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[EmiPrime]

I can't believe people are still whining about his. Did none of you own a PSP?

Meanwhile my 64GB card is sat in my Vita with 50GB free. Whatever.

I did. I bought a memory card adaptor for a few quid and stuck two micro SD cards in it. 32GB of memory for about a fraction of what Sony were asking for.

You gladly got mugged by Sony's memory pricing, not all of us are so obliging.

 

[sörine]

Is it because you have every demo downloaded?

I mean Vita use to have a 100 bubble limit before switching to 500 last year in an update.

It's because I buy tons of games. I think I only have 4-5 demos on there right now.

 

[dragonyeuw]

I didn't say that.

I just think that the Vita would have done far far better if it used SD/Micro SD cards. Even if they had to increase the price of the console slightly to compensate for the lost memory card revenue (since Sony price them like a high margin accessory).

There's some fluff in the Vita design that could have been cut out to get the system out cheaper at launch, and/or not have to be so terribly reliant on memory cards to subsidize. OLED, GYRO, front AND rear touch interface off the top of my head. The interesting thing is that the PS4 was engineered seemingly with far more restraint, yet they somewhat swung for the fences with Vita( as far as dedicated portables go), and I'm not sure if that was the best move.

Maybe if the Vita launched at $199 with SD cards, we'd be having a different discussion. Who knows. If I had to guess, take the hypothetical scenario I just outlined and you maybe double the Vita sales at best. That's still an incredible drop from PSP levels. The reality is, there's a massive number of people who have left the dedicated market, and the Vita is the biggest casualty exasperated by their own design choices.

 

[protomouse]

From a corporate perspective: When you have monopoly on carts/cards, and people (albeit grudgingly) still buy them, why would you not exploit that?

Vita is pretty much in a phase where Sony is trying to suck as much money as possible out of the existing customer base before formally killing the device. I don't think there have been any concerns about growing that platform for some time now.

 

[sechsterangriff]

I'm surprised no one has made an adapter for microsd to psvita

Besides the obvious physical differences, there's probably some other security measures in place to prevent the use of unlicensed storage options.

 

[autoduelist]

You gladly got mugged by Sony's memory pricing, not all of us are so obliging.

This idea that we got 'mugged' is ridiculous.

I gladly payed $85 to import a 64g card. I wasn't 'mugged'. I wasn't stupid, ignorant, or anything else. Is a standard SD card cheaper? Sure, but I don't need one of those.

Looking on Amazon, it looks like a 64g SD card runs from around $25 to $40, give or take. So let's call it the low end, $25. That means I would have paid that anyway, so I essentially paid $60 'extra' for my 64g card.

That $60 doesn't bother me. I know some of it subsidized the price of my vita, so it was just moving dollars around. I know some of it [likely a lot of it] is because they're far more expensive to produce so there's zero economies of scale. Just like anything else, I'm paying more because it's more expensive to make.

And I'm not upset at Sony for going proprietary. If anything, I'd aim that ire at the people pirating on PSP that led to this decision in the first place. It sucks for everyone, no doubt. But I don't blame Sony for locking the thing down.

Ultimately, it's just $60 to make my favorite device a whole lot better. People think nothing of buying expensive 'elite' controllers, or other expensive 'luxury' adds for their PCs and consoles. And that's what a 64g card is... nobody 'needs' one. They're just nice to have. The vast majority of people would get by just fine with a 16g card or so. Acting like a [effectively] $60, unnecessary, luxury purchase is why people aren't buying the vita makes little sense to me.

 

[TheBaldEmperor]

From a corporate perspective: When you have monopoly on carts/cards, and people (albeit grudgingly) still buy them, why would you not exploit that?

Vita is pretty much in a phase where Sony is trying to suck as much money as possible out of the existing customer base before formally killing the device. I don't think there have been any concerns about growing that platform for some time now.

They aren't getting any money from me at the moment. I snagged a PSTV for cheap and there are games I would like to buy but I'm not because the damn 32 gb memory card costs more than I paid for the system.

 

[dragonyeuw]

Ultimately, it's just $60 to make my favorite device a whole lot better. People think nothing of buying expensive 'elite' controllers, or other expensive 'luxury' adds. And that's what a 64g card is... nobody 'needs' one. They're just nice to have. The vast majority of people would get by just fine with a 16g card or so.

I've always felt they should have included 8gb internal storage, enough for the average person to get by with saves. If you then want to download a truckload of games, offer the boutique-priced 32/64/128 memory cards, kind of like for 'power users'. But memory just to save games, patches etc IMO should have been included, as well as allowing data to be saved on the actual carts themselves. It's neither here or there at this point, though.

 

[kitch9]

Economies of scale.

Doesn't apply to the vita and it's proprietary cards at this point.

 

[Mass_Pincup]

I've always felt they should have included 8gb internal storage, enough for the average person to get by with saves. If you then want to download a truckload of games, offer the boutique-priced 32/64/128 memory cards, kind of like for 'power users'. But memory just to save games, patches etc IMO should have been included, as well as allowing data to be saved on the actual carts themselves. It's neither here or there at this point, though.

Every single bundles are including an 8GB memory card in Europe and in North America.

 

[LewieP]

There's some fluff in the Vita design that could have been cut out to get the system out cheaper at launch, and/or not have to be so terribly reliant on memory cards to subsidize. OLED, GYRO, front AND rear touch interface off the top of my head. The interesting thing is that the PS4 was engineered seemingly with far more restraint, yet they somewhat swung for the fences with Vita( as far as dedicated portables go), and I'm not sure if that was the best move.

Maybe if the Vita launched at $199 with SD cards, we'd be having a different discussion. Who knows. If I had to guess, take the hypothetical scenario I just outlined and you maybe double the Vita sales at best. That's still an incredible drop from PSP levels. The reality is, there's a massive number of people who have left the dedicated market, and the Vita is the biggest casualty exasperated by their own design choices.

I broadly agree. They should have trimmed some of the fat. None of the uses of the rear track pad have been worth the component cost. The OLED is lovely but I doubt it would have sold worse without it. I think the gyro and touchscreen were worth it.

I don't know if it really needed front and rear facing cameras either. Could have lost them both really.

I'd have oped for a slightly lower resolution, if maintaining easy scaling with PSP games weren't a factor. Its crazy to me that they have such a high res screen but many games render at a sub-native resolution.

 

[TwoDurans]

Is memory really a problem on the Vita? I've got a 32gb card and have never had an issue with storage.

Download a game, play it, finish it, delete it. I keep a stack of games on the device permanently, but I never have less that 10GB for newer titles. Cloud storage with PSPlus ensures that if I ever want to go back to a game I can download it again, restore my save, and go.

 

[Ultimadrago]

It's all good. Yet another reason for me to continue refusing the purchase of a Vita.

 

[sörine]

Uh, the cheapest 64GB microSD card on Amazon is $12 new, not $25. Cheapest for a 64GB Vita card is $80 used.

 

[dragonyeuw]

Every single bundles are including an 8GB memory card in Europe and in North America.

Yeah that's a good point . I got my Vita way back in 2012 so forgot that the Borderlands bundle comes with a card.

 

[SinCityAssassin]

There are nothing left to buy except old games.

You can always tell the ones who don't own a Vita.

Well no. Old games are the ones you can actually FIT a lot of on a Vita. Any game I would want on a vita I would never buy digitally because I can only really fit 7 retail games while keeping the classics I like to play.

Is memory really a problem on the Vita? I've got a 32gb card and have never had an issue with storage.

Download a game, play it, finish it, delete it. I keep a stack of games on the device permanently, but I never have less that 10GB for newer titles. Cloud storage with PSPlus ensures that if I ever want to go back to a game I can download it again, restore my save, and go.

The issue isn't really with storage size if you're talking about 32 GB, the issue remains the price. But there's a large leap from 16 to 32, I can never fit all of my games on the VIta with 16 gb.

 

[Vital Tundra]

The only reason I haven't bought a Vita, sadly. I'm not going to pay those prices for such little space.

 

[zashga]

This idea that we got 'mugged' is ridiculous.

I gladly payed $85 to import a 64g card. I wasn't 'mugged'. I wasn't stupid, ignorant, or anything else. Is a standard SD card cheaper? Sure, but I don't need one of those.

Looking on Amazon, it looks like a 64g SD card runs from around $25 to $40, give or take. So let's call it the low end, $25. That means I would have paid that anyway, so I essentially paid $60 'extra' for my 64g card.

That $60 doesn't bother me. I know some of it subsidized the price of my vita, so it was just moving dollars around. I know some of it [likely a lot of it] is because they're far more expensive to produce so there's zero economies of scale. Just like anything else, I'm paying more because it's more expensive to make.

And I'm not upset at Sony for going proprietary. If anything, I'd aim that ire at the people pirating on PSP that led to this decision in the first place. It sucks for everyone, no doubt. But I don't blame Sony for locking the thing down.

Ultimately, it's just $60 to make my favorite device a whole lot better. People think nothing of buying expensive 'elite' controllers, or other expensive 'luxury' adds for their PCs and consoles. And that's what a 64g card is... nobody 'needs' one. They're just nice to have. The vast majority of people would get by just fine with a 16g card or so. Acting like a [effectively] $60, unnecessary, luxury purchase is why people aren't buying the vita makes little sense to me.

Have you considered a career in marketing?

Seriously though, people refuse to buy things they can easily afford all the time. The Vita memory card thing has stopped me personally on the few occasions I considered buying one. No one likes to feel like they're being ripped off.

 

[ghibli99]

I lost one of my Vita memory cards, and while it's my own damn fault, the fact that I did that *and* paid the Sony premium for it sours me on the system as a whole. They can put a standard micro USB port on the new Vita, but not a micro SD slot? It's one of their biggest missteps, which is really just too bad.

 

[autoduelist]

Have you considered a career in marketing?

Seriously though, people refuse to buy things they can easily afford all the time. The Vita memory card thing has stopped me personally on the few occasions I considered buying one. No one likes to feel like they're being ripped off.

Sure. That's sort of the point, though, right? People confuse an expensive card with being 'ripped off', even though there are perfectly valid reasons for that card being expensive. It's not Sony just trying to 'rip you off'.

And many don't seem to take other factors into consideration at all. For example, anyone that has had ps+ for a year or 2 already has a deep library of games at their disposal. A vita or pstv + card [not even a big one] can have them up and gaming instantly w/ no need to buy more games till they feel like it.

You can pick up a PSTV + 16g mem card for relatively cheap... yet they aren't flying off shelves. You can pick up a vita proper + 16g mem card for a fair price too... but they aren't flying off the shelves. So why exactly are we blaming the price of high end luxury cards (32, 64g) for the Vita not selling? I mean, if the prices of cards were $20 cheaper, but they made the Vita $20 more, would that fix the problem somehow?

I'm not saying the card price isn't a problem. It is. It's just a justified problem, and not Sony 'ripping us off'. I am saying I think people focus too much on the cost of cards they don't even need, and often ignore other 'savings' (like a potential ps+ library).

 

[speedlolita]

I did. I bought a memory card adaptor for a few quid and stuck two micro SD cards in it. 32GB of memory for about a fraction of what Sony were asking for.

You gladly got mugged by Sony's memory pricing, not all of us are so obliging.

Hahah, really dude? "Mugged" is extreme. I paid £155 for my Japanese Vita Slim and 64GB card, entirely reasonable if you ask me.

Mind you, if you went that way with your PSP I guess you're that way inclined.

 

[n0razi]

Im still waiting to upgrade my 32gb card to 64 or 128 but I cant justify paying the same price I paid for the Vita just to get a memory upgrade

Related: I really want to upgrade the 16gb card on my PSP-GO but thats as large as they made (microMemoryStick?)

 

[LewieP]

Amazed that anyone still says sales were not significantly impacted by the decision to use expensive proprietary memory cards. There's a decent number of people just in this thread saying that it was a big factor in their decision to not buy a Vita.

 

[FleetingFlowAir]

I like the Vita, but I seriously can't bear to buy a new memory card for it without thinking about how I got a 32 GB MicroSD Card for my 3DS for less than $20. This was a big mistake on Sony's part.

 

[Shahed]

I personally find the restriction to a single account far more annoying.

 

[n0razi]

Amazed that anyone still says sales were not significantly impacted by the decision to use expensive proprietary memory cards. There's a decent number of people just in this thread saying that it was a big factor in their decision to not buy a Vita.

If you look at the overall cost of ownership, I dont think its that bad... ie I got my Vita for $150 and a 32gb card for $50... thats about what I paid for my 3DS which has much crappier specs and only came with a 4gb card and I much prefer gaming on my Vita

The problem is the sticker shock of seeing the high prices, Sony doesnt understand that people are sensitive to sticker shock (hence the whole carrier subsidy with cellphones)

 

[Shadoken]

The problem is even though you can get it for almost 50% cheaper than the original price , it is still ridiculously overpriced compared to other memory cards.

 

[ZOONAMI]

At this point, why would they. Vita is completely dead.

 

[Mass_Pincup]

Amazed that anyone still says sales were not significantly impacted by the decision to use expensive proprietary memory cards. There's a decent number of people just in this thread saying that it was a big factor in their decision to not buy a Vita.

Yeah the Vita would have sold tens of millions more if the memory cards were not expensive...

I personally find the restriction to a single account far more annoying.

That's my biggest grip with the Vita, that and saves being tied to the game icon. What a greedy move especially knowing that it's not the case for psp and ps1 games.

 

[driver116]

SD - recognised and used by hundreds of millions. Of course they wouldn't go with that.

Proprietary memory cards and a focus on console games (rather than mobile) - the two reasons why Vita failed.

 

[Novocaine]

Memory cards are subsiding the cost of the system. If memory card prices were what you all considered "reasonable" the system would be thing you were complaining about being too expensive.

 

[flatearthpandas]

That's my biggest grip with the Vita, that and saves being tied to the game icon. What a greedy move especially knowing that it's not the case for psp and ps1 games.

That is mine. I wouldn't even give a shit about memory cards if I could just delete games without deleting their saves. But right now I have no computer or PS3 and I have to delete games and saves in order to make room for new games or juggle expensive memory cards. Meanwhile, the 3DS is sitting pretty with a 64GB micro SD.

 

[McLovin]

Literally the reason I never bought one.

 

[Kenai]

I'll finally jump in on a Vita if I can get a decent sale on these cards during the upcoming holidays (or i get a Vita so low it makes p for it). It's a real shame, as much as I love my 3DS I'm sure I'd love a Vita too but simply cannot buy into something so clearly overpriced.

 

[EdwardTeach]

People winge about this and then are happy to spend the same amount on single xbox controller. The cards are literally the price of a single full price AAA game, get over it.

 

[ZombiePlatypus]

The cards are literally the price of a single full price AAA game, get over it.

Yea that itself is the exact opposite of palatable or OK.

I'm psyched for having Pre-ordered aqua blue vita, but the prices for these proprietary cards have me wondering if I should cancel.

 

[Persona7]

The price of the memory card is definitely one of the reasons I don't want to rebuy a PS Vita or PSTV.

 

[rpmurphy]

People winge about this and then are happy to spend the same amount on single xbox controller. The cards are literally the price of a single full price AAA game, get over it.

Controllers are pricey, but that's why 3rd party controllers exist. Vita memory cards?

Also, controllers generally last for the duration of the entire console life, not necessarily the case for storage.

 

[Krappadizzle]

Or just make it SD compatible.

It's the single reason I don't own a Vita.

It's the reasons I haven't picked one up yet and will just wait until the system is discontinued to pick it up on the cheap.

People winge about this and then are happy to spend the same amount on single xbox controller. The cards are literally the price of a single full price AAA game, get over it.

 

[SinCityAssassin]

Memory cards are subsiding the cost of the system. If memory card prices were what you all considered "reasonable" the system would be thing you were complaining about being too expensive.

But are they subsiding the cost at this point? It's been 3 years since the launch manufacturing prices. If they can price drop the console, but still expect people to pay expensive memory card prices no wonder the Vita's not selling what it could be selling

 

[udivision]

But are they subsiding the cost at this point? It's been 3 years since the launch manufacturing prices. If they can price drop the console, but still expect people to pay expensive memory card prices no wonder the Vita's not selling what it could be selling

It was either drop the price of the console, drop the price of the cards, or drop the price of both slightly.

Dropping the price of the console is the most visible and effective drop, and since the memory card has a derived demand (only people with Vita's will buy Memory Cards), it makes more sense to focus on the main draw (the Vita.

I think a best way to look at it is the Vita's MSRP is a littler higher than one thinks, but how high that is is up to you.

 

[R-User!]

Its really to hide the real cost of owning a Vita. The Vita hardware is affordable only because it is offset by the overpriced memory card.

Heh, yeah... The vita is essentially a 300.00 system if you want the best easiest storage solution; which is why they didn't launch it with 32 gigs of internal memory, because it would have "died" on launch. Probably.

 

[Jigolo]

I can't believe Lamborghini continues to refuse to lower the prices of their cars


I want one so bad

 

[Memorabilia]

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.

And it should be $16.

 

[yophlow]

True, nothing will change where the Vita is at right now. If they were ever cheaper, I would have definitely bought one. I wanted to, but the price was just so astronomically high.

Little things like this can make a big difference, though maybe not at scale. The single reason I didn't buy an Xbox One is no backwards compatibility. If they had, I would have gotten one instead of a PS4. PS4 doesn't have it either, but I have like 5 PS3 games and 100+ 360 games.

 

[Windforce]

I personally find the restriction to a single account far more annoying.

I agree.

 

[ZombiePlatypus]

I can't believe Lamborghini continues to refuse to lower the prices of their cars


I want one so bad

When your product's flopping and demand is dead, maybe you don't have the luxury to play the "oh yeah it's expensive but it's a premium product" card.

 

[shamo42]

These memory cards were the reason I never considered buying a Vita.

 

[PrankT]

I just bought a used one and there are a few annoying things:

-memory card prices
-1 psn account
-no l2/r2 buttons (bought the joetsu grip and it's awesome)
-dualshock 4 can't be plugged in, requires a workaround with second account
-no dual band wifi (same with the the silly ps4)

I bought it for remote play, which is sometimes amazing and sometimes terrible. I know this is due to the individual network, but my stuff is very good and I still lose connection a lot.

But the free psn games are nice.

 

[Ninja Scooter]

When your product's flopping and demand is dead, maybe you don't have the luxury to play the "oh yeah it's expensive but it's a premium product" card.

When your product and flopping and demand is dead is would make zero business sense to sink/lose more money on it.