Tendo City

Gamestop has revealed prices on their website.

Quote:4GB PlayStation Vita Memory Card - $29.99
8GB PlayStation Vita Memory Card - $44.99
16GB PlayStation Vita Memory Card - $69.99
32GB PlayStation Vita Memory Card - $119.99

... Yeah. And remember that there's no internal save memory at all, unlike the 3DS, and a card does NOT come with that $250 or $300 system, also unlike the 3DS (ie, the 3DS has internal save and comes with a 2GB SD card, if I remember right.). And of course Nintendo uses a normal format, not a custom one like the Vita, so there won't be cheaper options out there. Also some games require one to save, so it's not just for downloads; apparently Sony did not follow Nintendo's DS model in requiring all games to save to the game card itself, but are allowing companies to either save to the card, or use a memory card. The games that need a card won't even start without one apparently. But yeah, the prices is the new news here, and they're crazy as expected.

Oh, and given that single retail games can be 4GB... yeah, you'll need big memory cards if you want to download much!

What is Sony's problem with using established memory card formats?

For fuck's sake, they already have a proprietary memory card format that doesn't work in anything but Sony devices. One was unnecessary and now we have a second one.

Seriously, Sony can go fuck themselves. The only thing I'd ever want to do with the Vita is hack it and fill it with [completely legal and legitimate software of unlicensed origin] the way I did with my PSP anyway.

A 32 GB SD card costs about $50.

Sony's refusal to use their memory stick format is annoying. The only reason for this I can fathom is they want to put some really tight security on this new format to prevent ANY data they don't approve from being put on it.

Yeah, it'll be hacked on day 1.

Yeah, Sony seems to think that locking down the system -- no normal memory card format, no user-switchable battery (Apple-style, you can't take it out), etc -- but... um, Nintendo has both a user-switchable battery and normal memory cards on the 3DS, and they seem to be doing okay piracy-wise so far... Sony is learning the wrong lessons from the PSP, that's for sure. No, the solution is NOT to make the system even more inaccessible and user-unfriendly. Not to mention expensive.

But yeah, those memory card prices are just completely absurd, there's no possible justification for that besides pure profit-mongering, and I hope it backfires on them.

The justification is that it costs a lot of money to develop a proprietary format and set up factory lines specially for this thing. It's an extravagant waste of money just to kill piracy, much like killing a fly with a shotgun. Sure you may have stopped the fly stealing a small amount of food, but you just blew apart the fridge. Except in this case, it won't work anyway. This is what happens when a company considers stock holder "concerns" to be more important than the needs of their customers.

That's not a justification, given that they never should have been using a proprietary format in the first place!