10% only??

why not 20-30%???

if Uncharted Golden Abyss is 49.99$

the digital should be at least 39.99$

god damn it sony

This pleased me.

Until I realized I could only fit around 2-3 PSN Vita games on my 4GB memory card. That's not including the 10GB of digital PSP games, and 5GB of PSone classics I have ready to transfer. :-(

I hope Sony drops the 32GB price, or creates a 64GB option.

@PrinceHeir
I agree a savings of $5 is not worth it at all.

Now if only the memory was cheaper.

If I didn't have to buy THEIR memory cards, this would be welcomed news...

10% isn't enough, not given the loss of physical cart, case, artwork etc, and the cost of memory cards. 20% - 40% would get me onboard but at 10% I'm staying physical wherever I have the choice.

It's a start. I can only imagine the whining their corporate relations staff heard from their "retail partners" when they made they communicated that little tidbit.

After you buy a memory card to put your games on you'll have spent more then you would have just buying it new at retail. That doesn't factor in preorder bonuses and day one sales that happen at most retailers. For a new game release you can usually get some sort of deal (check Chepaassgamer.com) plus you know the game kart will always be there for you unlike the PSN as we found out last year.


That and I like having stuff.

I love Sony but lets not kid ourselves. How many are actually buying this release day? Between the unit some memory and a few games I'd be looking at 500$. Simply too much for portable gaming. Heck my phone has games, movies, music, streaming media and all that. games might not be as deep but seriously for the price I'll deal with 1$ for Angry birds....

Definitely a step in the right direction, but as others have said, it's still WAY cheaper to buy retail given the cost of the memory.

While 10% doesn't seem like a lot I'm glad that Sony is acknowledging that consumers feel the digital copy shouldn't be worth as much as the physical copy.

A good step in the right direction. Hopefully there will be good news regarding the digital policies of the other two (Microsoft and Nintendo) in reaction

glad to see escape plan is cheap, it should be less than £15 in the U.K if its $15 plus the £5 discount from the pre-order pack

Pretty much what Magnalon & DeadnBuried said. It's nice and all, but because of the expensive memory cards It's actually cheaper to buy the physical version. That and $44 for digital Uncharted isn't the best deal when a couple of places are selling the physical copy at $40.

Guess you have never seen s

Screw you phone. I was gonna say guess Sony has never seen steam.

I'm sure 5 dollars off will sate many tho. Just not me.

Don't forget that in Japan, you have to buy the online pass separately from the digital copy as far as I know.

$5 off the game, $40 spent getting a card big enough to store it.

Sony are evil geniuses if people buy into this crap.

This is partially just fanboy musing, but I'm thinking the 10% difference is permanent, with Steam-like sales of 30% (and 50% for PS+ members) being their intention. Of course, that's only based on their recent 12-of-'12 promotional sale, but they can't be ignoring the massive profitability of digital stores like Steam, GoG, and even Origin. Maybe deeper discounts won't elude us!

Also only for some games (you know, the ones with online)

ZzZzZzZzZzZzZzZzZz.....

@ prince
If the prices were to low, then it could hurt relations with retailers.
Of course, being to high makes consumers unhappy. It's a balancing act.
I don't know what the magic price zone is myself (and I feel no one does at this point, game makers included.), so wether this is the right range remains to be seen, I suppose.

Has anyone else tried the Vita Yet? If so how do you feel about the sticks? The screen looks beautiful, but I was a bit disappointed with the sticks. When I was playing Gravity Rush I was having a little trouble aiming. They felt a little to small, and they seem too loose.

Although I think they definitely felt better than the PSP nub, I find the 3DS circle pad and Dual Shock 3 analog stick to be much better. To be fair though the guy who tried the Vita after me said they felt great.

Thanks for still calling me Magnalon

<3

@Scissors Having beaten Uncharted Golden Abyss 3 times for platinum, I have to say the Vita sticks felt as solid as the Dual Shock 3. I spent some time getting used to the feel during the first 5 minutes or so, but that's it.

My only gripe so far is about the UI: the "OK" confirmation touch button usually sits at dead middle of the screen, which requires the hand to deviate from normal holding position to press. If the back touch panel is utilized as well then it would be perfect.

@scissors
I haven't, but I had been skeptical of the sticks for awhile. Manipulating controller style thumbsticks without a proper grip seem unwieldy an uncomfortable, and the back touch panel would appear to make such a feat even more dificult.
It also seems unsafe to have these things jutting out unprotected(along with the screen...).

But like I said, I haven't actually tried one myself. Where can I do so? (are the demo at Best Buy yet?)

I tried out the Vita for a short time.

Screen's pretty, but the dual analogs art tiny, feel cheap and are awkwardly placed. Ran around in Gravity Rush for a bit, which plays better with the accelerometers than the second analog stick.

Thing is, load times were so terrible I waited almost three minutes from start up to getting into the game. I don't even think there were PSP games that loaded this slowly.

The game seemed pretty fun, actually, but I think I'd either wait for a used unit or a revision before taking the plunge. I'm sure they load times vary as Gravity Rush was going for an open-world level, but I did see another game loading rather slow.

The way the analog sticks are placed is awkward because of how you'd want to hold the system to access the shoulder buttons its hard to keep your grip and stay on the second stick if you want to use the face buttons or touch screen

If it hand a dual-shockish grip to it, it would be more than workable, but the obsession with making it so thin makes it awkward to hold at least in terms of the right hand.

@scissors yes tried it today in Game it's one nice machine bigger than I thought but like my pal liquid snake waiting 4 price drop oh too blown away by graphics to check sticks back 2 Moro........

Still torn on the Vita, great hardware and games, but horrid hardware pricing.

I had a hands on with a Vita yesterday and whilst I was very impressed with the machine itself (bloody light for a start), I was less impressed with the very,very long loading times and non-native res of the launch games I tried. I tried both Wipeout and Uncharted and though both had lovely detail and great shaders etc, I couldn't help but be disappointed by the resolution of the overall image. Trust me, if you're used to the sharpness of a retina-equivalent display then you may well be as shocked as I when you finally get to see this thing in motion. From what I hear only a few launch games actually support native resolution (virtual tennis being one I think) which does't bode well for a machine that's being heralded for its horsepower. Also the framerate in Wipeout was a genuine disappointment to, I was fully expecting it to be native res @ 60fps but what I played seemed 25-30fps at a lower res which made what should have been a sharpe far-off track view blurry and blocky.
I was really looking forward to seeing a monster polygon basher in this console but I'm afraid not even the gimmicky rear touch panel was enough to cover these shortfalls for me. Actually a bit sad about the whole thing thinking about it now :(

L.O..A..D...I...N....G.......

Instead of paying $75 for two PS Vita at stores, I can get the same games download for $62.

Nice try sony, but with memory card prices and the FACT that I can't trade or sell my digital copies, I'm sticking wit retail.

It's a trap man, how many games do you buy till a memory card get's filled up, and besides that it's only a 5 dollar saving, so I'm cool.

but isin't hte biggest memory card like 32 gigabytes how big are vita games. oh well at least theres the upside to the cards if I run out of room I can buy another.

Definitely a step in the right direction, but we still need more steps in that same direction.

$15 for Escape Plan? Sounds sexy!

Can't say it'll matter much until the price of removable storage comes down. A 32GB microSD card is $40. Why is Sony charging me more than twice that? I would be a lot more understanding if the system wasn't surprisingly low cost in terms of raw parts.

And for those saying it should be more than 10%, stop complaining. The Vita is the only device that offers games through an online store that have them cheaper than their disc counterparts. PS3, 360, Steam. All the same price at launch. If they want retailers to stock their hardware they need to keep a good relationship with them. Simple as that.

@Scissors

I feel like the sticks feel more like switches that you kind of push in every direction, but it feels really good after a few seconds.

Thanks for the responses everyone.

@Magnalon
No problem <3

Fuck Digital Distribution. Give me a physical product that I actually own and can do what I want with.
And fuck Conrad Zimmerman for encouraging people to give up their consumer rights.

I like this, specially because when imported a game like Uncharted Vita would not cost 49 dollars, it would be closer to 60 dollars.

Now the Vita folks might somewhat know how us PC users feel about being charged $60 for games on Steam.

Do digital versions also experience price drops in the long run? if not this discount is good only for day one purchasers and for most members of that group 5 bucks isn't that much if they can get a 2nd hand physical copy for nearly the same methinks.

Try again Sony.

physical is still better

what you save in games you spend in the overpriced as shit memory cards

and you will need a 64gb size to at least have space for all the games of about a year

i have the Vita 3g Hong Kong Version plus uncharted 3(graphic a bit disappointing) and UMVC(perfect conversion)....
Controll i have to say amazing i can play UMVC flawless,
Wireless play also very good even if i live in China and the connection is not very good and let's not forget the Vita here is not imported ufficially,
Display AMAzing but a bit inferior to my galaxy Nexus(i think lower resolution)....
After 3 weeks i can say i love the console it has HUGE potential i do hope they improve a bit the interface and the near, friends and party function, but i am sure if they do a decent COD for the machine it will be a huge hit!!!!

a JIM Dinansty Warriors NEXT (i have tried the Demo) looks very good!!!!

Nice try is right. A not-so-clever attempt to entice you to spend more and think you are spending less. Ugh. Retail for me and no complaints.

5$ off!!! That's it Sony!!!?? Thanx for the offer but I'll stick to the physical copy.

For submitting the right to lend or sell we need a bigger incentive. The way that Sony and over companies want to accustom us to pay almost the same price for what is something of considerable less value disgusts me, I jus hope gamers are a little wiser than this and don't bite...