14 DAY TRIAL // The PlayStation Vita has finally been released in the rest of the world this week, after having already appeared in Japan since last year.
We’ve already published several reviews, both for the Vita’s hardware and software, as well as for several games, including Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Wipeout 2048, Reality Fighters or Unit 13.
After spending quite some time with the new handheld console, one fact is pretty clear: if you want to play only digital titles on the device, by downloading games instead of buying retail copies, then you need both money and time.
First and foremost, the biggest obstacle in never stepping into a retail store for Vita games is the fact that you need to spend some cash on a memory card for the console.
While this wasn’t that big of a problem on the older PSP, the Vita’s proprietary cards cost a lot of money, starting with the 4GB one, which is priced at $29.99/€19.99, to the 8GB one, $44.99/€34.99, or the 16GB one, which can be bought for $59.99/€49.99. Those with money to burn, at least in North America, can even get a massive 32GB card that costs $99.99.
Digital versions of PS Vita games will be around 10% cheaper than their retail cousins, but this certainly won’t balance out the huge price of these memory cards.
The other big inconvenience when trying to rely just on digital downloads is the fact that they take a very long time to complete. We connected the PS Vita to our high speed wireless hotspot and, when trying to download a digital copy of Wipeout 2048 that occupies around 1.6GB, were met with an estimated completion time of around two and a half hours.
PS3 owners that download the game on their console can bypass this obstacle, but transferring anything from a PS3 to a PS Vita still takes a long time.
Sony tried to sell a digital-only portable console a few years ago with the PSP Go, but it failed miserably. Now, with the PS Vita, steps were taken to better support those that wanted to download their games, but there are still some major problems.
As such, at least for now, it’s a good idea to buy retail games for your new handheld device.