Making the best of both worlds, Sony is hoping to bridge the gap between portable consoles and smartphones with its PS Vita, which will launch in Japan on December 17th.

And it seems some companies are ready to take advantage of the situation.

Japanese developer Cave has announced it's bringing its successful social mobile hit Shirotsuku (Build a Castle), which was launched on the Mobage platform and has 3 million users, to Vita.

It's also coming to GREE's rival mobile platform in an international version for western markets.

Near and Far

As for the Vita version of the game, this will use the console's location features to enable you to check in and get geo-locationally exclusive souvenirs so you can construct unique buildings from that area. You'll also be rewarded with in-game coins depending on how far you've travelled since your last check-in.

PS Vita comes in two flavours: a $249 standard wi-fi version and a $299 3G version, which includes GPS.