The events leading up to the release of the PS Vita thus far has been filled with great anticipation alongside an equally matched hype. The System boasts a quad processor, front and back touch pads, Wi-Fi/3G (depending which model you get), front and back cameras, and that is just the tip of the iceberg. The question for me has always been, “How is it that this system can dump all these specs into one handheld system and only cost $249.99-$299.99? It must be too good to be true.” It seemed that way until just recently I came across a news article about the system.
How is it that PS Vita is able to have such a low price for a lot of bells and whistles? Well that’s because the means in which Sony is going to profit is proprietary memory cards. I thought in this day and age that no one would be so bold as to make something that couldn’t be universally used by standard forms of media. The system doesn’t have a single bit of on board memory, and should you own one will be forced to pay for overpriced memory cards that are only used by the PS Vita. The memory cards range in size from 4GB to 32GB and in price. The memory cards start at $29.99 to a whopping $119.99. That is absurd to charge that kind of money for a digital storage medium. Upon hearing this I was completely turned off from buying the system at launch. I understand that the system has high specs, a low price point and will likely see a next to nothing profit, but the solution is not to charge outrageous prices on a memory card that I can only use on my PS Vita. I would rather pay a higher system price to get a PS Vita with on board memory or a widely used form of memory storage then revert back to the old ways of technology.
I recently started reading articles that the memory card prices are not set in stone using Google. Even though the price points might not be the premium that I first read, the cards themselves are not going to be cheap. This seems to be the money maker for Sony on the PS Vita, but I feel that this decision could be the downfall of the system at launch. As it currently stands I will not be buying a PS Vita at launch and wait to see what happens before purchasing one down the road.
It will be a long time before I get to play Drake’s next adventure
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