PlayStation Vita Confirmed As Region-Free

Sony has confirmed that the upcoming PlayStation Vita will be region-free, allowing users to play games from different regions on any version of the PS Vita console. During an E3 session earlier this year, SCEE vice president Michael Denny said that, as far as he was aware, the console was going to be region free. However, this was not officially confirmed by Sony. Now Shuhei Yoshida, president of Sony's Worldwide Studios, has confirmed that the console will indeed be region-free. When asked by a Twitter user whether this will be the case, he responded, "Yes, it is." However, he later noted, "There are people who are interested in importing the Japanese version of PS Vita from outside Japan, but I personally do not recommend that." He went on to explain, "From my experience owning both US and J game consoles of everything, there tend to be minor nuisances... like inconsistency between the use of x and o buttons between system software and games." Sony Japan also revealed prices for the memory cards for the Vita. The 4GB card will cost ¥2,200 ($28.63), the 8GB goes for ¥3,200 ($41.64), the 16GB is ¥5,500 ($71.58) and the 32GB will set Japanese gamers back ¥9,500 ($123.63).