Sony has announced that the successor to the PlayStation Portable handheld gaming device - which had been codenamed NGP - will officially be called PlayStation Vita.

It's due to launch before the end of the year in two versions; a WiFi-only model costing €249 in Europe and a 3G/Wi-Fi model for €299.

Sony Ericsson is demonstrating its commitment to the PlayStation-certified Xperia Play smartphone by announcing more than 20 new games for the device, including 10 exclusive titles. All are optimised for the Xperia Play and will join the current list of more than 60 titles.

It also says additional games from Sony Computer Entertainment's collection of classic PlayStation 1 titles will be coming to Xperia Play soon.

James Rosewell writes:

Microsoft have been talking about Mango, the upcoming upgrade to Windows Phone 7 incorporating their battery-friendly flavour of multi-tasking and 499 other new features. They've also welcomed Fujitsu, Acer and ZTE to the Windows Phone fold. However there was no significant news from Nokia and Microsoft. No timeframe for handsets, nothing in fact. Both companies are being tight lipped about the partnership at the moment.

App store analyst company Distimo and games market research firm Newzoo are working together to provide monthly data on game sales and downloads across the Apple App Store in various markets.

Their first report shows that half of all free and paid app downloads across the USA, UK, France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium are games.

PlayStationLifeStyle.net has interviewed Dominic Neil-Dwyer, Sony Ericsson's Head of Market Development, about the launch of the company's Xperia Play gaming phone.

Games sales are discussed, with the number of PS1 game downloads from the Android Market showing as between 100 - 500 sales in most cases.