PixlBit

I've owned my Vita for almost a year now. I love the system and I've gotten a lot out of it. But one thing that's always gotten on my nerves has been the overpriced Memory Cards.

From the beginning, Sony has positioned the Vita as a digital-friendly device. Retail games have a small discount on PSN, PS+ has been a prominent feature from day one, and there have been lots of great Steam-like sales for digital copy. I got MK9 for $5, and will be able to get Dynasty Warriors, GGXXAC+R, Ultimate MVC3 and Dead or Alive 5 for around $30 over the next 2 weeks. Plus it's being held up as an indie-friendly device in the wake of third party support drying up.

Yet the system doesn't come with ANY built in memory, unlike every other mobile device on the market, and only bundles measly 4GB or 8GB cards into more expensive bundles. And the card prices! I spent something like $40 for my 16GB card; 32GB cards run for twice that. That's a 300-400% markup compared to SD cards, with no third-party alternatives. Nor is the performance of the Vita cards themselves any better than your typical microSD card.

Those exorbitant prices, alongside Sony's refusal to cut the price on the hardware itself, has contributed mightily to the system's problems. After an decent start, sales quickly dropped off around the world, only rising again in Japan after a steep price cut coupled with several game releases. Nothing like that is in the cards for the West as of yet; hopefully we'll hear about a similar push at Gamescom in two weeks.

But not every Vita owner is bothered by the prices. Over the past couple of weeks, I've encountered several fellow Vita owners who scoff at the notion that the memory prices are even an issue. Here are a few arguments I've heard--and why they're stupid.

"You see even worse price gouging with Apple!"

Seriously? So seeing bad practices elsewhere suddenly puts Sony in the clear? For one thing, it's clearly not working for Sony, as the Vita's miserable sales can attest. But even if they were selling above their initial lofty projections it would still be stupid, just like it is with Apple or any other company. Nintendo offers SD card support and is whipping Sony's ass by something like 5:1, relegating the Vita to niche status in a handheld market being shrunk by tablets and smartphones. What's Sony's excuse?

"You can just delete stuff and redownload it, or use backups!"

If Sony is pushing it's digital content so much, and bragging about how the majority of the Vita's game sales are from PSN, why the fuck would they want their customers to do such a thing? These games can run over 3GB in size, and like most storage solutions you don't get every last byte of space on Vita cards. Considering how they're giving out games for free on PS+, the last thing they should be doing is making it needlessly complicated or time consuming to take advantage of PSN's offerings.

"They can't step on the toes of retailers by making it easier to buy digital!"

Ah yes, the hypocrisy of the industry's love/hate relationship with retail strikes again.

The Vita is clearly being positioned as a digital-friendly device. So why is it that Sony is bending over backwards to appease their retail partners and dumping the burden on customers? Perhaps because they love having the free advertising everytime someone walks into a Gamestop? Because they don't mind charging through the nose and pocketing the difference? The Vita isn't doing well enough to warrant such nonsense. 

"Sony has to make money!"

I am getting SO fucking sick of seeing this argument used as a counterpoint like it's bulletproof.

Again, plenty of other companies are able to make money with devices that offer cheaper, saner solutions to data storage. And the Vita cards offer no material advantage in performance or features that justify these higher prices. More broadly, that's no excuse for companies to just do whatever they feel like, or a valid response when people question whether or not they can try anything different. Especially in Sony's case, because they're not making anywhere near the amount of money off the Vita they expected to.

Sony's approach--touting the Vita's digital line-up while making it ridiculously expensive to take advantage of it--is a load of horseshit. If they really want to get people on board with the Vita and PSN, they should be making it as cheap and painless for the customer as possible. That we still haven't seen a big pricecut on the Vita's memory this late is absurd, and no amount of blind fanboy excuses will change that.