Sony's Kaz Hirai announces the PS Vita price point at today's press conference.

Going along with today's final name announcement, Sony Computer Entertainment has shared a final price point for PlayStation Vita, the portable system formerly known as NGP.

The system will be available in two versions, a Wi-Fi model and a 3G/Wi-Fi model. The Wi-Fi model is priced ¥24,980/$249/249 Euros. The 3G/Wi-Fi version will be priced ¥29,980/$299/299 Euros.

For the 3G version of the system, Sony will be teaming up with AT&T in America. It said to expect announcements about partners elsewhere in the world later.

Sony did not share a final release date for the system, only saying end of 2011.

The word Vita means "Life" in Latin, Sony says. It says that it hopes the system will transform all aspects of the user's daily life into an entertainment experience.

Sony listed a number of first party titles for the Vita, including Gravity Daze, Uncharted Golden Abyss, Little Deviants, Hot Shots Golf, Reality Fighter, Hustle Kings, ModNation Racers, Wipeout 2048 and Super Stardust Delta. It did not provide release information for these games.

Sony also highlighted some of the system's built-in software, including Near and Party. Near, announced back in January, is a location-based gaming app which lets Vita users see what nearby players are playing and share game information. Players can also use the app for "gifting," which means accessing virtual game-related items that other players are sharing, by checking in at the same geographic location.

Party is a newly developed app which allows players to voice and text chat. The chatting can be done during a game, and is cross-game compatible. It can also be used when one player is, for instance, using the web browser.

Also built in with the system is the "Welcome Pack," an app that guides newcomer users to the PS Vita's user interface.

You can see Sony's full announcement here (PDF).

PlayStation Vita Specs

Platform Name

PlayStation Vita

Model number

PCH-1000 series

CPU

ARM Cortex™-A9 core (4 core)

GPU

SGX543MP4+

External Dimensions

Approx. 182.0 x 18.6 x 83.5mm (width x height x depth) (tentative, excludes largest projection)

Screen (Touch screen)

5 inches (16:9), 960 x 544, Approx. 16 million colors, OLED Multi touch screen (capacitive type)

Rear touch pad

Multi touch pad (capacitive type)

Cameras

Front camera, Rear camera; Frame rate : 120fps@320x240(QVGA), 60fps@640x480(VGA); Resolution : Up to 640x480(VGA)

Sound

Built-in stereo speakers, Built-in microphone

Sensors

Six-axis motion sensing system (three-axis gyroscope, three-axis accelerometer), Three-axis electronic compass

Location

Built-in GPS (3G/Wi-Fi model only) / Wi-Fi location service support

Keys / Switches

PS button; Power button; Directional buttons (Up/Down/Right/Left); Action buttons (Triangle, Circle, Cross, Square); Shoulder buttons (Right/Left); Right stick, Left stick; START button, SELECT button; Volume buttons (+/-)

Wireless communications

Mobile network connectivity (3G/Wi-Fi model only); IEEE 802.11b/g/n (n = 1x1)(Wi-Fi) (Infrastructure mode/Ad-hoc mode); Bluetooth 2.1+EDR （A2DP/AVRCP/HSP

Slots/Ports

PlayStation Vita card slot; Memory card slot; SIM card slot (3G/Wi-Fi model only); Multi-use port (for USB data communication, DC IN, Audio [Stereo Out / Mono In], Serial data communication), Headset jack (Stereo mini jack) (for Audio [Stereo Out / Mono In]) Accessory port

Power

Built-In Lithium-ion Battery, AC adaptor

Supported AV content format

Music: MP3 MPEG-1/2 Audio Layer 3、MP4 (MPEG-4 AAC)、WAVE (Linear PCM); Videos: MPEG-4 Simple Profile (AAC)、H.264/MPEG-4 AVC Hi/Main/Baseline Profile (AAC); Photos: JPEG (Exif 2.2.1), TIFF, BMP, GIF, PNG