Uncharted Vita Close To 4GB In Size, Yoshida Weighs In On Importance of Physical Media

by Mike Bendel on October 6, 2011 @ 11:44 am


If there’s anything the PSPgo taught Sony, it’s that shipping games on physical media is crucial. While there’s a growing subset of customers embracing digital, the bulk of sales on console and portable platforms still happen at retail. Sony WWS boss Shuhei Yoshida tells Edge that he believes the time is still not right for a download-only platform, pointing to the large size of Vita titles, some of which weigh in close to 4GB — in the case of Uncharted: Golden Abyss.

“So we believe the time is still not right to go download-only as a platform. Some PS Vita titles, like Uncharted: Golden Abyss, will be close to 4GB in size, which could be too large to download for consumers 
who do not have a fast broadband connection,” said Yoshida.

He added, “Also, some consumers like shopping in retail stores, talking to knowledgeable store clerks, buying and playing games on the spot. We do not want to remove that capability from consumers.”

SCEE President Jim Ryan has similar reservations, noting that a digital model has not been embraced in certain parts of the world, making the two-pronged approach essential for a global device like Vita.

It’s a pretty safe bet that another PSPgo-like device won’t be coming from Sony anytime soon, the market clearly isn’t ready for it.

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Comments
hush404 says:

I'm glad we've got physical media... as I would fill up w/e card I had in my system in no time if games were 4gb each.

Adiuvo says:

It's odd how the PC market is the opposite. Digital sales, even without discounts, definitely seem to eclipse retail figures.

Ecko says:

Of course "Digital only" is not the way to go. Why would you purposely limit your options like that? Why not offer both? Or a mix of physical/download only titles? Either way, Sony and the developers will get paid no matter what format the consumer happens to prefer. There are more important things to worry about.

slicer4ever says:

Digital Sales cut a huge loss of profit from dev's/publishers in the labor/materials involved with making and shipping such huge sums of physical media, as well, retail offering's means that developers have to wait until the game is actually brought, while investing in more copies that might never get sold.

Robby says:

If memory wasn't such an issue, I would have no problem with a digital only platform. If the vita had 80gb of built in memory, then physical media wouldn't be such an issue. But that would probably raise the cost of the device.

eldiablov says:

Even a measly 1GB of onboard storage specifically for saves would have been nice :/

Actually, if you can get PSN plus on this thing, which I assume you can. It would be a great incentive to buy it for their cloud based save system.

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