Sony's PlayStation Vita 3G version being sold for $200 at select US stores

Following the heels of a recently announced price cut in Japan, the price of Sony's PlayStation Vita handheld console is now being sold at $199.97 at certain Sony retail stores in the US.

Gaming blog Joystiq posted an image of the PS Vita on sale at a Century City store in LA. The blog went as far as contacting every Sony store to confirm the reduced price. The Vita initially was priced at $250 or $300 in the US depending on what type of wireless connection you opted for.

The blog further reports that according to an employee at the Denver location, the permanent price drop comes as a move to discontinue the 3G model of the Vita, though there was no clear time frame as to when Sony is planning to take this step, which could be quite abrupt.

The information seems to be in line with other store locations from New Jersey and Las Vegas, while an employee in Seattle said the sale would only last until Sunday. Upon further inquiring, the blog states that certain other locations were unaware of such a price cut. The blog has posted a list of various stores across different US states offering the 3G model of the PS Vita at the slashed price.

These include store locations in California, Colorado, Florida, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Washington.

The PlayStation Vita (Review I Pictures) was launched in India at steep prices with the Wi-Fi model priced at Rs. 19,990 and the WiFi+3G model costing Rs. 24,990.

The launch lineup of games was diverse enough to appeal to the hardcore as well as the casual audience with the only drawback being the price. These included Uncharted Golden Abyss, WipeOut2048, Reality Fighters (an augmented reality fighting game), Little Deviants, ModNation Racers: Road Trip and Everybody's Golf to name a few.

However, the prices of these games ranged between Rs. 2,199 to Rs. 2,799, which is really steep considering the price of a AAA PS3 game is Rs. 2,499. Also, the console itself wasn't cheap costing more than a PlayStation 3 console. The Vita memory card comes in 4, 8, 16 and 32GB variants. The price of these memory cards in the US is $19,99, $29,99, $59,99 and $99,99, which translates to Rs. 986, Rs. 1480, Rs 2690 and Rs. 4935 respectively.

Despite being expensive, soon after its launch on 22 February 2012, 1.2 million PlayStation Vitas were sold worldwide, exceeding the company's expectations amid stiff competition from mobile devices and Nintendo. Then in August, Sony PlayStation Germany boss, Uwe Bassendowski confirmed an additional million units sold, taking the total to 2.2 million units as of June 30th 2012.

Back then, despite the fact that the PSP sold almost 2.5 times more than the Vita, Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida firmly stated that the device would not see a price drop in 2012.

The Vita has got its due share of attention from audiences at last year's E3. Sony unveiled plans to bolster the Vita's use with PlayStation 3 consoles by making use of its front and back touch screens and giving different players different perspectives in the same game. New game "PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale" allows PS Vita players to fight PlayStation 3 players over the Internet in real time.

The handheld console received apps such as Skype and YouTube and by the end of the year a 2.0 firmware update introduced PlayStation Plus, cloud saving, improved browser, PC-style email, Wi-Fi transfers and more.