NEW YORK – Contrary to earlier reports, Sony told Wired.com Wednesday night that its upcoming PlayStation Vita handheld gaming system will not be limited to one online account per device.

Speaking to Wired.com at a press event in Manhattan, Sony associate brand marketing manager Crystal MacKenzie said that PlayStation Network accounts will be connected to the Vita's proprietary memory cards, not the hardware itself. Though you will have to restore the Vita to its default factory settings in order to change the account on each memory card, you can use multiple cards to access multiple PSN accounts on a single Vita system.

"Your PSN ID is bonded to your memory card and your memory card is bonded to your Vita," MacKenzie said. "So if you wanted to change different PSN users but use the same memory card, you would need to go factory reset."

Customers will be able to swap cards to use different PSN IDs on the same system, MacKenzie said. If you have more than one memory card, you can register a different PlayStation Network account on each.

"You can also use them both on the same PSN account as well," she said.

Earlier this week, a number of gaming websites reported that Sony would support only one PlayStation Network account per Vita system, disappointing many American fans who used alternative accounts to purchase European and Japanese games on Sony's last handheld system, the PlayStation Portable.

Sony will release PlayStation Vita on February 22 in the U.S. It will retail for $250 (with Wi-Fi) and $300 (with Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity).

Update: Since the publication of this story, Sony has retracted its statement and said that Vita will only support a single user ID.

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com