Rumour: NGP To Be Named PSVita?

The Internet's been going crazy overnight about a couple of leaked photographs supposedly revealing the NGP's final name. That name is PSVita, by the way.

Vita was originally believed to be one of NGP's codenames before the system was announced. The word literally means "life", which would suggest Sony intends to market the device as some kind of life-style product. Obviously the marketing slogans — "Get a life, get a PlayStation Vita" — write themselves.

The leaked image, embedded above, appears to depict some form of promotional material for the device. While there's always a possibility that the image is fake, a number of factors are throwing us off. Firstly, the angle of the device shown in the picture is not the same as any previous NGP press material Sony has released. That means it would take an elaborate hoaxer to re-render the image in the position shown. Furthermore, the icons shown on the PSVita's operating system are different to those in previous renders shown on the NGP, again increasing the difficulty of the image to fake.

However, that doesn't mean we can't rule out the possibility of a fake. The logo, for example, looks distinctly amateur. Furthermore, the reflection of the device shown on the promotional material looks a bit off. If this image does prove to be fake, it's a very good one though. Probably one of the best we've ever seen.

Adding more fuel to the fire, a quick WhoIs search on the domain playstationvita.com reveals a registration by a company called Ascio Technologies. It's the same company name Sony uses to register a number of its official domains. Of course, if Vita was a codename, the platform holder could have always registered the domain prematurely.

As with all consumer electronics names, Vita looks dumb and stupid at first — but we imagine if it's true, we'll end up getting used to it very quickly. When you really think about it, "PlayStation" is a terrible name too.

What do you guys think? Elaborate hoax? Real? Worst name ever?