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GDCE 2011: SCEE - PS Vita dev kit priced at a ‘very affordable’ €1,900

Significantly cheaper than PSP, PS2, and PS3 launch dev kits

GDCE 2011: SCEE - PS Vita dev kit priced at a ‘very affordable’ €1,900
Speaking at GDC Europe in Cologne, SCEE's George Bain has revealed that PS Vita’s development kit will be launched at €1,900.

Previous dev kits were substantially more expensive. For example, the initial kits for both PS2 and PS3 were €20,000. PSP dev kits were €15,000 at launch, though those prices have dropped significantly since.

Smaller Studios welcome

"The PS Vita development kit is going to be very affordable, and when I say affordable I mean €1,900 plus VAT," said Bain.

“There is no cost to join the PS Vita Develop Program. There's just that cost of the dev kit. If you're a small developer, we happy to talk to you about this. It will help if you have a games portfolio. There's no reason we won't speak with smaller studios about joining up."

This news underlines Sony's change of approach with PS Vita, with its heavy focus on social features and links to the independent gaming community attempting to retrieve the initiative from Apple and Google.

Bain also confirmed that the SCEA PupFund, offering budgets for exclusive titles, is currently seeing over 15 pitches weekly.

That’s not to say that the PS Vita is aiming to be anything but a games system - at least not for the time being. Bain confirmed that Sony is not currently seeing pitches for non-gaming apps. He also revealed that PS Vita will support freemium games.

[source:Develop]

When Matt was 7 years old he didn't write to Santa like the other little boys and girls. He wrote to Mario. When the rotund plumber replied, Matt's dedication to a life of gaming was established. Like an otaku David Carradine, he wandered the planet until becoming a writer at Pocket Gamer.