Sony's New Handheld - The PS Vita?

As I spend my days traversing the bunch of tubes we call the Internet, I find myself coming across some weird stories. And while some of these tidbits can be interesting, most are fraudulent and completely untrue. This is one of the major problems with video games journalism. The industry has built itself on the success of speculation, the rampant validation of rumour. And thus, our duty as news-givers is to pick through the rubble of defamation to find the absolute truth. What reporters claim as a trusted source could be an employee of GameStop planted by the corporation to solicit false information.

And, as I look over at my notepad for a solid topic worth blogging about, I'm baffled by one jot I made without a second thought. One site claimed to have a source who revealed the official name of Sony's next handheld. Sony would not dare give out that information prior to an E3 reveal so I felt obligated to click. The story wasn't from a site I had heard of, so I took the news being the skeptic I am.

The site claimed the new handheld from Sony was called the "PS Vita". Vita, according to the article, means "life" in Latin. A story this gargantuan would be picked up by every news source in existence, yet this site is only one I've come across carrying the story. Now the writer makes a case saying to take this info with a grain of salt, as expected, and I will rightly do that. This is why I hate the weeks leading up to E3. At the time I initially wrote this post, I forgot to push the Publish button. Turns out the story is making the rounds on smaller sites, but none of the heavily frequented sites have detailed the story yet. One blog (I'll include the link at the end of the post) claiming to have received pictures looks credible, but PhotoShop can be disastrous in today's technological age.

If this story is validated by Sony, then I'll eat my own words and apologize. But, there is an undeniable history of smaller sites claiming breaking stories only to be lying through their teeth. Sadly it's all about the traffic, and big-time stories generate big-time traffic. Sites like IGN get a million hits a day (because they are seen as the site of record for the gaming industry) while little ole' blogs like mine get screwed rectally in viewership (there's a great mental image).

I'll give my opinion on the questionable name choice if it's actually official.

Here's the link: http://megarockblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/everyone-knows-already.html

UPDATED: Dual Pixels is reporting that Vita is an official trademark of Sony, so the story is absolutely possible. I just gulped.

Here's the link: http://www.dualpixels.com/profiles/blogs/playstation-vita-is-an