During the Web 2.0 summit, Jack Tretton, President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment of America, announced that the highly-anticipated PlayStation Vita will arrive on February 22nd, 2012 for US, European, African, Middle Eastern, and Australian consumers. The PS Vita, successor to the PlayStation Portable (PSP), will be released later this year in Japan.

The PS Vita will be released in two variations, with the Wi-Fi model priced at $249 while the Wi-Fi+ 3G will set you at $299. The PS Vita will also feature a highly-wanted PS3 functionality, cross-game chat. Fans have an ever-growing list of AAA titles to look forward to like Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Resistance: Burning Skies, WipeOut 2048, LittleBigPlanet and Call of Duty, to name just a few.

The PS Vita looks to stand out from other portable gaming devices by also giving users access to a host of popular social applications like Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare, and Skype by utilizing the PS Vita’s Wi-Fi/3G and GPS to keep you updated and active in your community of choice.

Update:

As our reader Wertyu_24  pointed out, the PS Vita will actually launch on February 22nd. Though we had the date right, originally our article had written January.

[Via PlayStation Blog]