PSV, solid hardware and price while the battery life a issue a true gamebreaker will be game prices. With ios and android gaming its clear that 40 USD for a standard PSV game cant cut it, and with Digital Distribution avaiable they need to use it and offer a much better price range as experiences on the mobile fonts rise and rise in quality but still have such a low price.

And with the sucess of XBLA and PSN i believe that PSV can really capatise of those type of games and really be that now the middle tier game delievery device. So using some of the games being promoted, Uncharted is a the game that will demand the highest of prices, and that price should be no more than 25 USD, maybe 30 USD. This price can be the price for DD and retail demanding a 40 dollar price tag, but a clear 10 to 15 dollar reduction for that game is a must. Saying that not all games should have that as its asking price, uncharted , resistance, killzone sure they are the high quality titles but what about games like hot shot golf? Well this is where sony need to really push, and that is have prices ranging form 99 cents to 25 dollars with publishers able to choose what they fill fit for there title, with hot shots maybe going for the 5 dollar mark. Another thing that sony should do is to gather the best that ios and android have to offer like the fruit ninja, flight control, angry birds and allow them to sell them on the platform at not 5 dollars or 10 dollars but at there 99-3 dollar price range. 

But 99 cents should be the lowest, no sony should support the freemium model, and the free to play ad supported model as well. SONY really need to push the whole spectum and offer games at the same ranges as ios but then offer better more richer experiences at the next prices up. Screwing up the prices for software and demanding too high will cripple the platform and result in some less sales. A real steam style experience will also do wonders for the platform, with daily sales, weekend sales and big sales that are seen on steam will encourage more people to use the service opening them up to buy more software. 

So what should the pricing be for software? what are you willing to pay? will high prices discourage you from buying the device. 

I agree fully.

Software prices and the pricing structure is gonna be what determines the platforms success.

So far the pre-launch has been good, battery life is no train smash, high price proprietary memory cards is also not really a big deal, this will all be overlooked if the games are good and are at a good price.

Sony really should look at steam and follow suite. Although i doubt they will, looking at the 3DS software line up and prices, is an indication where Sony might be headed. I hope they don't go that route. High software prices will kill the dedicated handheld industry. I have a feeling though, that Sony very well might end up with 40 usd prices across the board at launch.

U hope to god im wrong on that.

£30 - retail games ($40)
£5 - ps store games ($8)
£1 - Minis ($1.50)
And ofcourse the free to play games.

If some IOS/Android games can be ported to the vita (touch screen) and sold at the same price then that would be awesome. And seeing as the dev kit is pretty cheap, it's a possibility.

I probably won't buy it, if I do, it'll be when the next model comes out with a price cut. It's not that I don't want it, it's that I'm 15 so I won't be able to convince my mum to buy me the vita on top of all the ps3 and pc games I get, not to mention a PS4 in the near future.

It will hard to capitalise on Digital Distribution when the system has no internal memory and the memory cards are so expensive

True, I guess bundeling it with memory cards could help.

$40 sounds bout right. I don't imagine it being too different from what handheld games cost now.

Digital distribution need not be a problem if they go with cloud gaming. I can see it happening a few years down the line; just like how when you buy something on the PS store, you can keep deleting and D/Ling it, why not just cut the hassle and have you run them off the cloud? Everything's going more networked now, and while onlive's not doing great I feel it's merely ahead of its time (though I hate the business model where you're essentially renting all your games, but that's another story).

$40 is perfect price point for all games, anything higher and it gets annoying. However I do hope, both the 3DS and Vita go back down towards the $30-$40 price range, that they had this generation with the DS and PSP.

I agree with the 40$ retail price. PSN games will vary, just like they do with the PS3.

My biggest gripe is that I'm going to want at least 32GB for mine (really wanted 64 but that's not gonna be an option for a while), and that's going to cost me...

This, although £25 would be sweeter

I completely agree with the OP, publishers and developers need to be able to choose the pricepoint that is exactly right for their game, whether that's $2.99, $9.99 or $24.99.