Okay Geek Farm
PS Vita memory cards get priced for North America, will make your wallets cry
Ricardo Trejo
For what the PS Vita does compared to any other handheld before it there’s absolutely no comparison. Its ability to play games almost on the same level as its console counterpart but on a smaller, mobile screen is bar none. And that’s just the beginning, not counting online-connectivty, its new touch pads, and library of upcoming 1st and 3rd party titles to keep the device fresh. So what could possibly threaten the life of this upcoming gaming beast? Well, how about a hugely exaggerated price tag on Sony proprietary memory cards?
Gamestop has officially posted the price listings for the line of Sony memory cards compatible with the PS Vita, and well… it’s not a pretty picture. How’s $30 bucks sound for a teeny 4GB card sound?
$30 — 4GB
$44.99 — 8GB
$69.99 — 16GB
$119.99 — 32GB
Just to put this in perspective, 4GB SD cards retail for as low as $5 on places like Amazon and Best Buy. When deciding on which route to take for external memory for the 3DS, Nintendo went the SD route since it’s naturally become the industry standard for all types of media.
Well, just to put a kink in what would’ve been a pretty decent, albeit expensive piece of handheld hardware, Sony’s went ahead and went proprietary — knowing full well how much this would tick off would be customers. I mean, you can just hear the thousands of parents screaming to retail employee’s, “you mean I have to buy a specially branded memory card for this thing?”
But then again that sweet OLED screen makes gaming look sooooo sex, doesn’t it? Sony loses money on pretty much everything they do in their Playstation division so they gotta find a way to make the frogskins flow in their direction somehow, right? Think of it as the sacrifice it takes to play games this visually stunning on the go.
