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[muteki]

I don't think the criticism is unfair, but it is a bit of a dead horse at this point. Almost any general vita thread is half filled with people shitting on the memory card prices 4 years later.

I find it unlikely as well that the majority of people complaining about the price would run out and buy a vita if they were priced as sd cards. If the software lineup appealed to a more general audience they would be there memory card prices or not. And that may had been the original plan, but Sony failed at the follow through and here we are.

The general population also isn't going to be seeing the value in going digital only and wouldn't need a 32 or 64 gb card as most purchases would be physical and smaller cards would be sufficient.

 

[Balb]

The worst part is that I honestly don't think Sony even earned money with this thing, when you consider VITA is the only device in existence to use it, only a small quantity of this cards were made, packaging, allocation, fabrication, store share, etc.

SD cards are a commodity, and even Sony cameras support them.

Stupid move, and the excuse that it would have been more expensive is just dumb.

What's dumb about that? The high memory card prices allowed them to price the Vita at the "low" price of $250, which people were excited about initially.

 

[ArtHands]

I don't think that's what Sony wanted when the Vita was released because the 3DS was much cheaper and they had to get closer to the 3DS to take some sales away.

And they are different systems with different target audiences in mind, but at some point there are going to be people trying to decide between both.

Well you can't get the best of both world. They are better off not trying to match the 3DS at all.

 

[KojiKnight]

I hacked my Playstation TV to play all games (like Ys 7) the day I got it, which was over a years ago.

This. We had psp exploits very early on, and full control of the psp sandbox for almost 2 years.

The proprietary medium did nothing to prevent any entry point into the vita, what took so long was primarily a matter of interest by the scene.

 

[manueldelalas]

What's dumb about that? The high memory card prices allowed them to price the Vita at the "low" price of $250, which people were excited about initially.

This is just speculation, you have no way of knowing that.

When the one big complaint your customers have is this, even after 4 years, you know they made a dumb mistake.

 

[Balb]

This is just speculation, you have no way of knowing that.

When the one big complaint your customers have is this, even after 4 years, you know they made a dumb mistake.

It's not unfounded speculation though. Why would the prices be so high and remain so if not to subsidize the price of the base Vita?

 

[diaspora]

It's not unfounded speculation though. Why would the prices be so high and remain so if not to subsidize the price of the base Vita?

Because they're required by the system and would carry ridiculous margins.

 

[Balb]

Because they're required by the system and would carry ridiculous margins.

That only adds credence to the point I was making...

 

[manueldelalas]

It's not unfounded speculation though. Why would the prices be so high and remain so if not to subsidize the price of the base Vita?

Because of low quantities, obviously. When you have a proprietary card that's only available for a failed device that no one is buying, you just can't lower the price more.

If you compare that to SD cards that is used by every device in the planet, it's pretty obvious that you can't match it's price, or even get close to it.

 

[2+2=5]

Those amazon prices are too high, at least for the 8gb and 16gb cards, you can find better prices imo, i bought a 16gb card for less than that in 2012(if we consider the usual 1 dollar = 1 euro change).

Prices are really high so they deserve the criticism, but most of those claiming that they don't buy vita for that reason are just trying to hate vita, unless you are a pirate or a mobile gamer gaming is a really expensive hobby, i have a 16gb card since d1, i'm dd only, i bought probably hundreds of games and never had big problems, buying an overpriced, but not that expensive, 16gb card once shouldn't scare anyone.

 

[ChryZ]

PS2 memory cards, NGC memory cards, Vita cards, XB360 HDDs, so many high priced "storage accessories" *shudder*

I'm just glad, that PS3 and PS4 allow open storage standards.

 

[Shin Johnpv]

If they let you use SD Cards, then you would have to pay more for the Vita hardware. Sony have to make their money back in some way.

I'm just arguing the fact that there's a lower entry point for Vitas because of the memory card prices.

As a hardware manufacturer you don't make your money back on expensive but needed peripherals. Specially not one like a memory card, the size of which can possibly affect how many games some one buys. Sony's plan should have been like EVERY SINGLE OTHER console ever, make back their money on games sold. Trying to make that money back on memory cards instead was a giant mistake. Their focus should have been on the games and producing, promoting, and getting games people wanted to play on the vita. That would have done a much better job of making back losses on the hardware than trying to rip their customers off with what are micro SD cards in a proprietary shell for insane mark ups.

 

[Toadthemushroom]

What's interesting is the recommended game card size for the NX is 32GB - I wonder how internal storage will be handled on that handheld format, as the highest capacity game cards for Vita and 3DS games has stayed at 4GB. I think players of Atelier Sophie on Vita had to download 3GB just to play the game since the total size was around 8GB, but Koei Tecmo only shipped it on an 8GB card.

The latest rumours suggest that the dock has a USB port, so I'm hoping that you can dock your NX when at home, and transfer games between an external HDD to something like a microSD card. I guess it depends on what the size of games are, I'm seeing console-like games like DQXI being 20GB each though.

If the NX supported UFS cards for high storage and superior write/read speeds that'd be amazing, but the cards themselves aren't ubiquitous like microSD and they'd probably be expensive to start with.

gaming is a really expensive hobby, i have a 16gb card since d1, i'm dd only, i bought probably hundreds of games and never had big problems, buying an overpriced, but not that expensive, 16gb card once shouldn't scare anyone.

Not everyone is an enthusiast though. I have a 64GB memory card (which was ultimately a waste of money but that's for another post) and dozens of digital Vita games, but I can totally get why people won't buy into the idea of Vita storage, especially as it scales with the number of games you buy over the lifetime (my 64GB card is my third Vita memory card since launch).

It's about the opportunity cost really, or what you could be buying instead of all that Vita storage, and for the majority of people who play games (and probably trade those games in to get money towards new games), the markup on memory cards could be used to buy more games instead, or games on other formats where you're not literally seeing the cost of a game download or patch in storage.

 

[family_guy]

It's not unfounded speculation though. Why would the prices be so high and remain so if not to subsidize the price of the base Vita?

Some overpriced proprietary game items in the past:
Xbox 360 Wifi adapter - $80
Xbox 360 HDD Add On - $180

Why were they that high? Because you had no other option at the time, and to make them more money. Put gaming aside and look at other things that have prices jacked up like in the medical industry. Surely you've heard about the controversy over EpiPen?

 

[diaspora]

That only adds credence to the point I was making...

No, it lends no credence to unfounded speculation about fictionalised subsidization.

 

[jwhit28]

What does it matter if the entry point to the Vita is lower if it is unusable without buying the memory card? This isn't some optional accessory like the Kinect or a second controller. If Sony is going to hide behind protecting their system from piracy, why not toss 32GB or 64GB of internal memory into the thing and avoid the huge proprietary memory card mark up?

 

[Peltz]

OP, even if you're right, it's still a dumb strategy that did not work for Sony.

People do not want to pay that much for memory cards. They should've just offered on-board memory with an SD card for expansion and charged more for the base unit rather than to use memory cards as the method of subsidizing hardware costs in an age where SD cards exist. People know how much memory cards costs and are turned off by the high prices.

 

[Tigress]

No, it's very fair. I mean I expect proprietary to be overpriced (accepting that Sony even uses it cause they want to make more money). But the price is double what I'd expect proprietary prices to be.

 

[bosseye]

High memory prices was probably the main reason I never got a Vita. I wanted one, went to the shop thinking I might get one when it was £200 odd and realised I'd have to pay around £45 for a card to cover the games I wanted and at the time, it was more than I had to spend. It was literally twice the price of an SD card of the same capacity. So I never bought a Vita, the games never really came to keep me interested in buying one and my plans to get one thus fell by the wayside. The point being if I hadn't been put off by the high price memory outlay initially, I probably would have got one that day.

 

[SmokedMeat]

That only adds credence to the point I was making...

So you're also saying that Xbox 360 HDDs were stupid expensive because they were subsidizing the hardware. Any proprietary accessory that's priced well above the norm has nothing to do with it being proprietary, and everything to do with subsidizing hardware.

 

[Dragonslayer_023]

What does it matter if the entry point to the Vita is lower if it is unusable without buying the memory card? This isn't some optional accessory like the Kinect or a second controller. If Sony is going to hide behind protecting their system from piracy, why not toss 32GB or 64GB of internal memory into the thing and avoid the huge proprietary memory card mark up?

You can buy a PSVR alone even though it requires a camera. Same kinda thing.

 

[Ouroboros]

The Vita revision should have had a micro SD card slot instead of their proprietary card slot.

I got my memory card for a hella good deal...maybe $10 more than a micro SD card would have cost me for the same space so I'm not complaining but like many people on here already said, it should be criticized or at least the decision to keep the proprietary card should be criticized.

 

[jwhit28]

You can buy a PSVR alone even though it requires a camera. Same kinda thing.

Sony expects many to already have the camera because the camera has other uses. What other use does the Vita memory card have? Why even have removable memory when you can back up online?

 

[Randy Monk]

I own a Vita with a 32GB card which is full and I have to shuffle games around.

The price of 64GB is a bit rich even though its a drop in the bucket of my yearly gaming expense. I haven't bought it out of principal, it doesn't feel right to pay 4X a standard SD card. It's still a great system but I think Sony screwed the Vita right out of the gate, didn't give it much of a chance against Nintendo.

 

[therapist]

unfair to charge a shit ton for a proprietary card you can only use on a vita? (Or vita tv oh boy)

lol what?

 

[Tal Shiar Agent]

Even us on Vita Island know the memory card prices are ridiculous bullshit. You don't need to defend Sony here OP.

 

[Beartruck]

As for the argument that Sony had to use a proprietary format to prevent piracy, look at the 3ds. That uses regular SD cards and hackers are just now starting to finally crack the thing, after what, 5 years on the market? Sony chose a proprietary memory card because they saw dollar signs.

 

[Banjo-Kazooie]

What a weird defense of something

 

[hardcastlemccormick]

Apple's bullshit prices on internal are no defense. Terrible pricing scheme.

I'm juggling games on my Playstation TV because I refuse to give Sony money for a new Vita card. I'd probably buy more games if I didn't have to squeeze into <8 GB, but that's the choice Sony made, not me. Lost money. Stupid, stupid idiotic decision.

 

[Atomski]

Seriously?? What crazy bullshit will a fan try to justify next?

 

[Sitrus]

I think players of Atelier Sophie on Vita had to download 3GB just to play the game since the total size was around 8GB,

The game is about 2GB in total though.

 

[Celine]

I don't think the criticism is unfair, but it is a bit of a dead horse at this point. Almost any general vita thread is half filled with people shitting on the memory card prices 4 years later.

I find it unlikely as well that the majority of people complaining about the price would run out and buy a vita if they were priced as sd cards. If the software lineup appealed to a more general audience they would be there memory card prices or not. And that may had been the original plan, but Sony failed at the follow through and here we are.

The general population also isn't going to be seeing the value in going digital only and wouldn't need a 32 or 64 gb card as most purchases would be physical and smaller cards would be sufficient.

That's what I think too.
Vita main problem was the software which was available for it.

 

[yongeandcollege]

The notion that memory prices are in any significant way responsible for poor Vita sales has always been laughable.

 

[Brawly Likes to Brawl]

... The Vita used to support multiple accounts? Really?

Yeah, all you had to do to access content from another account was sign out of your current and sign into the other. One day Sony released an update that locked you to one account per card without warning. I remember the thread here for it was really heated because some people were forced to lose save data.

And here is the thread in question.

 

[old manatee]

Seriously though, Sony should have put the games on Betamax or Minidisc. Why make a new proprietary format when you already have so many sitting around?

 

[TheChewyWaffles]

There truly is a defense force for everything.

 

[Biske]

The notion that memory prices are in any significant way responsible for poor Vita sales has always been laughable.

I think it is responsible for poorer game sales though.

 

[Phu]

Yeah, all you had to do to access content from another account was sign out of your current and sign into the other. One day Sony released an update that locked you to one account per card without warning. I remember the thread here for it was really heated because some people were forced to lose save data.

Wow, I got a Vita kinda late and never knew this. Fuck Sony.

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

The notion that memory prices are in any significant way responsible for poor Vita sales has always been laughable.

Why? Anecdotally It was the primary reason i didn't buy one until late in the system's life when they were on sale in CEX by me last year. It's still in it's box because i haven't gotten around to buying it's proprietary memory card yet... that reminds me to go have a look at the prices later on. So thanks for that

 

[sixteen-bit]

Hopefully they allow MicroSD on the Trinity

 

[Omegasquash]

I admit to being skeptical when I read the thread title.

After having read the OP, my skepticism persists.

It was a pretty blatant money grab, and it's why I held off for so long. They planned to make more money using proprietary memory, and it turned prospective buyers off. Their loss, overall. Shame too...I love my Vita, but I'm not interested in buying a 64gb card.

 

[Escargo]

eh. I want a vita because of the great games it has but then I'm reminded of the memory card b.s. So then I got a 3ds.

 

[muteki]

The notion that memory prices are in any significant way responsible for poor Vita sales has always been laughable.

I could believe it being partially responsible for why well-informed consumers or Neogaf members didn't buy a Vita but doesn't have anything to do with why everyday Joe didn't buy one.

3DS eventually came around and could be seen as a success but it isn't because it uses SD cards, the exclusive software just appeals to more people.

 

[jroc74]

I would have bought more digital games on Vita if not for the outrageous prices for memory cards.

.

Which is crazy since you cant resell them and digital means Sony not having to worry about the cost for physical media.

It all seems so backwards to me.

I'm sure that played a factor but the Wii and the DS were pirate play grounds and that didn't stop Nintendo from using the SD card format on the 3ds.

Yup. Especially the Wii. Which happen to be the highest selling home console last gen.

Knowing there was a test kit, doesn't tell you anything about Sony's motives.

It might not but there were 2 Android phones in development when it first came out: an all touch screen one and one with buttons. Both styles got released but it does give in insight about their motives. Especially seeing how the iPhone took off. And some early Android dev phones looked similar to BB. Buttons and UI.

As late as 2010 some Android OEMs still had BB like dev devices. Or just dev devices with buttons.

Again, being proprietary had nothing top do with securing the device... If Sony thought that was a real concern, they wouldn't let you use any of the shelf parts for any of their consoles (see external and internal hdds for ps4).

This was primarily a money grab, and maybe secondarily a means to guarantee performance in terms if speed for developers.

When your plan to make a profit for your mobile gaming device is to sell lots of content to your users through your digital store, it is stupid to overcharge for storage memory

 

[n00bsauce87]

It's just that the memory card price is tied to the hardware cost.

Gotta say, I stopped reading here.

There is only one company making these cards, Sony. When you are the only game in town, you can set the prices to whatever and people will pay them. It's the only reason why they are so expensive. It helps with the bottom dollar in terms of hardware sales for the vita. I'd imagine it helps tremdously even. If Sony's hardware team haven't found a more cost effective way to mass produce those memory cards since December 2011 given the new technology that has surfaced since then, then everyone should be fired to bring in new talent. But that's not to say they haven't. It just means they are taking a bigger profit. There's no incentive to take money away from themselves. They aren't competing against anyone else in the sale of Vita Memory Cards.

 

[Clefargle]

Let's address the real issue here:

Referring to them as "memory" instead of "storage" is stupid and I can't wait until it stops.

 

[10k]

The general consensus on GAF is that the price of the Vita Memory cards are too high and its become a running joke that seems to have no end. But I don't think Sony are doing it on purpose because they are ignorant to people's pleas on this. It's just that the memory card price is tied to the hardware cost.

It seems Vita Memory Card prices are always compared to SD or micro SD card prices, which to be fair is obvious and a normal thing to do but the way Vita and memory is priced is more like devices that have internal memory like the iPhone. The difference is that Sony wanted to put out one Vita SKU and 4 memory cards SKUs, rather than 4 Vitas with different memory capacities.

Now here are the Vita Memory Card Prices I got from Amazon.

8GB: $28
16GB: $42
32GB: $58
64GB: $107

The price of the Vita on Amazon is $153. If you were to buy the system together with a memory card just like an iphone the costs would be -

8GB: $181
16GB: $195 (7% more than the Vita system + 8GB card)
32GB: $211 (16% more)
64GB: $260 (43% more)

Therefore I wonder whether people would still have an issue over the memory prices if the memory was internal on the Vita (ie Sony could just seal the door on a new Vita model update). It looks to me like they are trying to capture a wider market by offering the Vita and memory at a range of prices just like the iPhone. And each iPhone memory level is a $100 jump, but most people seem to have gotten over it.

Then there's the issue of whether the Vita is making money on the hardware itself which probably led to higher memory card prices. The true price of the Vita probably lies somewhere in the middle so that Sony can capture as wide a market as possible where some people can only afford the base model, but many others are happy to pay for more memory and can afford the higher tier card.

If you compare the 3DS and the Vita, its clear the Vita has better guts inside, yet the Vita was only a little bit more expensive when they launched, with the memory card being where Sony was going to make some of their money back on the hardware. By offering the Vita Memory card at higher prices for the higher tier cards, it offered a lower price of entry on the hardware itself.

So to sum up, obviously Sony bungled the marketing on this and probably should have gone with internal memory, with multiple Vita SKUs just like the home consoles. But can we as knowledgeable gamers at least understand where they are coming from? And if you haven't got a Vita yet, and are put off by the memory card price, the Vita + 32GB seems to be a nice sweet spot.

Try adding the cost of the vita and SD cards at similar storage spaces and then get back to me.

It's one thing Nintendo nailed about 3DS.

 

[Omegasquash]

I could believe it being partially responsible for why well-informed consumers or Neogaf members didn't buy a Vita but doesn't have anything to do with why everyday Joe didn't buy one.

Sticker shock at the register is a valid reason that people abandon purchases. Finding out that you need to pay more than you thought you would for a system to be able to store games isn't a pleasant feeling, I imagine.

 

[Justinh]

Not sure I think it's unfair, personally. I know that I didn't buy a Vita at launch because of the memory card thing, but I'm just one guy.

I get what you're saying about using the cost to subsidize hardware, but it still feels slimy to me. I'd actually prefer if they used something like xQD cards. Yeah, they're expensive too, but I'm pretty sure they're still cheaper (if only a little bit) but perform better, and most importantly are used in other devices. Even if those devices are like... multi-thousand dollar cameras, they are still cards made by more companies and I'd wager will be made a lot longer than however long they continue to make the Vita memory cards. I only have a 16 gig card for my vita, but I've often thought about ponying up for a 64 because I imagine that production will stop oneday (if it already hasn't) and supply will go lower and if I wanted one in the future I'd have to pay out the ass. Just speculation though, and I barely use my vita anymore anyways.

 

[Tripon]

Sony also makes regular SD cards btw.