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Sony parties like it's 1999 with PocketStation app on Vita
The PocketStation was a small memory card with a monochrome LCD screen and five buttons that launched for Sony's first PlayStation console in 1999, allowing players to complete mini-games while away from their systems. Clearly feeling a little nostalgic, Sony has launched a PocketStation app for Vita in Japan. The app is free for PlayStation Plus users, and is compatible with classic PS One games that used the device in its heyday like Final Fantasy 8, Ape Escape and Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped. The hardware manufacturer teased a return of the handheld device last week, though it was unclear whether Sony's plans involved a new physical device at all. As it stands, the PocketStation app is limited to Japanese Vita owners, and there is no indication yet that it will come stateside or launch on PS3 or PS4.
PocketStation app brings the niche peripheral joys of 1999 to the PS Vita
That big important announcement regarding Sony's PocketStation? Well, it was a little zealous to call it important, because rather than anything as thrilling as a hardware revival, Sony's brought back its memory-card-with-a-screen as a charming but limited app for its Vita handheld. Having said that, the company's already gone to the effort of crafting a dedicated portal for compatible games (including Metal Gear Solid: Integral and Final Fantasy VIII). The app isn't standalone, and requires one of those compatible titles to function at all. For now, it's an exclusive free download for PS Plus users in Japan, and there's no official noises so far that it'll appear anywhere beyond those shores at least for now. However, the original hardware did work with compatible overseas titles pre-millennium, so there's at least a chance, if not a particularly huge one.
Ghost of PlayStation past: PocketStation teased to return
PlayStation aficionados will nod knowledgeably at the mention of PocketStation, and most likely raise their eyebrows at news of a possible return. It you can't sit through all four of its theatrical minutes, we can confirm this PlayStation Japan video teases some kind of PocketStation announcement next week, on November 5. For the likely majority of you who don't remember the PocketStation, the Japan-only device was a memory card peripheral for the first PlayStation console. Similar to the Dreamcast's Visual Memory Unit that did come to the west, owners could store game save data on the PocketStation as well as play standalone games obtained via PlayStation CD-ROMs. Just ahead of the PS4 launch, it's not quite clear how a revival of this device would fit into Sony's plans.
PocketStation, the PS1's memory card with a screen, teased for November return
You might remember the PocketStation, but most of you probably don't -- it was a Japan-only peripheral that launched over there way back in 1999. Another thing rising from the dead today, Sony Computer Entertainment Japan has just released highly-confusing teaser video promising a big PocketStation announcement on 5th November, two months shy of its 14th birthday. Despite the lengthy four-minute tease, there's no mention of exactly what PlayStation has planned -- a similarly-behaving app for smartphones? A new peripheral for its consoles and handheld? Just some new adorable plushies of the PocketStation's cat-like protagonist? We don't know, but we'll be around in Tokyo next week to tell you more. 懐かしの"ポケステ"に新展開！？ "PocketStationナゾ動画"が緊急公開 - ファミ通.com http://t.co/o0xkofzJUh via @famitsu - Shuhei Yoshida (@yosp) November 1, 2013
