But the tech giant’s been listening to complaints about the barrier to entry with 3D and will be addressing them with two surprise hardware announcements. A 24-inch PlayStation branded 3D display will retail for $499 this fall and will be joined by $69 active shutter glasses that will work with multiple brands of 3DTV. The killer feature of the TV? A special two-player feature “giving each person their own full screen view of the action on the same display while playing co-op or head-to-head,” says Sony.
Sony also announced a new content partnership with streaming service CinemaNow, promising instant access to TV shows and movies on the PS3. On the surface, it sounds similar to Microsoft’s Xbox Live TV deal, but less is known about which shows and/or networks might be coming to the PS3.
What millions wanted to know about, though, was the recently announced Next Generation Portable (NGP) that would follow up the PSP as Sony’s handheld gaming offering. The specs and capabilities have already been outlined, but no one knew what the shiny was going to be called until today.
Once called the PSP 2 and then NGP, Sony’s newest playable portable will be dubbed PlayStation Vita. Coming from the Latin word for life, Vita is meant to evoke how the device will hook into your life like never before. (Okaaayyyy.) And it looks like the software support will be robust in a way that rivals the PSP’s glory days.
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Eighty games are already in development for the Vita, including an Uncharted: Golden Abyss game by the Sony Bend dev studio and a BioShock Infinite title announced by Irrational Games’ own Ken Levine.
Of course, the PSVita comes at a time when smartphones dominate handheld gaming and 3G support for the device has been a long-standing rumor. The rumors were true and Sony’s cellular network partner was revealed to be AT&T. The news was met by groans, as the quality of services for Apple’s iPhone seems to be a blemish on the gadget’s profile. As for cost, the Wi-Fi model of a PS Vita will run $249 and the 3G/Wi-Fi version will run $299.
We’ll have more on PlayStation Vita and Sony’s gaming plans as E3 2011 rolls on this week.
More on TIME.com: Techland’s E3 2011 Coverage