The Pros and Cons of Sony Playstation Vita Passport System Pricing

Do you feel it? That hand in your pocket is Sony reaching deep for payment for the Playstation Vita Passport System.

The Vita launches on  December 6th in Japan and February 22nd, 2012 here in the States. The Playstation Vita is Sony's heir apparent to the PSP. Anytime a new system comes out, whether it be a PS3 taking the place of the PS2 or a new Xbox 360 pushing aside the original Xbox, the second biggest question on gamers minds is...what does this mean for my old games?

The first question is, how much will this cost us?

The good news: All Vita games can be purchased as downloads only. Also, the Vita will allow you to play old PSP games that you have previously paid for:

"Sony has revealed plans to allow consumers to transfer their old UMD-based PSP games to the PlayStation Vita, which uses an entirely new format, but it's not free. The "UMD Passport" will allow players to transfer their old games at a discounted rate, ranging from $7 to $13 per game."

The bad: That was it. You will have to pay a fee to be able to in effect "repurchase" games you already bought for the older system. When I pop in old PS2 games that work on the PS3, I do that for free. The backwards compatibility is built into the system. The problem here is that the Vita uses a different game format. Thus the app download. But the charge, though seemingly small and well below the original price you payed for games you already own, still seems a bit much. This is especially so when you consider the other costs associated with Sony's Vita system.

These prices will be in addition to already established costs for the unit. I talked about the ridiculous pricing for some of the Playstation Vita's memory units back in September. The Vita, which debuted at E3 this year, will run $250 for the Wi-Fi only version and $299 for the 3G + WiFi version. Yes, THAT IS expensive for a handheld portable gaming system. It also costs more than some versions of current popular home consoles. Add to that cost the expensive memory cards, the games themselves (costing on average $40), and the AT&T 3G usage bill and this portable is one pricey marvel of modern technology.

So while it is nice that I can play old previously purchased PSP titles on the new machine, I think I'll pass and just hold onto my PSP to play those. Whether I get a Vita at all...well, I'm still undecided about that. Maybe a year after release, when the price drops. Then again, it might be time then to start thinking about the PS4, so we'll see.

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