Sony’s first attempt to snatch a piece of Nintendo’s handheld market dominance via the PlayStation Portable was – with 70 million units sold worldwide as of May this year – hardly a failure.

However, Sony’s system was slow to offer compelling games; impressive visuals and a handful of titles aside, it gave gamers little reason to pick it up once the lure of the new technology had subsided. Everywhere but Japan it seemed, PSPs were gathering dust.

It’s heartening, then, to see that Sony appear to have learned from these mistakes and sought to rectify them with their upcoming handheld, the PlayStation Vita.