Borderlands 2, Fez, Minecraft and More Heading to PlayStation Vita

Join First-Party Titles BigFest and Murasaki Baby on Vita’s Software Lineup

Gamescom may have been the shot in the arm that the PlayStation Vita needed. With so much attention placed on the PlayStation 4 at E3, and Nintendo’s 3DS handheld dominating sales charts, it’s been hard to see Sony’s two-year-old PSP successor as anything more than second fiddle. The Vita needed an extremely strong showing in Germany, and Jim Ryan and Michael Denny of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe might just have brought the Vita back from the brink on Tuesday night.

At the PlayStation media event in Cologne, President of SCEE Jim Ryan announced a number of significant titles coming to the PlayStation Vita in the next year. Among them were Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number, which had been prematurely disclosed last week, Phil Fish and Polytron Corp.’s FEZ, and Gearbox Software’s Borderlands 2. Other indie titles announced included the likes of Starbound, Velocity 2X, Mike Bithell’s Volume, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth. Several new first party titles also made their debut; from Italian developer Ovosonico, a horror title called Murasaki Baby; and music festival-meets-SimCity game BigFest from On The Metal Studios. In all, seven new games for the Vita were announced on stage, with another dozen posted on the PlayStation Blog.

Watch the entire Sony Gamescom conference here.

There’s also a little game called Minecraft that will be coming to Vita, PS3 and PS4 (at launch). You might have heard of it.

Coupled with the official worldwide drop in price for the Vita, and Vita memory cards, and heavy emphasis on its connected capabilities with the PS4 through Remote Play, the prospects for the low-selling handheld may turn around. For a list of all the indie titles coming to PS Vita and PS4 at launch, check out the PlayStation Blog. For continued coverage of Gamescom, and the Penny Arcade Expo next weekend, keep it here at SonyRumors.