Today marks the official release of the PlayStation Vita portable game console in Canada, the U.S., and Latin America.

The system that was unveiled last year, has a quad core processor, and combines gaming and social connectivity via Wi-Fi and 3G options. It has a 5", multi-touch OLED screen (960 x 544 pixel resolution), as well as a multi-touch pad on the back of the device. The latter will allow gamers to interact and play in three dimensions through motions like touching, grabbing, tracing, pushing, and pulling via their fingers.

PlayStation Vita also has two analog sticks that are able to accommodate other types of games, like shooters, action games, and fighting titles.

Through the system's Content Manager, Vita users can transfer games, videos, music, and photos between the device and their PS3, or personal computer. Meanwhile, the Near feature lets a player share his location with friends, and tell other Vita users what games he is playing. Friends can rate games, and permit location based gaming features as well.

The Party application enables cross-game chat, which gives Vita users the ability to communicate with up to eight friends through text or voice chat, regardless of what games these friends are playing.

There's also cross-platform gameplay and compatible software titles that lets an individual start a game on his PlayStation3 system, pause it, and then resume the game using the PS Vita.

Consumers can now purchase PS Vita game cards at retailers, or download gamess through the PlayStation Store. Pricing for all Vita-friendly software is available for $9.99-$49.99 MSRP.

The Wi-Fi only model of Vita is available now for $249.99, while the Wi-Fi + 3G version is priced at $299.99.

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