PS Vita price drop

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It's something that works, and it won't be going away. Sony's Vita memory cards will slowly go down in price, but they will never match the ultra low prices of the likes of SD cards and MicroSD cards. I'd imagine that without the proprietary memory, the Vita would have been closer to $400 or $450 right out of the gate. Even if you ultimately spend the same amount, it's comforting knowing that you didn't spend it all on the system. People will always see the system price first. Anything to slash that is for the better.

I'm not sure I'd 100% agree with that. Mostly, yes, your average consumer would be more put off by a high console price, but you'd be surprised by the number of people asking "OK, what else do I need with it". When I worked as a sales assistant, easily the majority of consumers would ask how much ink cartridges cost when buying a printer, and many of them would go for a more expensive printer if the price of the cartridges were significantly lower.

With the Vita's power, the target consumer is clearly the hardcore gaming audience, the kind that know what they're going to need and the kind that are smart enough to know that 32GB of flash memory shouldn't cost $79.99. As appealing as the new price point is, the high memory price still puts me off buying the Vita, and proprietary accessories are one of the main reasons I steer clear of Apple products. Even Apple were smart enough to license their proprietary connectors to other manufacturers, though, and using your GameCube memory card analogy, third-party options were always present to remain fair to consumers. Sony maintain a monopoly on the Vita memory cards, and monopolies are bad for consumers. Sony's previously proprietary technology, the memory stick, was eventually licensed out to other manufacturers, though those were pretty much ubiquitous across all consumer electronics products.

Also, remember that the console is a one-off purchase, whereas memory is considered a consumable. Most consumers won't buy a 32GB outright, they'd start with a smaller card and then upgrade as they run out of space. This method of profiteering always seemed a little bit underhanded to me, and other consumers pick up on it too. Word of mouth only make matters worse; I've known people thinking of buying a Vita for their kids and I've told them they'd be better off with the 3DS.

tl;dr yes, I would much prefer to spend an extra £40 on the console and spend £40 less on a memory card. I got two genuine San Disk 32GB SD cards for my 3DS and my Galaxy S3 for less than half the price of a 32GB Vita memory card.
 
not being a Sony defender(that's foxi4sony work) but they implemented a proprietary memory card to protect the system from hackers. one of the main issues of the PSP was that you can copy anything anywhere thus giving full access to what the PSP can read, while with the Vita content manager and proprietary memories you are limited to only copy signed files aside from inoffensive music, photos and videos.
now talking about the price drop, I think that should have happened before I bought mine :tpi:
good thing is that now my friends don't have the excuse of being too expensive to avoid buy one.
 
I'm not sure I'd 100% agree with that. Mostly, yes, your average consumer would be more put off by a high console price, but you'd be surprised by the number of people asking "OK, what else do I need with it". When I worked as a sales assistant, easily the majority of consumers would ask how much ink cartridges cost when buying a printer, and many of them would go for a more expensive printer if the price of the cartridges were significantly lower.

With the Vita's power, the target consumer is clearly the hardcore gaming audience, the kind that know what they're going to need and the kind that are smart enough to know that 32GB of flash memory shouldn't cost $79.99. As appealing as the new price point is, the high memory price still puts me off buying the Vita, and proprietary accessories are one of the main reasons I steer clear of Apple products. Even Apple were smart enough to license their proprietary connectors to other manufacturers, though, and using your GameCube memory card analogy, third-party options were always present to remain fair to consumers. Sony maintain a monopoly on the Vita memory cards, and monopolies are bad for consumers. Sony's previously proprietary technology, the memory stick, was eventually licensed out to other manufacturers, though those were pretty much ubiquitous across all consumer electronics products.

Also, remember that the console is a one-off purchase, whereas memory is considered a consumable. Most consumers won't buy a 32GB outright, they'd start with a smaller card and then upgrade as they run out of space. This method of profiteering always seemed a little bit underhanded to me, and other consumers pick up on it too. Word of mouth only make matters worse; I've known people thinking of buying a Vita for their kids and I've told them they'd be better off with the 3DS.

tl;dr yes, I would much prefer to spend an extra £40 on the console and spend £40 less on a memory card. I got two genuine San Disk 32GB SD cards for my 3DS and my Galaxy S3 for less than half the price of a 32GB Vita memory card.


To add a little something to this is that, when you buy a Vita memory card you get a Vita memory card and well nothing else. You buy a MicoSD card and hey if your 3DS or Phone or what ever blows up you can use the MicroSD to another device, or if you run out of space buy a larger one and use the smaller one in something else.

Vita cards are too expensive 80 for 32GB is way more than I can get MicroSD for... (and the speeds on the Sony cards are pretty slow from what I have heard less than class 10.)

32GB MicroSD card for $26 shipped from G.Skill (they make desktop memory chips so they have a decent reputation.)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231577

So I can get 3X 32GB cards for the price of one of Sony's slower cards.... :( That makes my wallet sad lol
 
Still needs gaems


Gravity Rush
Metal Gear Solid HD
New Little King's Story
Assassins Creed 3
Shinobido 2
Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy X-2
Dead or Alive 5 Plus
Dragon's Crown
Batman Arkham Origins
Rayman Legends
Little Big Planet
Tearway
Persona 4 Golden
Project Diva f
Atelier Meruru Plus: The Apprentice of Arland
Borderlands 2
Minecraft
Disgaea 3
Disgaea 4
Malicious Rebirth
Muramasa Rebirth
Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee HD
Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath
Ragnarok Odyssey
Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed
Soul Sacrifice
Street Fighter X Tekken
Touch My Katamari
Uncharted: Golden Abyss
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3
Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward

.... and again Vita has no gaems right ;O; ?
 
Well I'll be damned :blink:

Meh, I still won't buy one if it doesn't get Emulators + Homebrew. Just imagine the stuff you could emulate with such a powerhouse inside :wub:

Once that happens (if people are ever motivated to hack it) then I might consider getting one. The potential for emulators is insane, especially if you could utilize all the CPU cores B-)
 
not being a Sony defender(that's foxi4sony work) but they implemented a proprietary memory card to protect the system from hackers. one of the main issues of the PSP was that you can copy anything anywhere thus giving full access to what the PSP can read, while with the Vita content manager and proprietary memories you are limited to only copy signed files aside from inoffensive music, photos and videos.

That's not anywhere near a reason or an excuse, really. They could have had signed files on an SD card, it would make absolutely no difference whatsoever. The 3DS uses an SD card and security is still tight in that department.

snip.... and again Vita has no gaems right ;O; ?
You know that a console technically doesn't have a gaem until that gaem is released, right?</troll>
 
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I think Valwin is needed here, and the PS Vita needs more gaems which will cause Sony lovers to buy the PS vita, and get the gaems. I can see why it's value dropped low, breda.
 
Gravity Rush
Metal Gear Solid HD
New Little King's Story
Assassins Creed 3
Shinobido 2
Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy X-2
Dead or Alive 5 Plus
Dragon's Crown
Batman Arkham Origins
Rayman Legends
Little Big Planet
Tearway
Persona 4 Golden
Project Diva f
Atelier Meruru Plus: The Apprentice of Arland
Borderlands 2
Minecraft
Disgaea 3
Disgaea 4
Malicious Rebirth
Muramasa Rebirth
Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee HD
Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath
Ragnarok Odyssey
Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed
Soul Sacrifice
Street Fighter X Tekken
Touch My Katamari
Uncharted: Golden Abyss
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3
Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward

.... and again Vita has no gaems right ;O; ?

He meant it's own games as in EXCLUSIVES, not ports from other systems and games made for every damn console.
 
ps-vita-price-drop.jpg

Starting tomorrow, the price of the PS Vita will be dropped to $199. The memory cards are also cut down significantly.

Cool if only for the UK :cry:
 
Interesting price point for the vita. The 3DS and Vita, are both for $200. But one is dominating the other. I love the Vita but it doesn't have that many games to make me pick the Vita over the 3DS. Even considering that GW 3DS was just released.
 
Still needs gaemz though.

I'm sure Sony is very aware that they could conform to a memory standard and save their consumers some money. People such as yourself don't seem to understand that the purpose of proprietary memory cards is to turn the system that, on its own, sells at a loss, into something that generates profit. Software helps with this, but if you require the memory card, it's guaranteed money, whereas software is hit or miss depending on the consumer. It isn't as if proprietary memory is new, especially where Sony is concerned. Of course, other companies are guilty of replicating this in different ways. The Gamecube memory cards, the older 360 models with their special HDD enclosure and the hoops you have to jump through to make your own drive work right, etc.

It's something that works, and it won't be going away. Sony's Vita memory cards will slowly go down in price, but they will never match the ultra low prices of the likes of SD cards and MicroSD cards. I'd imagine that without the proprietary memory, the Vita would have been closer to $400 or $450 right out of the gate. Even if you ultimately spend the same amount, it's comforting knowing that you didn't spend it all on the system. People will always see the system price first. Anything to slash that is for the better.


Or they could stop breaking competition laws and allow other OEM manufacturers to make the cards and create a price competition. Its horse shit that Sony is allowed to get away with being so anti-competition when it comes to flash memory.
 
Or they could stop breaking competition laws and allow other OEM manufacturers to make the cards and create a price competition. Its horse shit that Sony is allowed to get away with being so anti-competition when it comes to flash memory.

Bull. That's not anti competitive. Otherwise everyone would be making iOS devices or the likes. Anti competitive =/= propriety hardware. All major console makers use propriety hardware. WiiU discs, DS game carts, PSVita memory, 360 HDD, etc.

I don't personally like it, but it's not the devil..
 

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