Sony Australia has announced the pre-order details for its next generation portable console, the PlayStation Vita for eager gamers.

Aussie gamers can now pre-order the PS Vita through select Australian retailers including GAME, EB Games, and JB Hi-Fi. Prospective buyers should head to these select retailers to place a deposit starting today. When the PS Vita launches on February 23, 2012 buyers can return to the same store, pay the remaining balance and collect the pre-order gift pack.

Customers who place pre-orders for the Vita will ensure that they'll get a PS Vita on launch day. Customers will even get a PS Vita Gift Pack which includes: In Ear Headphones in PS Vita Blue, exclusive items like T-Shirts, sunglasses, headphones, trainers and bag from PlayStation Home, discounts from the PlayStation Network for PS Vita games like Little Deviants, Super Stardust Delta, Hustle Kings and Escape Plan, and an exclusive PS Vita Avatar for the PlayStation Network.

The PlayStation Vita is the next generation model of Sony's PlayStation Portable device. It will have a five-inch, 16 million color 960x544 OLED touchscreen, a quad core processor, 512 Mb of RAM and 128 Mb of VRAM and dual analog sticks. The PS Vita will also have a touch sensitive back so that gamers can control the game with additional controls and three-axis accelerometer and gyroscope for a more fine-tuned motion control.

The Vita will also have a built-in GPS that could mean games that are location based. The PS Vita has Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity that will allow users to connect with their friends over the network. The PS Vita is designed to be backwards compatible with other PSP games released on the PlayStation Network through the PlayStation Store. It will also support PlayStation suite games and PSOne Classics.

The PS Vita will be released in Japan on December 17, 2011. Other countries will have to wait until February 2012 to get their PS Vita. The PS Vita 3G with Wi-Fi will cost $449 in Australia while the PS Vita Wi-Fi version will sell for $349.