[quote name='caltab']Decided to cancel my preorder, price is just too high for me with the mandatory memory. The game prices are also too high in today's smartphone environment. Sony and Nintendo are pricing these games way too high. I can get 20-50 apps for the price of one uncharted. Obviously, I know they don't cost as much to make as Uncharted, but that hasn't stopped me from spending 5 hours playing Super Crate Box for .99. The value just isn't there for me at 30-50 bucks a game. I think 20 bucks should be the ceiling on prices if they really want to push units. Maybe they cannot profit at those price levels, but I suspect they wont be profiting with their current price model either when no one buys the vita, and even if they do if they only ending up buying 1 game.
The smartphone market has changed the game, there seems like there might be room for the 3DS to do OK(but not as well as the DS), but I think Sony might be the third wheel that is in deep trouble.[/QUOTE]
Still haven't seen anyone with a 3DS here playing out in public even after Xmas, but every kid has either a smartphone, iPod touch or iPad in their hands. Its clear where the market is in my area, Apple is simply king of portable gaming right now and cannot be beaten. I see tons of kids walking around with Angry birds apparel on which is now more popular in the schools than Mario by far. I can't see 3D, so I will be waiting quite a long time before I get the 3DS since I can't take advantage of its main feature. I am willing to wait for the next model even if it takes 2-3 more years. The people that are playing DS are still playing the DSi or DS Lite. I seriously doubt many people in my area are going to be buying the Vita, only the truly hardcore gamers with lots of disposable income will be buying the Vita day 1 and that is a very limited audience over here.
Mario can probably sell enough 3DS units alone to make producing the system worthwhile, even if people only buy it for Mario and a few other Nintendo franchise games they are obviously still buying it. The price also isn't too bad right now and its under the magic $199 price point that is low enough for an impulse purchase even if people don't use it for their main system especially because the holiday bundles included the best games on the system. People in my area don't think Nintendo is cool so that is a problem with my area alone and that is why I don't see any 3DS systems out there. This holiday season only proved the selling power of the Mario franchise, and the 3DS doesn't even have a Pokemon game yet. If this holiday is any indication sales will explode when the first Pokemon game comes out.
The difference is that the smartphone is required for life, the Vita is not, and if people can play games on the smartphone then the majority will be satisfied with that especially since the games are cheap and they don't have to spend $250+ plus memory card and game on an extra device just to play them. The price is just too high right now for what you get out of it.
I have also gotten a ton of good iPhone apps for free via facebook promotions and just by setting up alerts on appshopper so I have spent very little on apps and games, as I have not spent more than $1.99 for an app, ever. Again that doesn't stop me from playing them for long periods of time either.. There are good games out there and some direct ports of console games, the games just keep getting better too.
I have a 4GB memory card for the regular PSP and I can only fit 2 PSP downloaded games (little big planet and mod nation racers are my games) on it but I can fit game saves on it in addition to those 2 games, so take that for what its worth. But this also leaves no room for music or movies which are 2 features of the PSP Vita will be totally ignored with these memory card prices. People are going to have enough trouble finding space for game downloads, especially if Vita games get DLC. I download A LOT so I like to have a big hard drive, plus I like to have all my games with me, I don't want to switch cards,the 320GB Xbox 360 hard drive is perfect for me, haha, should be enough space to last me a very long time. I don't think a 32GB memory card would be enough for me for the Vita, if you plan on downloading full games you will run into space issues very quickly for sure. This also doesn't take into account space for movies and music.