Excited for the Playstation Vita? Of course you are… and now, if you’re willing to shell out some cash a little early, you’ll be getting your Vita a little bit earlier than everybody else. Sony announced today that “select retailers” will now gladly let you put some cash down for the “Playstation Vita First Edition Bundle,” which gets you the 3G version of the Vita, a 4GB memory card, a carrying case, and a copy of Little Deviants, a minigame collection that shows off the Vita’s new control capabilities, all for $350.
But of course, the real reason people (including me,) buy systems at launch (instead of doing the sane thing and waiting for prices to go down or more games to come out,) is so they can show off their new piece of hardware to common rabble who don’t have one yet, and preordering the Vita now gives you an extra week to be a complete show-off and jackass to your Vita-less friends: people who preorder the First Edition Bundle will get their Vita’s on February 15th, a whole week before the system sees its official launch and wider distribution.
Also worth noting is that while the 3G version of the bundle will be available across North America, a version of the bundle that has the WiFi-only version of the system will only be available in Canada, for a lower price of $300. Considering the Vita’s 3G is being handled by the infamously slow and unreliable AT&T, having a Vita without 3G might not be a huge loss, and personally I’d rather use that $50 difference between the 3G and the WiFi models on another game.
Rian Quenlin
See, this right here is the ultimate pre-order incentive, getting it a few days before everyone else. Is it a big deal? No. Is it a big deal to customers? Yes. It also gives you a week to find common problems and quickfix them before the masses show up at your headquarters with a bucket of hot tar and a bag of feathers.