I really do want the Vita to do well. I wont be getting one at launch because I just can't afford it, but I really do see the potential the system has. I am mostly just disappointed with the whole thing.
They'll have 3 proprietary memory cards under the Playstation name (technically 5 with 4 on the market: PSone memory card, PS2 Memory Card, Memory Stick Pro Duo, Memory Stick Pro Duo Micro and now the Vita memory card). The 3 different cards for 3 different portable systems is just excessive. Here is an artistic reconstruction of Sony's thought process: "We have a new system coming out and it is going to need expanded memory. On the current market we have 2 products only compatible with our hardware that we could use. The problem is that these options are already discounted and if we do use them people will just buy them before we have retailers bring the prices back up. We'll make a new card so people who want to use our new system will have to spend money on new technology."
All of the UMD based games will not be accessible to the Vita, so if you want to play Vita games and UMD games you get to carry both systems around with you. Not very intuitive. By doing this they are asking consumers to embrace dead technology. That's like if software companies started releasing stuff on 3.5 floppy disks. Why would you ever go backwards?
Compare this to the 3DS: It has 99.9% reverse compatibility with the DS library (can't play guitar hero, but that game died with the DSi). The 3DS has 3 cameras as opposed to the DSi family's 2 cameras. Just like the DSi family, the 3DS comes with a 2 GB SD card. Most people don't even know there is an SD card. Why a 2GB SD card? Well I'm no expert, but I imagine it is because the card is cheap lowering production costs, SD is a proven technology and they just have a butt load of them laying around from when they made the Wii; this probably means that we will be seeing SD cards in many Nintendo products to come because Nintendo doesn't know what to do with them all (this last one is a joke). All of this means it is the DS family, but better.
The Vita cannot make a similar claim. The Vita is not the PSP but better; it is the PSPGo but better and sad to say I can't even claim that with a straight face. The Go had 16GB of on board memory.
In the current market, To be able to use the basic Vita properly in the US it will cost (Vita: $250, 4GB card: $20, 1 downloaded game: $35) about $305.
For $305 one could get:
3DS: $170, 3 games: 3x$40 and have a leftover $15.
32GB iTouch: $300 and $5 of apps (1-5 games depending on how you split it?)
No sane person would ever think the Vita in its current form was a good deal.
With everything Sony is doing, all they are telling me is to not let go of my PSP and I really don't need to upgrade for about 2 years. So I'm not going to let go of my PSP and I'm not going to upgrade for at least 2 years.
And for those of you complaining about us not wanting to get the new system, congratulations on your disposable income, but the rest of us cannot and will not waste our money on trash, let alone $300 on trash. We'll just wait until it becomes worthwhile and/or cheaper.