One of the chief concerns for those looking forward to Sony's upcoming handheld was that the device might have been sacrificing RAM size in order to keep costs down. Considering the type of games the system is being marketed for -- with it's versatile control options allowing proper first person shooters on a handheld for the first time -- scrimping in the memory department could have been a deal-breaker for many developers trying to trim down their big-screen games for some Vita action.

So it's surprising then that when Sony finally confirmed the memory specifications of the PlayStation Vita, that they didn't make a bigger deal about it. In a press release about Social Networking, an updated spec sheet now confirms that the PlayStation Vita will pack 512MB of Main memory and 128MB of VRAM. For those counting, this is actually more memory than the PlayStation 3, a point which Sony President of Worldwide Studios Shu Yoshida made to Eurogamer:

"It has been very funny," he said. "There were some rumours for the last few months. Some developer mentioned the RAM was halved. We never announced the amount of RAM, and we never changed it.

"We've been making games, right, and we've been showing the games, like Uncharted, since January. If RAM gets cut in the middle of development, there's no way we can complete the games. So I was like, what's going on?

"I got lots of Tweets saying, Sony made a huge mistake by reducing the amount of RAM. We never talked about the amount of RAM and we never cut it.

"So going into Gamescom we agreed there was no reason we should hide it, so we just added it to the specifications. We always had 512MB of main RAM and 128MB of V-RAM. Actually when you add them together, PS Vita has more RAM than PS3 [the PS3 has 256MB of XDR DRAM main memory and 256MB of GDDR3 video memory]."

With smartphones and tablets devouring a large share of mobile gaming, it remains to be seen if a tailored gaming device can still be a winner in today's market, but with the high specs and control versatility of the Vita, Sony looks to be giving it their best shot. Now we just need to find out what the battery life is like.

Check out all the Vita-related trailers fresh out of GamesCom 2011:

• PlayStation Vita "Product Features" Trailer
• PlayStation Vita Dev Diary Trailer
• Uncharted: Golden Abyss GC 2011 PS Vita Trailer
• Virtua Tennis 4 GC 2011 PS Vita Trailer
• Top Darts GC 2011 PS Vita Trailer
• Super Stardust Delta GC 2011 PS Vita Trailer
• SoundShapes GC 2011 PS Vita Trailer
• Reality Fighters GC 2011 PS Vita Trailer
• Frobisher Says GC 2011 PS Vita Trailer
• EyePet Adventures GC 2011 PS Vita Trailer
• Everybody's Golf GC 2011 PS Vita Trailer
• Little Deviants GC 2011 PS Vita Trailer
• WipEout 2048 GC 2011 PS Vita Trailer
• Gravity Rush GC 2011 PSVita Trailer
• Little Big Planet GC 2011 "Vita Create" Trailer

Following a 2011 Japanese launch, the PlayStation Vita is expected in early 2012 in other region. Australian pricing has still yet to be confirmed, perhaps due to currency volitility, however retailer EB Games is currently anticipating AUD$348 for the Wifi only model and AUD$408 for 3G.