Viva La Vita?

So, the PlayStation Vita has seen it's UK release today- but what do I think of Sony's brand-spanking new handheld?

When I first saw the PS Vita, I was pretty certain I wanted one. Post-announcement news about it's "console-quality graphics", the promise of games such as Uncharted coming to the new handheld and a price point that was, at the time, competitive to the newly-released Nintendo 3DS, plus the fact that it simply looked cool, all simply hooked me and made me believe that Sony could be a serious competitor in the handheld gaming market this time around. It seems Sony were going to get it right.

However, this is Sony we're talking about.

In it's first week in Japan, the Vita shifted around 325,000 units. That's a pretty respectable number. However, the Vita has since seen a 78% drop in sales, and last week- it's 9th week on sale- saw it eek out not even 14,000.

Therefore, I'm not optimistic about how it will do here, and the Vita has lost my sale right now.

For a start, the thing's expensive. It's going to cost you at least £220 from most high street retailers right now  (that's the for the model without 3G), and that's before you buy a game, or one of those stupidly expensive proprietary  memory cards- another faux pas on Sony's part  (I have spotted Amazon today selling the Vita for £209 with a launch title reduced to £15 and a free 8GB memory card, which is a bit more appealing). Once again, Sony's idea of what is acceptable in terms of pricing is really not  in line with what gamers think is acceptable.

Consider this, Sony: your main competitor is selling the Nintendo 3DS for £134 on Amazon- £144 if I want it in a bundle that includes the new Mario- and I could still buy like two or three more 3DS games before it even equals the cost of your "console quality" handheld, which has a "console quality" price.

Then there's the games. I don't really think any of it's launch titles can be considered "killer apps". Now I'm only speaking from speculation here, as I've not had the chance to play with a Vita (except for 5 minutes with Uncharted at GameStation), but that's the point- I should have some sort of interest in at least one of the launch titles, so I am compelled to buy the Vita so I can play it.

I guess Uncharted: Golden Abyss will always be a winner but I've not read rave reviews about it yet, and some of the other release titles- such as Rayman Origins and FIFA 12 are ports of games already available on console. £220 plus is a lot of money to spent on a system that currently plays at least three games I can basically play already on my PS3. So, I'm pretty much going to wait and see what else follows- or for the price of the handheld itself to drop.

The one game that might sway me to buy the Vita would be Monster Hunter- but then I know that Monster Hunter is already out in Japan for the 3DS, which beat the Vita to it! You know, the 3DS- the one that costs £134 as opposed to £220? This may also explain the 3DS's boom in part in Japan, as well as why the Vita is a lame duck right now- Monster Hunter has been huge over there in the past couple of years, and it's usually been on the PSP, so how come Sony couldn't work out some kind of a deal that bought the popular action RPG to the Vita as a launch title?

Pictured: a money-printing machine.

So, right now I am rather skeptical. I want Sony to do well with this, because competition is always good, and the Vita looks very promising as a quality piece of portable gaming hardware. But Sony need to be smart. They need to lower the price, market it better and offer the right kind of deals to the right kind of people to get some awesome titles for the thing.

Sony, you've got until the Monster Hunter 3G 3DS bundle hits the shops in the UK to convince me otherwise.