...by forcing you to spend it on something else?They saved you money.
I always found it odd that people flipped out over Vita memory cards yet seem fine spending. $50+ a year for online play on other systems.
How much better would the Vita have done without the proprietary memory..
They seem arbitrary and scummy because SD Cards exist. They also still are very expensive.
I can't believe you actually spent time writing out a defense to Sony's ridiculous prices on these things.
They're too expensive - the end.
Why defend this? Even the Vita fans are not defending this.
Sony made the choice to go with propriety memory cards.
Who else is there to blame?
lol fuck that, the memory cards are complete bullshit.
Using proprietary memory instead of an established standard is backwards no matter how you look at it.
We can buy 3 128GB SD cards on amazon for the price of one 64GB Vita card.
Did you read the OP, if they offered SD cards - the hardware RRP price would probably most likely go up. The Vita system is probably cheaper because of the memory cards, because Sony knew that if they priced the system $50 higher then it would get a lot less sales. They saved you money.
No it's not. You're making that comparison now. When the system launched it launched at $249. Sony went with a proprietary format for memory because that's what Sony does and it uneccesarily handicapped the Vita from the jump. Proprietary formats = $$$ to Sony, that's why they've launched so many. This was further compounded by the fact that some games wouldn't even run with out a memory card in the system and that pretty much means you had to buy one. It was basically a hidden cost, and a very large one at that.
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.
SD Card prices:
8gb: $6
16gb: $9
32gb: $21
64gb: $31
It was criticized back when the PSP had Memory Stick Pro DUO as its memory format, though prices were somewhat higher on other forms of memory back then. I don't know why Sony thought it would be a good idea to try it again, but, here we are!
Certainly led to some lost sales, but likely not one of the top reasons why it's floundered.
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.
It's not just Gaf, it's the entire marketplace that generally seemed to say it's a bad idea. You can do the mental arithmatics all you like, but the fact of the matter is that Sony shouldn't have released such a poorly thought out solution.If it was too tough for Sony to make their own proprietary memory cards, then they should have stuck to using regular ones. If that was not an option than they should of included it as internal storage.
In general consumers aren't worried about what it cost to manufacture the product, they care about the price that it costs them to buy it.
Nah, the criticism of the memory card prices is generally fair. I get why Sony did it, and it made some sense at the time, but it's fair to criticize it.
The idea that the memory cards are even in the top 3 reasons why the Vita failed, though? That's BS.
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.
nah you can spin it however you want but the price is exorbitant.
Do you have anything to actually back this line of thinking up...?
And either way when you have to buy a memory card regardless I don't see how you've saved money.
3DS and PSVita launch prices were comparable not because PSVita was purposefully made cheaper, it's because 3DS had an expensive stereoscopic glasses-free screen.
It's nice that they wanted to make the Vita cheaper by off loading the price to the proprietary cards, but if you didn't buy the 64gb from the start, you have to pay multiple tim for the overpriced cards every time you want to upgrade
Razor/Razorblade economics is a very common model for game consoles. Basically, it means you make the console itself as cheap as possible (no profit or even selling at a loss) to lock people into your ecosystem and then you make your profit via accessories and software. As a required accessory for the vast majority of users, profit on memory cards would be a definite part of overall profit strategy.
Sony have to make their money back in some way.
But clearly that ideology hurt them at least somewhat. People don't want to buy memory cards at high prices if at all. If they had models of the Vita that had some amount of internal storage it would've limited the barrier of entry even more. Because people are forced to buy something else with their system it creates a huge barrier of entry and the people who are unaware that you would have to buy a card would be very frustrated after trying to play something and then realize they need to go buy a card. I am sure that happened to some uninformed consumers. And that's because we live in an age where all phones come with memory internally, a 3ds comes with an SD card already, and consoles have internal HDs.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.
Sony went with a proprietary format for memory because that's what Sony does and it uneccesarily handicapped the Vita from the jump. Proprietary formats = $$$ to Sony, that's why they've launched so many.
I don't think it was that big a factor outside of enthusiasts... Was it?
Why would I pay a huge fraction of the console price for a memory card?
There's no justification for that and there never will be. End of story.
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.Sony had proprietary memory card formats they could have used if they just wanted $$$.
If you think, creating a Vita Only memory card wasn't done to prevent the piracy that hurt the PSP, well, you're just not thinking.