PS Vita owners may be able to get mad money from Sony

Did you buy a PS Vita portable console prior to June 1st, 2012? Good news for you! You’re probably eligible for either a $25 credit or a $50 merchandise voucher, thanks to Sony’s early advertising for the handheld. Sony has agreed to settle with the Federal Trade Commission and pay a penalty for its “misleading” and “false” television commercials. If you’re wondering what Sony did wrong, the FTC’s blog has a great summary. (The FTC has a blog? What an age we live in!)

In 2012, Sony and its advertising agency, Deutsch LA, Inc., promoted the PS Vita on the internet and in promotional videos, TV commercials and stores. Ads said you would “Never stop playing” and showed users enjoying the “remote play,” “cross save” and real-time 3G features. But the FTC says that despite the ads’ promises, customers really couldn’t use remote play to run most PS3 games on the PS Vita – not even Killzone 3, the popular PS3 game Sony featured in its promotional video explaining remote play. And the claims that you could “cross save” by pausing a game on one system and resuming it on another? Sony didn’t tell that you actually had to have two copies of the same game for this feature to work. What about the live, multiplayer game sessions that looked exciting in the ads? The PS Vita couldn’t do that, even if you bought the 3G version.

But hey, $50! Buy something for your old-school PS Vita to play. Sony will be sending emails to eligible consumers once the settlement is approved. And you thought your Vita wasn’t useful.