My biggest gripe with the Vita? The pricing of digitally distributed versions of games.

$5 cheaper than retail… seriously, Sony?

Not only should they be a lot cheaper than that, Sony's stupidly missing out on a huge opportunity here.

Take Hot Shots Golf, for instance… great game. Definitely has a bit more content and polish than, say, a $5 golf game for iOS. But does that extra bit of content and polish justify Hot Shots Golf costing $30 more?

For physical retail editions, I can understand. You're paying not only for the game itself, but also the physical medium and the case. Then there's the fact that there's a finite number of physical copies, so you're also paying for the rarity and also helping to cover the cost of the possibility that not all copies will sell.

But the digital versions should be FUCKTON cheaper, not this '$5 cheaper' bullshit we're currently seeing. No physical product being produced, no shipping costs, infinite duplicability potential thus being able to meet all demand for the product without risk of producing too many copies, no used market cutting into sales, etc.

Not that there aren't costs associated with digital distribution (servers, bandwidth), it's just that they're absolutely microscopic in comparison to the costs associated with physical distribution.

If Sony were smart, they'd realize that this is the key. Imagine if digital versions of Vita games typically cost around $5-10, with the most expensive ones running a mere $15. That'd be a huge selling point for the Vita. Vita sales would get a very nice boost and game sales would simply skyrocket. Not to mention that used game sales would become extinct. Oh, and those proprietary memory cards? Sales of those would also skyrocket.

Win for the Vita and Sony, huge win for the consumers.