The mysterious new BioShock game announced for PlayStation Vita during E3 is a new game rather than a port, series mastermind Ken Levine has told IGN.

"That's a new game. That is going to be strange and surprising to people, in the same way," Levine explained. "I think when we launched Infinite, people said, "Wait, what, what are you doing?" I think we always want to surprise people. If I'm just saying, 'Here's BioShock 1 on Vita'... Let's say we potentially do, you don't need us to do that, somebody could make that happen if they wanted that to happen." Read more »

Games on the PlayStation Vita are more often compared to PS3 titles than PSP, which could make developers wary of high development costs. But in a Gamasutra interview, Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida has reiterated that the smaller screen and assets make it more in line with the company's last portable system.

"Michael Denny [Worldwide Studios Europe VP] has said that development costs of a Vita game is closer to a PSP game," said Yoshida. "I wouldn't say it's the same costs as a PS3 game but when you compare to what our teams spent on Blu-ray based PS3 games it's much, much less. Part of that is that because the screen is smaller and the media is much smaller in terms of a card, so developers have to be smarter to create the asset. ... So that helps to reduce the development costs of Vita games." Read more »

The PlayStation Vita, formerly known as the NGP, may not hit all regions this year. CVG cites a retail source close to Sony, who claims that the company is considering a January or February launch for the system in the UK.

"Sony knows it's effectively gifting the festive handheld market to 3DS - but is still really confident of success," the source said. "The overall strategy is that they want the hardcore to buy first and then spread the word. It's a blow for us, but they think they can still do that in the UK without the Christmas sales boost." Read more »

Sony's next handheld, previously codenamed the NGP, was revealed as the PlayStation Vita during this E3 week. A heap more games for the system have also been revealed, so we've compiled a handy list of what we know so far.

Click the game names for screens and trailers, if we have them. I've spent the past forever adding heaps of screens and games to our database, so you had flipping well better enjoy them. Read more »

During Sony's press conference, the company announced a cross-platform action RPG titled Ruin, coming to both PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita. The game was touted as a fully featured RPG, with a focus on attacking opponents' lairs and protecting your own. Being constantly connected means attacks happen in real time, so you get more experience for protecting your lair as it's actually attacked -- a not-too-subtle way to encourage you to keep your Vita with you.

On top of that, Vita will let you pick up your progress between the two platforms. Using cloud saves, you can freely transfer from your PS Vita to your PS3, and vice-versa. This is similar to the "Transfarring" feature announced by Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima a few days ago. Read more »

While UMDs won't be able to make the leap into the NGP generation, PSP owners that own games available on the PlayStation Network will be able to take advantage of NGP's backwards compatibility support. A report on Eurogamer confirms that NGP will be able to play all PSP games currently available on the PlayStation Network.

(Not all PSP games are available to download. Some noteworthy exceptions include Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, and Lumines.) Read more »

E3 may be a week away, but Sony released a massive amount of media on some high-profile games for its upcoming NGP portable. Undoubtedly, the biggest game for the platform right now is Uncharted: Golden Abyss. A standalone adventure set before the events of Drake's Fortune, Golden Abyss takes advantage of NGP's touch screen. But its biggest selling point? GRAPHICS.

Uncharted: Golden Abyss

One of the great things about the PlayStation Network (when it works) is its embrace of cross-platform play. Recently, Portal 2's Steam integration allowed PS3 players to play against Mac and PC players. It looks like Sony's continuing that strategy with the NGP.

The upcoming Wipeout game for NGP (title TBD) will be one of the first to feature cross-platform multiplayer between handheld and PS3. Stu Tilley, game director at SCEE, detailed how it works on the PlayStation.Blog: "It's eight players, any number of them can be any platform. So it can be one PS3 against seven NGPs; it can be the other way around. You can just mix and match ... it can even work with the 3D version of Wipeout, so someone could be playing the 3D version, someone could be playing the normal version, and NGP all mixed up in the same race. Now, the whole world of Wipeout can come together and play." Read more »

Sony is now denying earlier reports that the earthquake and tsunami in Japan have had an impact on production of its NGP (Next Generation Portable). The Wall Street Journal (requires subscription) reports that a Sony spokesperson has called the earlier report simply "wrong."

"So far we see no impact from the quake on our launch plan," said spokesman Satoshi Fukuoka. He noted that the company will monitor the situation for changes. However, Fukuoka also clarified that the company never claimed it would launch in all three regions at once. Read more »

The next annual instalment of Codemasters' Formula 1 racing series is in development at its Birmingham studio and headed for a September release, the publisher announced today.

As well as the standard PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 editions, there'll be "bespoke" versions of F1 2011 for the Nintendo 3DS and Sony NGP, "each designed to take advantage of the new platforms' unique capabilities." The PC edition will be a Games For Windows Live title. Read more »

The next generation of handheld gaming is almost upon us. However, some developers are saying that the technological advances present in both Sony's NGP and Nintendo's 3DS mean that the average cost of developing a game for one of these devices could be more than three times the cost of making a portable game on last generation's devices. (via Develop)

"If you wanted to spend console money on developing a PSP2 or 3DS title, every penny of it would show, and clearly some of the launch titles have budgets two-to-three times what typical DS games have seen in the past," said JC Connors of Griptonite Games, one of Foundation 9 Entertainment's development studios. Read more »