PS Vita Games May Be 40% off retail if purchased on PSN

[prowler]

Sony has hinted in the past that downloading games on the Vita will be a cheaper option than buying them off the shelves. The scuttlebutt from a recent Sony event is that the savings could be a dramatic 40 percent for ditching the box.

According to Thrifty Nerd, Vita games will be capped off at $39.99 at retail. Downloading a game at the same price would only cost around $23, however, saving you a pretty penny by going digital. Many gamers gasped at the Vita's spendy memory cards (4GB: $30, 8GB: $45, 16GB: $70, 32GB: $120), but these savings, if true, could soften that blow.

While this prospect is exciting for prospective Vita owners, keep your expectations low until we have official confirmation from Sony.

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/12/04/rumor-downloading-psn-games-on-vita-40-cheaper-than-retail.aspx

 

[s4mid4re]

Wow, 40%? I guess I have to reconsider buying hard copies now. ._.

 

[smile72]

Ah that would be so super awesome!!!!!!!!

Edit:750 Posts!!!!!!!!! Hurray!!!!!

 

[Deleted_171835]

Too bad the memory cards are ridiculously expensive.

 

[heartgold]

I doubt that's true, 40% is too good to be true. Maybe something like 10/15% is believable.

 

[Valwin]

Sony has hinted in the past that downloading games on the Vita will be a cheaper option than buying them off the shelves. The scuttlebutt from a recent Sony event is that the savings could be a dramatic 40 percent for ditching the box.

According to Thrifty Nerd, Vita games will be capped off at $39.99 at retail. Downloading a game at the same price would only cost around $23, however, saving you a pretty penny by going digital. Many gamers gasped at the Vita's spendy memory cards (4GB: $30, 8GB: $45, 16GB: $70, 32GB: $120), but these savings, if true, could soften that blow.

While this prospect is exciting for prospective Vita owners, keep your expectations low until we have official confirmation from Sony.

http://www.gameinfor...han-retail.aspx

if true it could be good but you will need one hell of a huge MEMORYstick for it

 

[GameWinner]

Maybe I'll consider getting a memory card at launch.
Maybe.

 

[FrankensteinTank]

I doubt that's true, 40% is too good to be true. Maybe something like 10/15% is believable.

I agree, 40% sounds like way too much. I would guess it would be 25% at most.

 

[431unknown]

I'll believe it when I see it!
Sounds too good to be true, but they should offer some kind of incentive to buy it online seeing as it helps the companies save money and earn more profit by not having to manufacture the game cards, less spent on packaging and less spent on the shipping of games to stores.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

If they are significantly cheaper then the price of a memory card right there is practically justified.

Getting upwards of roughly $15 off each purchase adds up over time. You could put the same justification towards buying an expensive gaming PC over a much cheaper console. Digitally distributed games for the PC are usually $10 cheaper than their physical, console copies, not to mention frequent game sales.

 

[awssk8er]

PS Vita Games Will be 100% off retain if obtained through the internet.

 

[431unknown]

@ awssk8er Yes, but how long is it going to take before they become playable.

If PSV games are even a little bit cheaper I'd probably buy more of them online, but there will always be titles that I'd like to have the actual physical game card of.

 

[Deleted_171835]

If they are significantly cheaper then the price of a memory card right there is practically justified.

Getting upwards of roughly $15 off each purchase adds up over time. You could put the same justification towards buying an expensive gaming PC over a much cheaper console. Digitally distributed games for the PC are usually $10 cheaper than their physical, console copies, not to mention frequent game sales.

But Vita games are quite large (~4GB) so you won't be able to store a lot of games. The most expensive memory card (32GB) would only be able to store about 8 games (give or take). It would be fine for purchasing one or two games but it certainly wouldn't justify the purchase of the expensive memory card.

 

[Rydian]

Heehee, scuttlebutt.

Anyways I'm doubting this for now, it's likely only a few titles will be 40%, most will be about 15% or something.

 

[qlum]

40% wouldnt be that absurd as the process of selling a game especially a cartrage based game retail takes up quite a bit more than 40% of the usual selling price. they would still make the same or maybe more profit on the games.
Selling games retail is expensive a lot more expensive than digital distribution.
to give you a not so complete example a normal pc game int the netherlands and on steam costs 50€ I can get it online for 35€ including shipping this is already 30% of the price this is including 19% vat though this also applies to games sold on steam and at regular retail price but the 30% off is not even taking the webshop's profit, the distribution costs, and the manufacturing costs which are in case of a psvita game quite a bit. The only costs in for digital distribution are the costs for paypal payments and the costs for server maintenance which are not that big.

 

[DiscostewSM]

While game card sizes start at 4GB and go up by powers of 2, it does not mean the minimum size of the games is 4GB. They could be 2GB, or even 700MB, which I will use in this post about which type of game to buy, either physical or digital. Remember NSMBWii? The game itself is only ~300MB, and while they could have used a CD instead, the Wii did not have CD playback because it lacked that hardware, so they had to use the media the Wii was designed for. DVDs at a minimum of 4.7GB each.

Even assuming digital copies are 40% off the cost of physical copies, the main problem lies in the size of the games themselves. Having done some math, if a number of games sizing at 700MB were $40 each physically (assume the game was worth the price based on quality, not quantity), buying a 4GB memory card and buying 5 digital games at 700MB each costs $50 less than buying those same games physically at $40 a pop, and the card would still have 500MB left over. If the games were 2GB each, it is still less to buy 2 digital copies + 1 4GB memory card than to buy 2 physical copies, but the difference is only $2, still favoring digital copies, but not space left over.

As the size of the game increases, the tides shift, making it cost more going digital. That can be offset a bit by buying a single, much larger memory card, but only by so much. So, I would recommend that everyone go check the size of the game online first before making a purchase. If the game is not massive in size, then it would be better to go digital. If it is massive, then physical is better. Take note about DLC and such in the equation.

 

[Rydian]

40% wouldnt be that absurd as the process of selling a game especially a cartrage based game retail takes up quite a bit more than 40% of the usual selling price. they would still make the same or maybe more profit on the games.
Selling games retail is expensive a lot more expensive than digital distribution.

Shhhh!

You don't want the customers to hear that!!!

 

[spotanjo3]

Nah, I dont want this portable. I will wait for better games before I judge to buy it or not. That's why I dont buy 3DS either. I am wise not to spend money for now.

 

[Issac]

This is a good thing! I mean, when they first put infamous on psn it was 599 SEK ( US $89 ). At the same time, I could buy the disc for ~199 SEK ( $ 30 )... That's absurd!

And I think it's the same with the AAA-titles on steam as well, € 50 for skyrim?? when I can buy it in a box with a manual, map and a nice box for the same price? no thank you.

So Sony! thumbs up for you if this is true!

 

[chris888222]

Sony has never been good in handling hard copies so I decided to already head digital.

But downloading games requires larger memory space.