I think it's pretty obvious to everyone on this site that at some point this year Sony is going to drop the price of the Vita in the west but they can't just drop the price at a random point in time. So the way I see it Sony has two options when it comes to their approach to the price cut:

-Drop the price when theres a slew of new games coming out like their doing now in Japan (most likely during this holiday)

-Drop the price with a massive marketing campaign

We already know that Killzone: Mercenary is coming just before the holiday and that could be a good start for the first approach then odds are that Tearaway is coming some time some after. After that though its all speculation as to what is coming next. It could be the rumored Assassin's Creed, Gran Turismo Vita, hell even a GTA game but we will need to wait untill E3 to see if anything else is coming this holiday.

Now as far as the marketing campaign the earliest they could do it is when Soul Sacrifice is released because they need at least 1 new game to make it work. If thay can get the word out to the general public about what the Vita is and that its under $200 then theres a chance it could gain some momentum into the holidays. Lets face it, nobody outside of regular gamers know what the Vita is (its true when I offer the Vita as an option to customer's they have no clue that it even existed). 

So what do you guys think? Will it the cut come when theres a slew of games? A massive marketng campaign? or both?! Anyways i'm of to work so I hope when I come back I get to see alot of differing opinions!

Get rid of the expensive and unnecessary 3G model, give everyone who buys a Vita a 1-year subscription to PS Plus, and bundle a full game with each Vita, and sales will pick up. No need for an across-the-board price cut.

It needs both preferably.

Dropping the price needs to happen but they need to time it really well.

1.It should happen before Pokemon hits.

2.It should be with a major Vita game launch. Though I'm not sure if Killzone will do it because it's too close to GTA5 and other major holiday titles. (What other major releases do they have coming in the west?)

They should really just drop the price when SS releases here and see what happens.

Bundle with PS4 at $499.

3G costs a meager $3 more to produce. Keep it and apply as standard to prevent a consumer back lash, gain profits on each 3G subscription, and allow developers to keep implimenting location based apps/games if they want instead of screwing them over.

That might be possible. PS4 approximate manufacturing cost is $400, Vita's was $160 and is probably less now. A bundle at $500 would be great and would probably fit into their acceptable loss model after shipping and packaging costs.

Of course, the 3G functionality itself is a pittance, I was more speaking about the price of the 3G model, and that I don't believe many Vita owners see much value in it.  Even if we're only taking into consideration what you said about the $3 cost of 3G itself, removing that cost and most potential customers not caring if it's there or not, if nothing else that is an easy way to trim $3 from the cost of producing a Vita with little effort and likely not much backlash.  People in the west generally don't care for AT&T as it is.

It doesn't matter. But the sooner the better.

When is a good time to cut the Vita price anyway?

They have to cut it before the holidays if Sony wants it to survive.
Too many gigantic holiday titles coming up for people to notice the Vita in that massive wave of releases.