PS Vita production 'Significantly impacted' by Japan Earthquake

SCEE president Andrew House has revealed that the Japanese earthquakes in March 


"significantly impacted" the production of PlayStation Vita which, as previous rumours have suggested, may indeed impact Vita's launch schedule.


"There's a very good and sensible reason why we haven't clarified exact timing in regions and geographies," said House speaking to GamesIndustry.biz and that's as you know, we were significantly impacted by the events of March 11 in Japan.


"We've undertaken, across Sony but also SCEE, a significant assessment of impact on our supply chain and what we think the long or medium term impact is going to be. Once we've completed that assessment and have a full understanding of what our supply chain looks like then we'll be in a position to be more specific about launch in specific regions."


Whispers of Vita's delay into 2012 first hit the rumour-mill in April when SCEA boss Jack Tretton said that the Japanese earthquakes "may be the straw that says 'maybe we get to just one market by the end of the year".


However, in the days that followed Sony Japan said that Tretton was wrong and that the firm sees "no impact from the quake on our launch plan".


Now we're not sure who to believe.


PlayStation Vita, previously known as NGP, was priced and dated for a 2011 release during Sony's E3 conference last week.


Following the conference, however, Tretton revealed that the firm was only "looking to get all three regions out by the end of the fiscal year," and that only Japan was guaranteed for a 2011 launch.


The PlayStation Vita is available to pre-order now.