With memory cards having dropped in price drastically since the launch of the PSP, I figured the little storage miracles weren’t something my wallet would have to worry about too much for the launch of the PlayStation Vita. With every game for the new system available as a downloadable purchase, I was fully prepared to stock up on huge memory cards to hold every little bit of entertainment I could get my hands on. At these prices, maybe not.
GameStop is currently listing four models of the proprietary card for preorder, starting with the $US29.99 4GB flavour and scaling on up to the massive $US119.99 32GB model. That’s $US3.75 per gigabyte, for those of you playing along with your operating system’s calculator.
That’s a rather hefty price tag for premium storage, but then I remember spending $US125 on a 100MB IDE hard drive so I could give the users of my BBS the slow-downloading pornography they so rightly deserved.
Besides, I’ve already put my money down on a Vita first edition bundle with a 4GB memory card included, so I’m set. How about you?
GameStop Vita Memory Cards [GameStop]
Glenn
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 9:36 AMIt’ll only take the chinese a few days to come up with cheap knock-offs.
If Sony continue to lock down aspects of the PS Vita though, I suspect it will be a commercial failure… the device isn’t region locked is it?
Ynefel
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 10:18 AMIt’s been confirmed the devide is region-free, to my knowledge. I’m still not sure where they’re ‘continuing to lock down’ aspects of the Vita. It’s Sony – they use their own proprietary memory for their own products and have done for a long time.
Thom
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 10:22 AMI would assume he’s talking the new installation restrictions for DLC introduced for the PSP, PS3 and presumably the Vita. I’m not really dirty on it though, it was going to have to happen eventually.
They really shouldn’t have encouraged people to share content though and then use that as the basis for the clamp down.
James
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 12:01 PMI guess people had hoped that Sony had learned its lesson. It had switched to standard microSD cards for its phones and standard SATA hard drives for the PS3, after all.
Martin
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 9:39 AMI just got a 2nd hand psp – imagine my horror when I realised the price of pro duo memory. I have a Sony camera – uses SD cards. The only item other than that I have ever seen that actually takes these sticks are the Sony vision switching desks we use in TV broadcast. Do the new cards offer any advantages to the consumer over a stock card?
Effluvium Boy
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 10:50 AMMy Sony camera takes the Pro Duo, which was handy.
shodannet
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 9:40 AMWell, MS have their over-priced Xbox 360 HDDs, why can’t Sony do something similar?
ben
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 9:49 AMWatches this comment be ignored because people enjoy complaining about Sony. Complaining about MS is so nineties.
Thom
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 10:24 AMThey can, but everyone complains about that too, so why shouldn’t we complain about this?
Its a race to the bottom in my opinion. A hard to justify money grab.
Steve
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 8:35 PMPeople complain about both. But it’s also fairly easy to jerry-rig a standard HDD into the 360 or PS3 case. The fact is, Sony’s completely locked this down and has a history of it (UMD, Memory Stick, Minidisc, Betamax).
BC
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 9:41 AMIn my opinion, this alone is why it will be a failure.
Majority of people already have SD and Mini SD cards laying around.. Effectively the unit is going to cost up to $100 more than it’s advertised for, because of the memory cards.
Ynefel
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 9:42 AMDoes anyone remember when the Sony 8MB PS2 memory card? Sucker cost like $80 – which was absurd at the time. [shrug] It’s a proprietary design/format, so I guess they can charge what they want until Sandisk, etc come up with an alternative.
Considering a 32GB MicroSD card these days is ~AU$80, it’s not shocking, really.
Thom
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 10:25 AMI bought a high-quality one from the US four months ago for $63 including postage. Its almost double.
Ynefel
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 10:34 AMMy example of MicroSD was using standard over the counter retail pricing, which is what the Vita memory pricing listed in the article would be for. Not to mention it’s likely RRP, which is rarely what price it ends up being – usually it’s cheaper.
Going by your example, if the Vita 32GB is $120 over the counter, you’ll probably be able to score one online for less than $100. Again, likely not as bad as it’s being made out to be.
Ynefel
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 10:39 AMThe other thing I’ve noticed that’s being left out is the speed of Vita memory. As we know, there can be a substantial price difference between say, two SD cards of the same capacity because of the different transfer rates.
Disputing the price might be irrelevant until we know how fast they are.
Thom
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 11:00 AMYou haven’t considered the fact this is the US pricing. Over the counter in the US is closer to $45. Those cards are only $80ish at retail here.
As for the speed – true, but I doubt it. Talking to people in the television industry about their proprietry cards, I don’t hold out for much.
moloko
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 9:57 AM32GB MicroSD are about $45 which you can use in the Nintendo 3DS, so good luck Sony with your overpriced memory cards.
lichbane
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 10:22 AMSony!? Propriety format!? Well color me surprised!
You’d think they would realised after their memory stick and UMD formats. And need we mention …… betamax?
El Phantasmogoro
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 5:15 PMBetamax is a much better product than VHS and is used in the film and television industries as the standard to this very day.
Steve
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 8:37 PM“Betamax is a much better product than VHS and is used in the film and television industries as the standard to this very day”
AhahahAHhahah. Please. Back this up with fact or stop talking out your asshole. Motion pictures have been a 35mm stock film standard until fairly recently when digital is beginning to take over. WHY would anyone use a VHS-compatible format until 20111? Are you an idiot?
Betamax was superior to VHS sure, but Sony’s attempt to lock it down and maximise printing profits was their downfall.
Lasher
Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 1:00 AMWhy would you call him an asshole? Is this IGN? I went to channel 7 for school about 5 years ago and they were using betamax. It might be diffrernt in some studios, but basically the guys right. Why be a prick about it. And yeh sony sucks how they tried to kill VHS with a superior product but lost out in retail – the shame is the loss of HDDVD to BluRay now though.
Mr Waffle
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 10:27 AMAnd remember kids, saying “STOP COMPLAINING YOU’RE NOT FORCED TO BUY ONE” isn’t really valid anymore, since they’ve said some games DO require a memory card to save…
Stevorooni
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 10:56 AMDoes the standard pack even come with a memory card, or does it have built in memory?
Because it’s really going to suck if you buy the console and a game and you find out you can’t even save your progress without spending another $50
Martin
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 11:15 AMAccording to the oz gamepro ultimate psp buyers guide – the original AUS RRP for Sony sticks when the original launched – 256mb $99 – 1gb – $279 2gb -$429 4GB high speed -$1999 WOW
Martin
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 11:21 AMAnd – according to RRP – sandisk more expensive to begin with
Daniel
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 11:29 AMIt is rather annoying…but it ain’t going to stop me from buying a Vita
I don’t know why they couldn’t just use their Micro Memory Stick (like the PSP Go uses) or even just the normal Pro Duo…I suppose this is their way of compensating for the hit their taking on the console itself
We’ll charge you a decent price for the console and take a hit on it, but we’ll make our money on the back end in the memory card department…
Shifty, but doesn’t change me stance…I’m interested and have decided I want a Vita (mainly for Uncharted Golden Abyss) and I shall be buying one on launch day. Doesn’t change my stance at all.
MrBS
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 12:43 PMI remember paying $130 for a 1GB sandisk pro duo for my PSP back in the day. Outrageous! Was a good deal cheaper than the Sony sticks. Better read/write speeds too.
blaja
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 12:53 PMPSN got hacked..and now the public going to pay bwwwwhahahahaaaaaa
Thooperman
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 1:32 PMHow much space are the games going to require if you download them? I’m curious to know how big of a card I will need if I decide to go that route.
Supreme
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 2:00 PMSmell that son…
Thats the smell of failure.
Dr Doom
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 5:35 PMThis is what will make the Vita a failure. if they let you use standard SD cards it could of been a multimedia power house rivaling smart phones. no one will fork out hundreds of dollars for multiple cards to carry heaps of media.
Kah
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 11:37 PMAges ago I already accounted for paying ~$100 for a memory card when I go get my Vita. $120 isn’t far off that.
Shinkada
Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 8:58 PMNew proprietary memory cards, as if the duo cards weren’t bad enough. Less battery life than the already only-barely-okay PSP. Stupid gimmicks you can’t turn off like Wipeout taking a photo at the end of every race. And no MH:Unite to make it all worth it. I loved my PSP. Vita? Nope. Not happenin’.