Vita Game Cards vs Playstation Store

There are a few games that have little replay value, and you can get some of your money back if you sell or trade-in your game.  You can only trade in physical cartridges.   Once you purchase a game online then it is forever yours and cannot be transferred to another PSN account.  Single-player games like Uncharted: Golden Abyss and Rayman Origins may be great games, but usually once you’ve played through them then there’s little reason to play them again.   For these games I would recommend a rental from Gamefly.  Which brings me to my next point…

Renting

There is no way you can rent downloadable games.  If you want to try out a game before buying it, then you can either download the demo or rent it from a service like Gamefly.  The great thing about Gamefly is that if you like the game then you can just keep it (after paying for it of course).

Cheap Games

A video game store that offers trade-ins will usually have pre-owned games for less than retail cost.   Once gamers are finished with their experience, they may trade them in, and you can reap the rewards.  All of the extra profit usually goes to the game store rather than the console manufacturer or developer, which is why Sony would prefer you to buy all of your games online.

Special Deals and out-of-print titles

The Playstation Store has new deals on games all the time, and some of them are too good to pass up.  For example, this month they are offering all Tom Clancy games at half off, so I was able to pick up Splinter Cell: Essentials for the PSP at $5.  When a game is that cheap then I really don’t care about ever getting my money back.

Out-of-print titles like Splinter Cell Essentials have to be re-purchased

There are a select few PSP games that are just out of print, and even if you were able to find them you couldn’t transfer them to your new Vita.  Sony pretty much has you between a rock and a hard place if you want to play any PSP titles on its new handheld.

There are some great Vita games that can only be purchased via the Playstation Store.  Some of these are Super Stardust Delta, Mutant Blobs Attack and Escape Plan, and they range from $7 to $15.  Of course there are several Minis that are exclusive to the online store, and they average about $2 each.

Next we look at some of the problems with Vita cards…