Sony confirms PS4 and Vita bundles for under ?500

Sony has confirmed PlayStation 4 and Vita bundles, to go on sale at select shops from this evening for a little under £500.

Sony UK has worked with retailers to encourage what it calls a "soft bundle" that includes both consoles. Some shops won't be able to offer the deal because of PS4 stock availability, but the expectation is most will from tonight alongside the launch of the PS4 in Europe.

"We're working with our retail partners to put across that proposition as well as we can," Sony UK boss Fergal Gara told Eurogamer.

"It'll come to market in a few different shapes and guises. You may walk in and get a great deal on 'buy a Vita when bought with' type deal. So if you buy a PS4 you can get a Vita for X. And others will say, well here's the Ultimate Bundle and you get all those bits in it.

"But as a base price point, in other words for the two consoles, we expect the gamer to be able to pick that up for under £500. It's not a hard bundle pack at this point in time. It's us working with the retailer to effectively deliver a soft bundle."

Gara said the PS4, which goes for £349 on its own, and the Vita, which you can pick up for around £150 depending on the model type, will be bundled together for a little under £500 - so we're looking at a saving of around £10.

Since the announcement of the PS4 earlier this year, Sony has been keen to push its connectivity with the Vita handheld. Perhaps the most eye-catching feature in this regard is Remote Play, which uses Gaikai streaming technology to allow you to play PS4 games on a Vita.

It was this feature, Gara said, that helped convince PlayStation to bundle the two together this Christmas.

"Our stimulus to do that is mainly the fact that once we got our hands on Remote Play we thought, wow, it really is real and good, and that deserves a shout," he said. "And of course it's a PlayStation point of difference.

"We think, for four hundred and something pounds you're getting two consoles, if you get PlayStation Plus with that then you've got an Instant Game Collection for both. So now they're both great companion devices and they're standalone devices. Why wouldn't we underline that and highlight that point of difference? We really believe in it."

As for availability, the PS4 and Vita bundles will start to show up from tonight. "It's starting to happen now," Gara said this morning.

"If you look at offers at retail from launch - and others may introduce it slightly later - but over the coming weeks. It has to be a little bit determined by stock and the allocations and the pre-orders. If a retailer has all of their stock up to a certain date pre-ordered, they can't offer this right away. They have to come into some free stock.

So, slightly staggered timing. But the offers to buy a Vita when you buy a PS4 will be live as of tonight."

Gara added that while shops will get creative with their offers, Sony's expectation is you won't have to pay more than £499 for the two consoles.

"Retailers will package things around it or add certain things in. But as a base price we think that's quite compelling."