I got my Vita yesterday. For reference there are absolutely hundreds and hundreds to spare, even at the most busiest stores in Tokyo. To be honest it looked like this was going to sell out before release as the second Sony opened pre orders in October, the websites crashed from so much server overload. Then a few weeks back, stores started advertising that you could preorder again and thus I have no clue what happened to the demand. I suspect Sony decided to increase the release number? Or that the initial preorders were just limited.

Anyway, I was absolutely infuriated to find that the 16GB Memory Stick Micro that I had from the PSP Go doesn't work. I had been asking for months and no one had a clue, and now it's obvious: Sony has made a proprietary format for the Vita. It's a Micro, but one that works ONLY on the Vita. Now add this to the game cards beige a new proprietary format and that is TWO new formats for one product.

Also my unit was defective with a noticeable scratch on the rubber coating lining the back of the unit and so I had to go back to the store today to get another. They had an entire basket of defective units that had already been returned.

Honestly I'm not all that impressed by the Vita at all. It's larger than I thought, heavier, there is no removable battery, the games don't come with physical instruction manuals, the rear touch screen doesn't seem to work as smoothly as I thought it would (at least not with Uncharted) and the speakers are poorly placed as my fingers tend to cover them.

And for what it's worth, I am absolutely sick of the cheap packaging Sony is now using. First it was the PCs and then the tablets, and now even the new game console. The Vaio Z that released this past summer had a cheap, junk box that screamed zero cost despite the thing itself costing me over $3000. The Tablet S and P (I foolishly bought both and have since sold them) had the same cheap cardboard and I noticed the manual, or whatever that lazy excuse for one is, was actually bent and folded as if the factory couldn't even package it nicely. Now the Vita and the exact same thing...for BOTH units. What is so difficult about placing a piece of paper inside a box?

People might think I'm whining over nothing here, but considering how major appearance is in Japan, it's downright appalling Sony can get away with this. Japanese candy, for example, often comes in mini packages inside of the outside box. Visual polish is extremely important with food and products and even people's attire. And let's be honest here:if you're spending a fortune on a product the least you can expect should be a nice package to sell it in.