Yoshida: $249 Vita pricepoint aimed at from day one

SCE WorldWide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida has said that it was looking for a $249 price-point for PlayStation Vita from the first day it had gone into concept.

Yoshida told GI.biz that it learnt the mistakes of PS3's launch pricing with Vita.

"Going through the PlayStation 3 experience was difficult for all of us involved," he said.

"So when we started working on PS Vita three years ago we set goals, and one of those goals was to hit the $249 price point, €249 from the very, very beginning. That was springtime 2008."

Yoshida added further: "In the past, up to the PlayStation 3, they kept everything behind closed doors, even from ourselves, and making decisions based on their inspirations from a mostly hardware engineering standpoint."

SCE president Kaz Hirai announced on Monday night that Vita would launch for $249 for the WiFi SKU and $299 for the WiFi/3G version this holiday, although confusion has arrived over the launch of the handheld.

SCEA boss Jack Tretton said Vita would launch this fiscal year, severely hinting that a global launch by the end of calendar 2011 won't happen.