PlayStation has revealed on its European blog the box art for the upcoming PSP replacement, the PlayStation Vita.

The blog was posted by European hardware product manager Adam Grant, who said: "Those of you that have managed to get a hands-on experience at one of our recent events will know that no single picture can do PS Vita justice, but we think it does look pretty stunning and I hope you agree."

Also mentioned is a rundown of applications, features and services that will come pre-installed on the PS Vita at launch.

These include: 'Party' which lets users voice and text chat with each other while playing a game, or indeed doing anything else on the PS Vita system; 'Near' with which users can connect to other nearby gamers. Other apps preloaded on the Vita include Trophies, Music, Internet Browser and Photos.

"We will be sharing much more detail on all of these features and apps, plus many more, in the coming weeks," Grant added.