As everybody already knows, Sony will launch their new handheld console, the PS Vita, in Europe and North America tomorrow.
Many potential customers will have been trying to decide whether to go with the basic wi-fi ready model, or spend the extra £50 and get the 3G version. It's a question similar to the one constantly asked by designers over at Sony.
Sony's Shuhei Yoshida spoke to Gamesindustry.biz about it: "That's a question we asked ourselves maybe 200 times over the course of the development. But from the very outset in early 2008 when we first started the project we had a very high level goal and we looked at all the technology we could and the advancements that we could use in a new system."
"3G was always in the top five things we wanted to do. Because of how people are using social networks and how people are connected we saw the opportunity that games can be enhanced by having 3G and an always-on capability."
Whilst Yoshida is happy to talk about the benefits of adding 3G to Vita, he is also aware of the drawbacks: "It's a burden of having 3G, because 3G it's not cheap, it's an investment from consumers and sometimes they have to make a commitment depending on the country."
"More pre-paid plans are available but still it's additional money that people have to spend on top of the content. We want people to spend more on the content, not on the connectivity, to be honest. There's a balance."
Time well tell if people are happy to pay extra to get their hands on the 3G version. Do handhelds need this level of connectivity to compete with iOS? Head over to the Forum and let us know which version you're going to invest in.