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[KojiKnight]

Then we can politely disagree, because I think it's the most obvious and logical explanation for those cards, and makes far more sense than the ridiculously simplistic 'greed' argument.

This is not a matter of opinion... The way they handled those memory cards is completely wrong if you're going to use them as any sort of deterrent to piracy or hacking.

Again, we got access to psp exploits pretty early on... Why? Because the system allows you to transfer back and forth unencrypted data. Not just videos or pictures, but absolutely anything as long as you shove it in the same folder as a save game.

It's like locking the door to your house, throwing away the keys, but leaving your Windows open and calling it secure.

You'd have to convince me that the software and hardware engineers were dumb enough to think that was more secure than a fully encrypted partition on an sd card... And I really don't believe that.

 

[dragonyeuw]

It's silly to act as if it was a Sony strategy when it's very obviously a concession made to retailers who got burned on PSP. They couldn't make money just selling the hardware after the system was broken wide open for piracy so high margin memory cards immunized them against that possibility AND Sony's plan to make all games available on PSN. Providing a variety of options between $15 and $100 meant people could choose to spend what was right for them.

Personally, the utility of having 32GB of games with me at any time on my Vita was worth the price irrespective of what the flash market looks like. I've also save hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on games thanks to PS Plus and PSN sales. Nintendo's software prices are in no way comparable to that value, and they also expect you to rebuy your Gameboy, DS or 3DS multiple times over the course of a generation. That feels a lot more predatory to me than an upfront investment in flash storage for a system that was not horribly flawed in numerous ways at launch.

.

Both companies have practices leaving something to be desired. One big issue with the vita cards, beyond price, is that unless this has changed post-launch, you can't even *play* a vita game without a memory card. Not talking save, but *playing*.

As for concessions made to retailers, the original ds was hacked far easier than the psp was, yet this didn't impact sales, nor force Nintendo in a position where they lock down the 3ds with proprietary storage to appease retailers and/ or developers.

 

[foolishoptimist]

.

Both companies have practices leaving something to be desired. One big issue with the vita cards, beyond price, is that unless this has changed post-launch, you can't even *play* a vita game without a memory card. Not talking save, but *playing*.

As for concessions made to retailers, the original ds was hacked far easier than the psp was, yet this didn't impact sales, nor force Nintendo in a position where they lock down the 3ds with proprietary storage to appease retailers and/ or developers.

Pretty sure you could play physical games at launch without a card, but Sony may have removed restrictions on that in later games.
Vita Slim, and Vita TV both feature 1gb built in memory.

Not going to argue that Sony went too far in protecting the system from piracy, to the detriment of the entire platform. But I don't resent them for the decision.

Regarding the concession to retailers, I wouldn't be too surprised if Sony weren't making any money on these cards. Especially at the numbers they must be selling atm.

 

[Brad Grenz]

. As for concessions made to retailers, the original ds was hacked far easier than the psp was, yet this didn't impact sales, nor force Nintendo in a position where they lock down the 3ds with proprietary storage to appease retailers and/ or developers.

Early DS hacks required a hardware purchase creating a much larger barrier to entry, and this was at a time when the large majority of consumers were not as savvy about the internet and "jailbreaking" their stuff. In any case the DS was an enormous sales success and software held its value and sold extremely well throughout the DS's lifetime giving retailers no reason to be skeptical of the 3DS. Sony were in a far weaker position when pitching retailers on the Vita.

 

[dragonyeuw]

Pretty sure you could play physical games at launch without a card, but Sony may have removed restrictions on that in later games.
Vita Slim, and Vita TV both feature 1gb built in memory.

.

I don't think its an across the board thing for all games, but I do recall it being a point of discussion at launch, part of the storage card backlash.

 

[dragonyeuw]

Early DS hacks required a hardware purchase creating a much larger barrier to entry, and this was at a time when the large majority of consumers were not as savvy about the internet and "jailbreaking" their stuff. In any case the DS was an enormous sales success and software held its value and sold extremely well throughout the DS's lifetime giving retailers no reason to be skeptical of the 3DS. Sony were in a far weaker position when pitching retailers on the Vita.

By larger, you mean pricier I'm guessing? Otherwise, It took more technical knowledge to hack a psp than it did the ds.

 

[Brad Grenz]

By larger, you mean pricier I'm guessing? Otherwise, It took more technical knowledge to hack a psp than it did the ds.

Yes. It meant tracking down an R4 card or whatever to buy versus following a guide online to install CFW on the PSP.

 

[RRockman]

Pretty sure you could play physical games at launch without a card, but Sony may have removed restrictions on that in later games.

Not All. If you picked Uncharted or Rayman as your starter games without a memory card then you were screwed. These are only two out of a little bigger list of games at launch that needed a memory card or the game would refuse to boot.

 

[Malice215]

The criticisms aren't unfair because nobody wanted to by a new handheld tied to expensive proprietary memory, especially in a market where people can play games on their mobile device for free. Either Sony should have used SD cards or made the Vita memory cards much cheaper than what they are.

Sony would have made their money on the hardware by making it a more attractive purchase for people instead of trying to make money on both the hardware and the memory while handcuffing the system in the process.

You also can't use the iPhone comparison because there's nowhere near the level of demand for the Vita like there is for the iPhone, so you don't do things that make people not want to buy your device for starters. People will swallow a $100 increase for storage when you have the hottest device on the market.

I love my Vita to the point were I now have two of them, but the criticism is warranted. The system would be in a much better spot if not for Sony's bungling.

 

[Cuburt]

So what OP is trying to argue is they made a terrible mistake?

Are people confused that they tried to offset the cost of their hardware with their proprietary memory cards? I doubt it.

Btw, why do they need so many card SKUs anyways? Just pick 2, raise the cost of the hardware a little, then drop the prices to something that looks reasonable. People are just going to feel burnt by proprietary memory that you must buy, no matter how you try to justify it, especially if they don't realize it is a hidden cost.

 

[duckroll]

No, the criticism against the memory card pricing is not unfair, because when it comes to consumerism and business, there really isn't much "fair" or "unfair". It's about giving customers what they want, or you will have no customers. So it doesn't matter if Sony is subsidizing the cost of their overpriced hardware by moving it to overpriced memory cards instead. In the end, what it means is that if they felt they couldn't sell the Vita at a higher price, they know that people don't want it at a higher price. And by trying to force a product people don't want to pay that much for into the market by moving the cost into something else that no one wants to pay so much for, they invite criticism on the entire product line being expensive and unappealing. Which is why the Vita is a failure and no one even wants to make games for it anymore and why there will never be a dedicated handheld from Sony ever again.

DEAL WITH REALITY!

 

[Chezzymann]

I bought a 64 GB SD card for $30 the other day

And the vita was like $250 when I bought it

 

[Tiktaalik]

I have a 64GB card. But I could have bought a 32GB and been perfectly happy.

Yes a 32GB card is still expensive if you compare it to SD Cards, but if they are making a margin on the hardware, they have to make the money back somewhere, and they may as well make their profits on people who are willing to pay more.

Traditionally a console makes their money on licensing the software, so they make their money on software sales.

Sky high memory prices however were actually a disincentive to buying more software, because managing memory is a pain, and so Sony really shot themselves in the foot here by making memory cost so god damn much.

 

[KojiKnight]

I bought a 64 GB SD card for $30 the other day

And the vita was like $250 when I bought it

Not everyone feels bad enough after robbing someone to give them 30 foot the ride home

 

[Zackat]

Defense force for vita memory card prices? I have seen it all now.

 

[L4DANathan]

It's absolutely not unfair. Not only have other people mentioned the initial prices were much higher, but there's no reason to not have used SD cards, and they never released cards past 64GB. They specifically gated off a plenty of people by saying "Oh, you have to not only buy your system for several hundred, but fork out several hundred more for a decent capacity card, which you can't use for anything else." And the proprietary format means that no third party can keep creating larger cards (I filled up my 64GB card with less than half my Vita library), and its stuck at whatever size Sony deems is alright. And all this is coming from someone who thinks the Vita is the best handheld system ever made.

 

[The Spoony Hou]

Sandisk is sony? I thought it was some third party manufacturer. I see...but then again, why so cheap compared to Vita cards? Why not just do the same thing?

Inuhanyou
Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
(Today, 07:16 PM)

 

[ArtHands]

Not All. If you picked Uncharted or Rayman as your starter games without a memory card then you were screwed. These are only two out of a little bigger list of games at launch that needed a memory card or the game would refuse to boot.

that might be part of Sony's plan. Mislead them to buy a vita and a game, then screw them afterward by telling them that they need a memory card to boot the game.

 

[MooMilk2929]

I'm guessing the Vita was so expensive when it came out cause it used a OLED screen. That's why they introduced LCD again.

 

[Woo-Fu]

Isn't about being fair/unfair, it is about good decisions and bad decisions. It really doesn't even matter if you're reasoning is sound if the decision is ultimately bad.

The proprietary memory card scheme and the pricing that required was a bad decision. Fairly obvious in hindsight. It isn't the only reason the Vita is dead but it is certainly a contributing factor.

 

[Baleoce]

The point is that making them proprietary when it increased the cost exponentially was a stupid decision. That's what I personally berate them for.

 

[Cappa]

SD Card prices:

8gb: $6
16gb: $9
32gb: $21
64gb: $31

Am I missing something, $21 seems way expensive for a 32gb SD card. I got a Samsung Evo for $10. Or are the Samsung ones not supposed to be very good?

 

[chronic_archaic]

Am I missing something, $21 seems way expensive for a 32gb SD card. I got a Samsung Evo for $10. Or are the Samsung ones not supposed to be very good?

I bought a sandisk ultra 64gb micro sd for $15 brand new so probably too expensive.

 

[Toadthemushroom]

It's silly to act as if it was a Sony strategy when it's very obviously a concession made to retailers who got burned on PSP.

We don't know what retailers' margins on Vita memory cards are, though. Furthermore, DS was affected by piracy far more easily. Nintendo couldn't even update the OS, and flash cards become an easy way for the masses to play games for free. Yet retailers continued to stock a huge amount of preowned and new DS titles. Nintendo's pledge to retailers and publishers was to invest a lot in making sure the 3DS had good security, which they largely succeeded in implementing while also offering standardised external media.

I've also save hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on games thanks to PS Plus and PSN sales.

This has nothing to do with the fact that memory cards are expensive -- you'd have saved that much anyway if there was a better storage system available on the platform. Though I'd argue your definition of saving money isn't exactly a fair one - PS Plus grants you a license to play a game as long as your subscription lasts, which isn't the same as owning the game.

Nintendo's software prices are in no way comparable to that value

Nintendo's software is an entirely different matter to PS Vita memory cards, and you could spin this any way you'd like. Nintendo believes in maintaining a healthy value of software rather than devaluing it, though.

and they also expect you to rebuy your Gameboy, DS or 3DS multiple times over the course of a generation.

I own three PSPs (launch PSP-1000, PSP go and PSP-3000) and two PS Vitas (Vita-1000 and Vita-2000). I skipped the 3DS XL and 2DS. Does this mean Sony expects me to buy PSPs and Vitas several times over the course of a generation? No one is forcing anyone to rebuy Game Boys or 3DSes, both platform holders are improving on a product and offering more choice to customers which is a good thing.

That feels a lot more predatory to me than an upfront investment in flash storage for a system that was not horribly flawed in numerous ways at launch.

But your entire argument is based on false equivalence and has nothing to do with Vita memory cards. As above, even if hardware refreshes somehow were equivalent to memory cards, they aren't a predatory practice.

a system that was not horribly flawed in numerous ways at launch.

I bought Ninja Gaiden: Sigma from the PS Store for my Vita-1000 at launch. Two months later, I deleted it to make room for digital Uncharted. I lost my save data because saves are tied to the game file itself. Furthermore, writeable storage wasn't mandated on all games, so you had a case where only some games (like Touch my Katamari) would save without a memory card and others wouldn't. So it's evident that at launch, some publishers expected people not to have to buy a memory card to use the system, which says a lot about their confidence in Vita memory cards in the first place.

 

[Shifty]

iPhones don't take external memory cards, OP. That's the whole reason they're divided into multiple SKUs.

Not to mention the fact that Sony already pulled this shit with the PSP, to a similarly displeased reception. They know what they're doing.

 

[blu]

Well, according to this Gamasutra article, the memory cards were chosen to reduce/prevent piracy:

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/40413/Sony_Vita_specs_offer_long_term_piracy_protection.php

Piracy prevention 101: make your product financially unappealing. Less people will buy it, less people will pirate on it.

 

[Yudoken]

I'm still waiting for an (unofficial) micro sd to vita memory stick adapter.

 

[SoulUnison]

I bought a Vita when it was relatively new, with a 16GB card.

Got home, downloaded a couple PSN games over the next few days...
Few weeks later mandatory updates for the games I've bought have ballooned their sizes to the point that I no longer had that room for another game I thought I did... And then again until I had to delete one of them because I didn't have the space for a new patch and the only point of the game was online play.

The Vita could have been really cool, but the whole experience felt like Sony giving me the middle finger and squeezing for every cent they could get me to front-load. I finished the games I had already bought into and put it down almost completely for a year or two now.

Maybe it'll be a cool Remote Play machine when I get a PS4, but there's no software for it that interests me.
Maybe I'll dig through the bones of the library in clearance bins in the future.

I'm still waiting for an (unofficial) micro sd to vita memory stick adapter.

Pretty sure this is physically impossible unless you build it into a full-fledged case, or something.