Sony's Vita Arrives Just as Market May Be Fading

"It almost feels like Sony designed a product for a world where smartphones and tablets don't exist," said Gartner Research Director Michael Gartenberg. "It costs more than most phones and the same as most gaming consoles. It is hard to say who is the market for this."

People who spend hours every day playing games may not be as gung-ho for a portable gadget as before. Many have turned to low-priced or free games on mobile devices they already own.

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Josh Calixto, a 22-year-old video editor in Los Angeles, said he hadn't bought a portable gaming device since the Nintendo DS Lite three years ago.

He just doesn't have time for it: He does the bulk of his gaming on his PlayStation or on his PC, and when he has time to kill when on the move, he will play games such as "Infinity Blade" on his iPad, or buy a bundle of independent programs for his Google Android phone.

"The Vita is really cool, but at this point I don't see any real reason for buying it," he said. "I don't feel like it's worth the money." He said he was not interested in the 20 or so games launching with it because he has already played some of them on consoles.

While Internet reviews of the Vita hardware have been strong, gamers gripe that it requires them to buy external memory cards with Sony-specific technology at $20 to $100 each. One senior games editor at gadget blog TechnoBuffalo called this hidden cost a "glaring flaw."

Besides $250 for the basic hardware, users could end up forking over as much as $40 or $50 for each top-flight game, plus a memory stick that will set them back at least $20.

Sony will sell a more expensive version of Vita with AT&T 3G service.

SONY SEES VITA FUTURE

Sony believes there is a large market of consumers for the Vita, said Jack Tretton, the U.S. CEO of PlayStation.

"The target consumer is a PS3 owner, and there's 60 million of those out there," Tretton said. "He's also male and in his early 20s."