Sony’s PlayStation Vita was originally thought to house a single PlayStation Network account per handheld, but according to reports from Wired Game|Life, this isn’t the case.
Crystan MacKenzie, associate brand marketing manager at Sony says account information for PSN users will be stored on the memory cards, and not within the internal memory as initially suggested. Therefore, users can simply swap out memory chips if they wish to change accounts. Vita owners, however, will have to restore the system to its factory default settings in order to switch PSN accounts on the same memory card.
“Your PSN ID is bonded to your memory card and your memory card is bonded to your Vita,” she said. “So if you wanted to change different PSN users but use the same memory card, you would need to go factory reset.”
The Vita is scheduled to release in North America on February 22, 2012. The regular Wi-Fi console will go for $250, and its 3G counterpart for $300. Nintendo’s 3DS will have the upper edge on the holiday market because of the Vita’s later release, but things could easily change as time progresses. We’ve already seen heavy responses in favor of the system in Japan, with fantastic exclusives and region-free gaming only sweetening the deal.