A PlayStation Vita emulator for Android is launching in just a few days

One of the best things about Android is that it’s easy to download emulators to play your favorite console games. We’ve already seen top-notch emulators such as AetherSX2 for PS2 and Skyline for the Nintendo Switch, but we can add another emulator to the list on Sunday.

An Android port of the Vita3K PlayStation Vita emulator will be publicly released on Sunday, February 12 (11AM GMT+1, 5AM ET), developer Macdu noted in the project’s Discord channel. It sounds like you shouldn’t expect a Play Store release just yet, as the developer noted that an APK file and subsequent updates would be posted in the channel.

The developer’s message also notes a few minimum requirements (e.g. Arm64, Vulkan 1.0, Android 7.0 or higher) but stops short of mentioning chipset, storage, and RAM requirements. Nevertheless, the developer says you should only expect to play some homebrew and 2D titles if your device merely meets the minimum requirements. For what it’s worth, a POCO F3 (featuring a Snapdragon 870 processor) was used in development.

Furthermore, the developer states that this Android port supports custom drivers on Snapdragon devices. More specifically, Adreno 600 series devices or higher are able to use the open-source Turnip graphics driver for a “big speed increase.”

Sony’s ill-fated handheld beast

We’re glad to see Sony’s last handheld console finally being available to emulate on Android. The PlayStation Vita launched back in 2011 as a rival to the Nintendo 3DS and was an impressive hardware proposition. It packed an impressive level of horsepower, a touch-enabled display, a rear touchpad, and typical console controls otherwise (e.g. two analog sticks, face buttons, shoulder keys).

Sony’s console fell far behind the 3DS when it came to sales, while the Japanese gaming giant didn’t help matters by effectively abandoning first-party game development after a couple of years. Nevertheless, the Vita hosted a variety of notable titles such as Teardown, Killzone: Mercenary, Gravity Rush, and Uncharted: Golden Abyss. The console also became an indie haven thanks to titles like Fez, Undertale, OlliOlli, and Shovel Knight.

The emulator is still in the early stages of development, but it supports just over 400 playable games already. Either way, it’s worth noting that the people behind Vita3K for Android are hobbyists. So you can’t expect support from them in getting Vita games running on your device.