As for digital copies of games being more expensive than disc copies, that’s always been the case with PSP, so I didn’t find the news at all surprising. It is fairly idiotic, from a common-sense standpoint. From a business standpoint, however, you’re paying extra for 1. Convenience of not needing a disc and 2. Not having to go to the store.

That only applies to purchases of £18 or under though, so most physical games listed here will be including VAT too.

Exactly. Sony are in the uneviable position of being both a retailer to the retailers and to the end customer. Whatever happens in the price battle for the end customer, Sony’s cost price that they sell to retailers will effectively remain the same. If sony sets an RRP of £40 for a game like Uncharted, but then sells it themselves for £34, the retailers basically have little choice but to reduce their margins or risk loosing a huge number of sales, especially where the digital store is tightly integrated into the platform – £34 becomes the new RRP. By reducing the price, Sony forces the lower margin on the retailer, and sales or further reductions on this price by Sony will only frustrate the retailers and there’s only so much they’ll take before they dump Sony as it’s not worth their time and effort to sell.

Further down the line in a products lifecycle (6 months – 1 year) is when Sony will find it okay reduce their digital pricing.

The solution of course is to do a Valve, where your digital store is just another independent retailer, but to do that, they can’t be selling to the retailers as well. Or they could let Amazon or Game etc. run digital Vita stores on the platform.

Sony are entirely dependent on retailers in order to sell their brand new hardware. They cannot afford to piss them off no matter how idiotic it looks to the end user. Right now they need to get that hardware on shelves and in mindshare and retail are the folks that do that for them.

nvm yeah it depend on the game

If you look through the comment it says full game

Tah, I missed that one.

Sadly thats DLC only for Wipeout HD not the full game same with Marvel Vs Capcom too, it allows you to share the DLC not the full game.

Otherwise, I’ll still be going all digital despite the price. I came to greatly appreciate not having to carry around UMDs when I got a PSP Go, even with the same pricing issues. Your theory of it being that way to appease retailers sounds likely.

Still, they do have those weekly sales on SEN. It’d be nice to think that Vita games will begin to circulate among the rest of the deals. I don’t really see it happening any time soon though

Why are you at Savygamer if you do not want to find the cheapest place to find games?

Is it not fair to compare PSN price prices (online) with those that are online also?

Furthermore, I plan to buy a Vita in the medium to long term. Most probably after the first price drop and/or the next hardware revision. By that time retail prices will have dropped further, and a pre-owned market well established. If Sony wants us to transition to a truly digital age, they must undercut any store by at least 10%, as well as enticing us with steam-like sales whereby it would be criminal not to purchase any content. I do not understand the problem from Sony’s perspective in just having low prices. Even if they sever the links with retailers, what does it affect them? I imagine they believe by doing so they may run the risk of retailers not displaying or selling the hardware itself. I fear we will never know.

What mountain? The SavyGamer site seems dedicated to helping people find the best price, this info is important for that. And reflection on why Sony would be more interested in fighting the digital tide with needlessly inflated prices is hardly a dramatic over-reaction.

Why do you insist on making so many mountains out of molehills?