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I can't believe Sony continues to refuse lowering Vita's memory card prices

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Like seriously i can't believe they are still stubbornly refuse to lower the prices of the damn things! Vita is on its twilight years but i believe that a price cut for its memory cards might have given it a small boost to its sales.

I mean really what does Sony have to loose at this point?I love the system but as it is it's almost dead.
 
They already did. The 32Gb launched at $100, they dropped it to $80 but most of it is retailer margins so you can easily find it for $60.
 
Was looking at the Vita the other day as a portable PS1 device and then I remember the memory card prices and was like nope.

Though I saw a Borderlands 2 bundle that comes w/ an 8 GB card that might be enough maybe.
 
Presumably they aren't manufacturing many more. They are a small item, so retailers are just sitting on their existing inventory, selling a slow trickle of them at a high margin, but they'll eventually put them on clearance.

I had a chat with Midnight Resistance about the memory card situation a while back. It's ridiculous.
 
I wonder what the mark-up is? That kind of low-demand, one-off manufacturing can be pricey

Not defending it, just curious
 
I doubt they are going to really sell much more if they lowered the price. Keeping the price the same as they trickle off the shelves is probably the smart thing to do at this point- its probably also why Nintendo hasn't budged the WiiU prices.
 
I have a 32 and a 16 and I wish I had a 64 because I hate juggling between the two, with the Vita's "rebuilding library" shenanigans every time I change cards.
 
Massa said:
They already did. The 32Gb launched at $100, they dropped it to $80 but most of it is retailer margins so you can easily find it for $60.
Click to expand...

You're saying it like 32gb for $60 is a good deal.

Massa said:
I know, right? Compared to what we pay for locked down internal storage on phones and tablets it's pretty much a steal!
Click to expand...

But we're not talking about devices like phones or tablets that are made for multiple uses and have a big amount of storage by default.

This is about a portable handheld gaming system that's made to play games, and uses storage cards as the main data storage.
 
It is very annoying having to delete things to make space :/ least PS+ got a bit more cloud space so it makes the process easier.
 
It could be that the memory cards are really that expensive. Do any other devices use them? What I can not believe is that they didn't use sd cards. Would have made life so much easier, just like the switch to a micro usb connector did.
 
Of the things I didnt like about the 3DS in comparison....I liked the SD Card use on the 3DS.

Sony is tripping.
 
+also bringing the 64GB stateside. I imported a 64GB for $80 because I was able to convince myself it was a good deal, I can't imagine using the Vita with anything smaller. Mine's constantly full after buying a bunch of jrpgs on sale and installing the PS+ games I have. It should come bundled with at least a 16GB and the 64GB should be sold for $60 or less.

jroc74 said:
Of the things I didnt like about the 3DS in comparison....I liked the SD Card use on the 3DS.

Sony is tripping.
Click to expand...

I just wish the eShop had regular sales that were comparable to PSN's. All the Atlus stuff goes stupid-cheap every couple weeks, but aside from that there's hardly ever a decent sale.
 
Massa said:
They already did. The 32Gb launched at $100, they dropped it to $80 but most of it is retailer margins so you can easily find it for $60.
Click to expand...

WHAT?! 100$ seriously? I thought that they were overpriced now but wow.

Vita would be best handheld ever if it weren't for the memory card prices.
 
What do they have to lose?

It's really simple. Money.

Price drop on the memory cards won't make any difference, maybe a super short bump of sales for the Vita, definitely nothing long term, while they will be losing a big chunk of high margin revenue stream from the memory cards.

They've done the math and that's the conclusion they came up with. Until they will evaluate that droping the price will make them more money than selling little volume of those for a higher price nothing will change, and that's the foreseeable future.
 
It's ridiculous, I had a few opportunities to get a second hand vita for a great price and each time I was turned off by the thought of paying 50€ or more for a memory card.
 
It's a shame we never got 3rd party memory cards, it might mean losing money from then for Sony on selling less cards but more money via games because people can buy a few without filling up such tiny cards.
 
The Vita is dead and they don't fucking care. Why would they even bother at this point? What would be the point of it?

The opportunity to do anything about this entire situation passed at minimum 18 months ago.
 
Mass_Pincup said:
Because it wouldn't change a thing except making less money for them.
Click to expand...
I don't think so. I'd have bought more of the cards and therefore more digital games if they used sd cards rather than some bullshit proprietary system.

It's such a stupid system and Sony have always pushed their own proprietary systems rather than using the industry standard and prompting the sales of more software.
 
LewieP said:
Presumably they aren't manufacturing many more.
Click to expand...
That's the real deal here. Memory cards are not even that resistant, what will happen in a handful of years when they'll be hard to be found, considering that the system is completely useless without a mc?
 
Doesn't the vita come with a memory card? Or one built in? I plan on picking up a second-hand vita solely for remote play so I don't think I really need a memory card.
 
I think it is the same situation of Nintendo with the Wii U pricetag. They know it is already a dead system, so why lower the price? It is not going to sell too much anyway, so let it be bought at a high price at least.
 
Bet this is the biggest issue with the Vita and its poor adoption. The prices suck and still suck and Sony sucked at making the Vita what it could be. In spite of that still love my Vita.
 
Memento said:
I think it is the same situation of Nintendo with the Wii U pricetag. They know it is already a dead system, so why lower the price? It is not going to sell too much anyway, so let it be bought at a high price at least.
Click to expand...

Nintendo should have lowered WiiU's price a long time ago just like they did with the 3DS soon after its release.

But Sony not lowering the prices of their memory cards is just shooting their own foot.I know many people who want to buy more digital Vita games but with the current prices of the MCs it's simply not worth it.
 
they might as well claw as much money back as possible from the pit of despair that is the vita, they know people have no other option

i was looking at some prices after that ps tv hack piqued my interest but yeah that's not gonna happen
 
Triforce141 said:
But we're not talking about devices like phones or tablets that are made for multiple uses and have a big amount of storage by default.

This is about a portable handheld gaming system that's made to play games, and uses storage cards as the main data storage.
Click to expand...

A Nexus or an iPhone having 16Gb of internal storage and asking $50-200 for more is just as bad as a Vita coming bundled with an 8Gb card and asking $50-100 for more. The only difference is that on the proprietary memory card situation you can upgrade at will, which in theory is better for the consumer. The psychology works out against it though, as consumers don't think about the hundreds of dollars they're being asked for in a proprietary internal solution while they do consider it more in the proprietary memory card situation.

Of course microSD cards are better but they're not the norm either.
 
If it's not going to spur on an increase in sales (which it probably won't, let's be real) then why drop the price? Might as well milk what you can out of a dying/dead product.
 
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