine different categories. Some of this year's nominees include Dragon's Age: Origins, Uncharted 2, Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, Proffessor Layton and Pandora's Box and FIFA 11

The winners in each catergory will be honoured with the coveted award at the Gloria Theater in Cologne on 20th August 2010. Hosting the evening event are MTV cornerstone Steve Blame and Katjuschka Altmann. One of the evening’s highlights will be the performance by games musician Chris Hülsbeck (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, among others).

The main congress will also be concluded by the Gamescom City Festival - a three-day free music event in the city of Cologne, which begins on the 20th August 2010. The music line-up will be coming from all over Germany.

The confirmed line-up now includes bands like: 2raumwohnung, Shout Out Louds, Max Herre, Aura Dione, Dúné, Clover, Roman Fischer, Ready, go!, Timid tiger, Olli Schulz, Daniel Benjamin, Samuel Harfst and Gold Hawks.

This year's Gamescom certainly promises a wide range of entertainment activities for all those involved. Please click here to visit the Official Gamescom website for more updated Gamescom information over the next few days.