Sony has confirmed that the PlayStation Vita will be released in the UK and America on February 22, and will be priced at £229.99 for the Wi-Fi model and £279.99 for the Wi-Fi and 3G version.

President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, Jack Tretton, made the announcement on stage at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco.

The handheld gaming console will be released in Japan on December 17, but will not reach Europe, the US, Canada, Australia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin American until February 22, 2012, missing out on the Christmas shopping period.

A list of launch titles is not yet known, but Sony has said that over 100 games are currently in development. Tretton said in a blog post: "Our first-party studios and army of publishing partners have been extremely hard at work to ensure that PS Vita launches with a vast library of titles that deliver unique gameplay experiences that go beyond any handheld or mobile device on the market."

Games in development for the PS Vita include EA Sports' 'FIFA', Activision's 'Call of Duty', Ubisoft's 'Assassin's Creed' and 'Resistance: Burning Skies'.

The PS Vita recommended retain price is £80 higher than its main competitor, the Nintendo 3DS. Also, as noted by the Telegraph, pricing of Vita games in Japan suggests games may cost as much as PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 titles, far more than the low cost of increasingly impressive smartphone games for the iOS and Android platforms.

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