I'll have to wait for price drops on the vita and these cards if this is the case.

this must be a place holder price. theres no way that this is true.

like with the PS1 and 2: $$$$.. I think I spend more money on PS1 memory cards then on the actual machine... >_>

They didnt so that they could price the Vita at 249$. Exactly like Microsoft did with their HDD. Smart move, that strategy works better then selling the console at a more expensive price point, the mass consumers proved that...

To everyone, is it really proved that some games requires a memory card in order to play them?

I'm not the most informed person when it comes to business, but this is just a thought: paying $250 for the Vita is a steal considering its power, so could Sony be jacking the prices on other peripherals to counter their loss on the actually machine? That's probably what I would do if I was Sony, and if that is the case, I am definitely waiting on the Vita for a price drop. I mean come on you can buy a freaking 1 TERABYTE external hard-drive for about a 100 bucks now and they want $120 for a 32 gig mem stick. That is outrageous. I really hope these are not the final fees or I will be very sad.

Some games do require the cards.  For example, the flagship game, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, will require a card. Link

... If those aren't placeholder prices then I guess i'm not getting this thing at launch. Fuck those prices. Anything less than 32GB just won't be enough for me.

How does not including a SD/SDHC slot and going with their own proprietary save that much off the system's price?  I would assume it saves them some money but it can't be more than a few dollars per system.  Surely, the royalties for using SDHC can't be that much. 

I don't think the mass consumer proved anything.  They bought a 360 arcade and then were left with the option of buying a 20 or so GB hard drive for a huge price.  It may seem like a decent deal for those that don't download anything, install games, etc but for those that wanted to take full advantage of their system were in a for a huge wake up call.  Basically, the consumers are lured in with cheap prices with crappy upgrade options.   If anything Nintendo proved that not including a hard drive and going with SD/SDHC storage on the Wii was the far cheaper and superior option than buying a 360 arcade and then buying an official Microsoft hard drive.

yep Sony losing money on the Vita and making it back on the cards, I remember paying 40$ for a 8MB PS2 memory card ten years ago. No problem for me.

Man me too, it is funny to look back at that. I mean $30 for a whole 4 GBs seems like a ok price to me, you can fit a lot of games on that.
Plus you know you will be able to get them cheaper online so there isn't much to be worried about. I'm sure there will be sales for like $35 for an 8 GB which is cheap.