surely, to a degree it was expected given the fact that the 3DS was $250 and preorders in the U.K started at £230.  Although for the 3DS, the price dropped dramatically pre and post launch to about £180 now

That's how UK originally retailed 3DS, right?

SONY's already confirmed a few things for us:

1) No plan for PS3 styled investment again.
2) They built the console with a set price in mind instead of the PS3 where they just loaded it with stuff and started cutting things away before launch. Then continue to strip the console even after launch.

Then we look at some facts:

1) This is a dedicated gaming platform so more resources will be pushed to gaming. Unlike iOS devices or PC's where a system if PS3 like specs for a PC would never produce what we do see on the PS3 (512MB of ram total? That cheap ass GPU? Hah...)
2) iPod Touch 4G has 256MB of ram, great CPU and GPU for a portable, A multitouch screen, all packed into a very small package meaning development of those chips at the time must of been pretty costly considering apple were the only ones using stuff so small. Yet it sells for a significant profit at a base price of 230$.
3) It's not a phone.

Americans taxes aren't on the displayed price of products, take the extra 20% off the UK price for a wifi model you get £192, which is $315, which is only $75 or £45 using direct currency conversion, its not anywhere near as bad as the PS3 launch

3DS had a few different places that had various prices. Game if i remember had it at £229 but HMV had it at £189. But as you say it has dropped in price fast. Think that has a lot to do with the actual interest in it not being high and the launch titles make it not worth it yet. Since launch 3ds has sold 250k in UK. Not too great really.

But even with those sales they are trouncing psp sales in uk. In almost 6 months in the UK the psp sold just 120k. Releasing a new handheld for £229 here will give it a far worse launch then the 3ds imo. If they had got it down to the £150 it is in the US then it would sell by the truck load.

Pricing it so high in comparison to the US will just turn people away.

I gurantee you if Nintendo come out later with their new machine and have some good games to launch and have it at retail for xmas at the £250 point most people thinking of getting a Vita will just get the new Nintendo console. Especially if it is more powerful then the 360 and PS3 as rumoured. £229 is a lot of money, as i said before it is hard to justify buying a handheld for that amount.

But sadly here in the UK we can't take that 20% off. We sell everything with the tax included. Every item has it in the price. So yes in a world where we don't pay taxes £192 sounds better. But here in the UK we do pay taxes, very high ones and thus we have to pay the £229 if we want it.

So it is a good price for the states. Shit price for the UK.

Jack just said on gametrailer that global this fiscal year.. NA before next March and definitely Japan this year... DOH!

you misunderstand, in America, tax is applied after you take it to the cash register, you over there, it'll be $249, AND THEN you add tax, you removing tax for us first is the way you should compare prices (each state in America pays different tax rates)

SONIC Generations
Mortal Kombat
Blazblue

These are also confirmed.

I got to know about the other two but MK too? nice