For whatever reason — many would likely guess “money” — Sony has decided to go with a new, proprietary format for the memory cards used by PlayStation Vita. Whereas a dirt-cheap SD card can be picked up for use with 3DS, Vita will use specific cards that will cost quite a bit in Japan. If you were hoping the pricing situation wouldn’t be the same in the United States, well… you had better get saving.
GameStop has posted listings for four different sizes of official Vita memory cards, revealing a ballpark figure for how they will be priced. (I say “ballpark” because GameStop sells the Wii Motion Plus attachment for $5 more than other retailers, so perhaps these will be a few bucks more than elsewhere.) The picture isn’t pretty — a 4GB card’s price is set at $29.99, 8GB at $44.99, 16GB at $69.99, and 32GB at $119.99. The same size SD cards would cost roughly $6, $10, $20, and $32, respectively, and that’s going by the first result on Amazon for each (so there may be cheaper options out there).
