Ah, the time-honored tradition of pre-E3 leaks and rumors. The scuttlebutt of the day is that Sony will be officially naming its next-gen handheld — currently known as the NGP — the PS Vita during their E3 press conference. This would obviously be in stark contrast to the generally accepted belief that SCE will eventually name the handheld the PSP2. Additionally, it’s just plain weird; but that certainly didn’t stop the Wii from being a runaway success.
The rumors originally surfaced when bloggers claimed an anonymous, but trusted, source had tipped them off to Sony’s plans. If that sounds to you like hogwash of the “Yeah, my cousin totally works at Sony Computer Entertainment, but I can’t tell you his name or mine.” variety, you’re certainly not alone in that line of thinking. However, the above image of a supposed E3 graphic has since surfaced, and it appears to be legit. The image has since been taken down, but several web sites grabbed it before it was removed from the original blog that it was posted to.
It’s still entirely possible that this is an elaborate hoax, but the evidence is fairly convincing. We’ve got two separate sites claiming that Vita will be the name, along with an actual image (which may or may not be real). Nevertheless, it wouldn’t be the first time a stunt like this was pulled.
It is doubtful that we’ll hear Sony’s side of the story until E3 itself rolls around, as they are unlikely to comment on what they will assuredly refer to as a rumor. They will, however, almost certainly provide the actual system name during their pre-show conference next week. In the meantime, let the debate rage on.
[Sources: Games Pundit and Joystiq]
[Image courtesy of Games Pundit.]
