As with its Gamescom 2012 presentation, Sony's 2012 Tokyo Game Show (TGS) press conference held plenty of good news for owners - and prospective owners - of PlayStation Vita. In addition to revealing that Vanilliaware's gorgeous 2009 Wii title Muramasa: The Demon Blade is being ported to the system, Sony announced that PlayStation Plus will (finally) come to Vita in November. That same month, two new Vita colors - Sapphire Blue and Cosmic Red - will be made available in Japan.

PlayStation Plus offers a number of benefits to subscribers, including discounts on PlayStation Network purchases, cloud storage for game saves, early access to PSN titles and automatic system update downloads. Those are all welcome features, but for many PlayStation 3 owners the real draw is PlayStation Plus' Instant Game Collection. At E3 2012, Sony kicked the initiative into high gear with the announcement of twelve free games, including such standouts as inFamous 2 and LittleBigPlanet 2. Since that time, games as diverse as The Walking Dead and Borderlands have joined the Collection.

Instant Game Collection

All the features of PlayStation Plus on PlayStation 3, including the Instant Game Collection, are present and accounted for on Vita. For now, Sony isn't saying which games will be offered when the subscription service goes live on Vita in November, but expect that to change as we approach launch. Check out the full list of PSPlus Vita benefits (from Sony's press release) below.

  • Games: Members will be able to play the full versions of designated content for PS Vita available on PlayStation Store as long as membership is effective, at no extra cost. The lineup of games that will be offered and other details will be announced at a later date.
  • Discounts: Members will have access to exclusive discounts on designated content for PS Vita.
  • Online Game Save: Members will automatically or manually be able to upload game save data files for compatible games to Online Game Save Storage with 1GB of space on the PlayStation Network.
  • Automatic content downloads and updates: PS Vita will automatically download designated game demos and game updates, and also download system software updates. PS Vita will automatically start up to download content and will enter standby mode after the download has completed.
  • Automatic Trophy sync: PS Vita will automatically start up at a designated time to sync Trophy information with PlayStation Network servers.

Perhaps the best news - at least for current subscribers - is that there is no separate fee for PlayStation Plus on Vita. One subscription, which runs $17.99 for 90 days or $49.99 a year, covers both Vita and PS3, making the service quite literally a better value than ever before.

While there is not, as yet, a specific date for PlayStation Plus' Vita debut, the new Sapphire Blue and Cosmic Red Vitas will land on store shelves November 15th. Though the new colors are currently slated only for Japan, we wouldn't be too surprised if these beauties made it out to the rest of the world in the not-too-distant future. After all, the Crystal White Vita that debuted in Japan last June is coming to North America on October 30th, bundled with Assassin's Creed 3: Liberation.

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Ranters, what do you think about Sony bringing PlayStation Plus to Vita? Is the Instant Game Collection sufficient incentive to buy the system? Would you like to see the Sapphire Blue and Cosmic Red Vitas released outside of Japan? Let us know in the comments below.

PlayStation Plus launches on Vita this November.

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Source: PlayStation Blog, Joystiq