Celebrating 10 years of western Vita love

And we made it, the Vita strolls casually across the 10 year mark, still here, still loved (except by Sony) and still awesome for an ancient piece of mobile hardware. 

Relatively close on the heels of the Japanese release, the Vita is now celebrating 10 years of life in the western hemisphere, thanks to the early sneak-peak launch in the US that got the ball rolling over a week of high-profile events. 

The arrival of a new handheld got the usual razzle and hype launch, with the likes of Pete Wentz, Halston Sage and Liam Hemsworth at events (check out Getty's massive image library of the celebs and Sony high-rollers from the day). Business was brisk in those early weeks with strong sales. 

The European launch came a few days later, on the 22nd, and at least PlayStation France remembered with a little love letter. 

WipEout's own Amy Nakajima was at the UK launch and is celebrating with some memories. And plenty of other owners are showing off their launch day models and swag. 

I picked up mine during opening week, and - as with the PSP - it felt like holding the future in my hand. Such a great screen, games that looked like they belonged on the PS3, and a strong future ahead of it. 

An early update meant it was also taking a museum on the go with PSP and PS One titles creating a near two-decade back catalogue of legendary entertainment, with movies and TV (and Netflix in the US) on the gorgeous OLED screen. 

The tiny memory cards were funny, if you ignored the pricing and those game cases were sooo cute. The launch lineup was pretty hot with MotorStorm RC, Unit 13 and a few indies boosting the original roster. 

Uncharted was my chosen launch day game, my first experience of the series, and what a thing of beauty it was. Yes, it shoe-horned in some Vita features, but I quite liked the charcoal rubbings and camera work. 

Without rushing too far ahead, they were dream days that I'll always love and remember fondly as the community built up around the Vita, something that is still strong today! Happy 10th to the Vita, you sexy beast, and a hearty hello to all those still playing!