San Francisco ( CNN ) -- Sony plans to release the PlayStation Vita , a portable video game player , on February 22 , 2012 , in the United States , Canada and Europe , the company announced at a technology conference on Tuesday . The Vita will succeed the PlayStation Portable , or PSP , and PlayStation Go , a smaller version of the hand-held device . The Vita has a touchscreen and a touch-sensitive pad on the back of the device , along with the buttons and control sticks gamers expect to see on controllers . Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Jack Tretton and a Sony spokesman demonstrated a sequel to a popular PlayStation 3 game called `` Uncharted : Golden Abyss . '' Players can use the standard controller or manipulate the character using touch controls , as the spokesman showed onstage at the Web 2.0 Summit . The game looks very attractive -- but when shown on the big screen , not as sharp as a console game . Sony previously announced pricing for the Vita , with a version that connects to the Web via Wi-Fi costing $ 250 and another that has 3G wireless data connectivity for $ 300 . Nintendo made deep price cuts to its portable 3DS system just five months after a strong launch when sales began to slow . Analysts expect Sony will struggle to sell consumers a dedicated hand-held game machine now that smartphones and tablets have become powerful enough to handle powerful games . `` The advent of smartphone gaming is quite additive to what we 're trying to accomplish , '' Tretton said . People may look to the Vita when they want to graduate from more simplistic games sold on phones , he said . The Vita will first hit stores on December 17 in Japan , where Sony 's portable systems have fared better .
Sony announces a February 22 , 2012 , release for the PlayStation Vita . The game will be available in North America and Europe on March 3 ( Japan ) and April 1 ( Australia ) respectively. The device will debut in Japan on December 17 .