Memory too high or is yours low?

August 2005 I run over to Gamestop after birthing classes with my wife. The mission: Retrieve a PSP memory card for a decent price.

I wish I could say that story was a happy one. My pregnant wife with swollen feet was wanting to make it fast. It was the first time I opted to buying something online. The prices of memory cards were outragous. You could find a 2 Gig stick online for $80.00 + shipping from newegg.com.

The disdain was overwhelming but the prices quickly dropped as third party cards, and larger sizes were released. Then we had to worry about buying a Pro Duo and it not being the size advertised or they wouldnt work properly or slower due to being knock offs of knock offs i.e. "Fake memory cards".

We ball those factors together and then throw in a little piracy. Now you suddenly have issues you (as a hardware developer) need to address next time around. Money lost is money lost. I been around enough repairing consoles and being ask about modding to tell you there are so many more people out there downloading pirated games than we like to admit. There are sites dedicated to that exact thing.

Now we are upon that next round that Sony had to prepare for. How does one make sure this system wasn't hacked as easily as the last? One would suggest using a hard drive. But that would lead to later revisions with larger sizes at the same cost and alienate our base again. Using the existing formats aside from MS Pro Duo would result in Sony shelling out more money to use the format.

Many people are upset over the choice Sony has made in regards to the Vita. I can somewhat understand the frustrations with the master of BetaMax. You would think a company would learn. It took a missing piece of ear to make Holyfield learn his lesson. I guess it takes more than financial raping to learn for some.

Instead I find people upset over the pricing range. I look at it all together and think "Did these guys forget the PSP? or did that happen to only me?"

I dont know if it's just me, but my irritation was the proprietary format. Not the price. All things considered I dont think there is anything wrong with any of the moves made. I look at it as a company trying to keep the unit secure. Given that Vita memory is a new format I thought the prices would have been higher.

[dedicatedtogamers]

Yep, I remember the stupid-high prices for the Pro Duo sticks, and it was annoying that you couldn't use a standard SD card. What's even more annoying is that Sony has dropped their own proprietary Pro Duo stick in favor of a NEW proprietary stick. Any word on what the advantages are? Does it make your Vita piss liquid gold? No? So then why do we need a new format?

The complaints about the price...I can sympathize, not just because the prices are high but because it's a NEW FREAKIN' FORMAT. Why, Sony? Looking at Amazon, I can get a Pro Duo 4, 8, and 16 Gig for <$10, $15, and $30 respectively. Care to explain why a 4 Gig Vita stick costs more than three times as much as a 4 Gig PSP stick?

[LightofDarkness]

Why? Because they can charge exorbitant fees for each one, knowing that every customer will eventually have to buy one, and recoup some of the money they lose on each Vita. All so they can say that the Vita is "Only 249.99!" when the real cost is much higher.

[HakatoX]

I can somewhat understand... but in the same hand I think people are bitching to bitch... I didnt hear this much crying when the 360 drives were so high (and still are) in cost.. I dont think the whole "New format" is a bad thing... did you even read the article? especially since the PSP was raped over and over until Sony was forced to go to drastic measures... we all know that with a card we can load code onto... we can eventually make Sony hemorage more money...

I am absolutely surprised Sony didn't rape us over the price of a Vita for wiping our asses with their last console...

Proprietary format with no ability to load onto except the Vita = less of a chance for them to lose to piracy

[LightofDarkness]

"I am absolutely surprised Sony didn't rape us over the price of a Vita for wiping our asses with their last console..."

I would be surprised if they were stupid enough to even try that. No one would buy it if it were priced any higher than it is currently valued. Remember, a 3DS is only 159.99, and over 300.00 people are expecting to be able to make phone calls with it and get directions to their distant relative's house in another country. Sony have no choice but to price it as it is, assuming they're just doing us a favour after the PSP is a laughable prospect.

[ZombieNinjaPanda]

@HakatoX

No. Microsoft was given hell for having such expensive harddrives. Sony is not excused.

[HakatoX]

how much is a 4 gig for the PSP? upwards to 40.00 if you dont buy online.....

[ZombieAssassin]

Maybe for a Sony one but you can get them for much cheaper than $40 at Walmart, at least I did I think I only paid about $20 for mine.

[HakatoX]

okay... 20.00 for a 4 gig on the PSP...that's pretty good... gamestop buys 2gigs for 10-12 a piece. I see the Vita ones online for about 10.00 more. I am just trying to point out that we should count ourselves lucky that they aren't charging us more.

[Bull5hifT]

I Paid somewhere between $110- $130 at a sony store for a 1 gig, now im paying $130 for a 32 GB for my vita, weird thing is i ordered it at play asia for $130 but it says shipping 5-15 days , and now they rose the price to $155. I wonder if im les. Of a priority to them

[ZombieAssassin]

Hell I remember Ps2 memory cards were insanely priced when they first came out and they were only 8mb but people forget. For my psp when I had one I just bought a 3rd party 4gb for fairly cheap (admittedly years after launch) after that I just bought an adapter to use micro-sd cards which were pretty cheap and I already had a few micro-sd cards so it was all good.

I don't like how they're using a proprietary memory format though, I just hope they allow 3rd party companies to make cheaper ones in time.

[gamingdroid]

Yeah, even today the 8MB memory cards for PS2 is still expensive.

That's why I was so pleasantly surprised with the openness of PS3. Unfortunately that was NOT a trend, instead it was a fluke that Sony's been busy correcting with firmware updates.

[smashcrashbash]

We still haven't gotten any official word from Sony about the NA price for the cards. So writing about how expensive it is,is pointless. B***h about it when we actually know the right price.

[SeraphimBlade]

I'm kind of wondering if the reason the Vita itself is only $250 is because the damn cards are so expensive.
I consider myself very anti-piracy, and this... this I am going to have to stop and think about when I get a Vita.

[bunfighterii]

I'm miffed about the price of memory sure. 32gb adds another 100 bucks. But I'm sure after 2 weeks with the thing I'll forget about it, and when good games keep rolling in like I hope they do, it'll seem worth it.

My only question now is to 3G or not 3G?

[cloud495]

You should get the 3g version. It comes with a built in GPS that is required for some games.

[Darkfocus]

that's suicide for the dev. the 3G version isn't even available in most country's(and probably won't be the dominant model in those that have it), doubt they'd make any games that only work on it.

[TheGameFoxJTV]

Exactly, I doubt I know any gamers on my whole network who even PLAN to get or look at the 3G version. 3G is shit, do you really wanna play or game on one of those? And isn't it AT&T? XD

[DA_SHREDDER]

They should at least 100 gb on them,cmon.

[TopDudeMan]

But now save files and games are bigger and paying that amount for so little memory (you're gonna run out and need to buy another one) is a big expense.

I think people have the right to complain. It is the people who buy the system at launch who make a bet with their money and whenever you buy something at launch, it is possible there will be very few benefits.

Sure, things are priced that way because they are expensive. That's the truth. It is as expensive as it needs to be, but the price of memory is likely to stop people from purchasing straight away, which is gonna be a real problem for Sony. It's not necessarily their fault, but they're gonna pay the price for it when the sales figures come in. That's just the way it is.

[Krew_92]

I agree I can buy a 16gb memory card for my phone, for a measly $20. But a Vita 16gb memory card is the same price as a full game? ($59.99)

[rezzah]

Thats because they are memory cards made for only vita and nothing else, from what I have heard.

Besides if you're that stuck up about prices, then buy a 4 gig or a starter pack that includes the 4 gig.