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[neptunes]

In a press release today, Sony announced that they have reduced the prices of their Memory Stick medium; the PSP will use Memory Sticks to save games, music, and movies.

The Memory Stick Pro 512MB has been reduced to $180 USD, while the 256MB will be half that at $90 USD. The Memory Stick Duo line has also been reduced in price; the 512MB will be $250 and the 256MB will be $95. The other sizes are expected to be reduced as well.

The Duo line is a smaller version of the Memory Stick which will fit into the system. It is still unknown if regular size Memory Sticks will be usable with the PSP.

Source: Sony Press Release

Source: www.pspinsider.com

 

[Suikoguy]

Cool, which means off brands will be even cheaper

 

[DCharlie]

PSP with memory stick included, please sony.

 

[Slurpy]

Still too fucking expensive.

 

[jenov4]

It's a start, plus I can use it with my sony camera.

 

[ManaByte]

Anyone know what the 128 MB ones go for these days? I want to pick up a 2nd one before Comic Con this weekend.

 

[The Faceless Master]

PSP with memory stick included, please sony.

in your dreams

 

[Suikoguy]

Anyone know what the 128 MB ones go for these days? I want to pick up a 2nd one before Comic Con this weekend.

http://www.newegg.com/app/manufact....frcode=0&propertycode=&propertycodevalue=4354

*hugs newegg*

 

[AirBrian]

PSP with memory stick included, please sony.

If Sony's other electronic devices are any indication, expect an 8 MB card. (Although for saving games, do you really need much more?)

 

[DCharlie]

I'd think they might stretch it to 32Mb to be honest.
It would make the Atrac playback pretty pointless on 8 meg.
At least with 32Mb you'd be able to dl a fair number of songs to at least try things out.

Actually, is anyone actually interested in using the PSP for music playback???
Personally, I want to save that battery for gaming.

 

[neptunes]

nah, 8 seems as far as they'll go.

it'll get saves done for the user.

 

[Akira]

I bought a Sandisk 512MB Memory Stick Pro for $130 shipped last night. I'll get a 1GB stick after the price drops. Good move, Sony.

 

[Agent Dormer]

Very good news for Sony Digital Camera users. Now we can take more pictures! Whee.

 

[Sho Nuff]

I bought 1GB of CompactFlash for my EOS 300D for $180. SONY YOU LOSE

 

[Shompola]

wow, with this price reduction compactflash is still 50% cheaper.

 

[kaching]

I bought a Sandisk 512MB Memory Stick Pro for $130 shipped last night. I'll get a 1GB stick after the price drops. Good move, Sony.

Any chance that was from Buy.com? I just got an email from them today advertising 512 meg MS Pro for $118.

nah, 8 seems as far as they'll go.

it'll get saves done for the user.

Right, but it doesn't entice the PSP owner to do much else. With a 32 meg stick, they'd be offering enough space for the PSP owner to try out music downloads, which might ultimately entice them to buy a stick with more storage. Maybe include a few songs on the stick pre-loaded. Or even throw a sample of MPEG4 video on there...

 

[Crazymoogle]

Any chance that was from Buy.com? I just got an email from them today advertising 512 meg MS Pro for $118.


Right, but it doesn't entice the PSP owner to do much else. With a 32 meg stick, they'd be offering enough space for the PSP owner to try out music downloads, which might ultimately entice them to buy a stick with more storage. Maybe include a few songs on the stick pre-loaded. Or even throw a sample of MPEG4 video on there...

Actually, if the PSP uses MS Pro or Duo, then I'm not sure 8mb chips are even in production. 32-64MB seems like a more realistic number.

 

[Sagitario]

Still too fucking expensive.

IAWTP

 

[apujanata]

Actually, if the PSP uses MS Pro or Duo, then I'm not sure 8mb chips are even in production. 32-64MB seems like a more realistic number.

During launch of MS Duo in July 2002, the smallest one is 16MB. SanDisk currently have 32 MB as the smallest size MS Duo.

Can PSP use MS Pro ?

 

[Panajev2001a]

PSP uses Memory Stick Pro Duo which is a standard on its own in the family of Memory Stick products.

The Pro Duo standard has the size of Duo Memory Stick modules and the Read/Write Speed capabilities of the Pro model, but for now it is capped in size at 512 MB.

Likely you will be able to use also Memory Stick Duo with MagicGate Technology, but you won't be able to play movies off it and record witha possible PSP USB Camera on to it as the Read/Write speed of the Duo model is low compared to the Pro Duo one.

512 MB for $119.84

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0001F1ZY4/002-3298150-6974400?v=glance


256 MB for ~$62-64

http://www.bizrate.com/marketplace/product_info/overview/index__cat_id--465,prod_id--11489137.html


128 MB for $39.88 ( very close to what you pay for 8 MB PlayStation 2 Memory Cards )

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000TN0X0/002-3298150-6974400?v=glance


64 MB for $29.88

http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=3951357

 

[jarrod]

Still too fucking expensive.

Yep. At least SanDisk Memorysticks come in a little lower but they're still more expensive than most comparable Compact Flash or SD cards. :/

 

[Tabris]

No, I'm not interested in music playback, but like the PS2, it's nice to have the feature.

I mean really, how much did it cost them to add music playback? they already have all the hardware built in for the games they can use for music playback. So all they needed to add was a decoder (which is free cause it's their format) and some kind of gui to play the songs from.

 

[DCharlie]

"I mean really, how much did it cost them to add music playback? "
very little.

"how much does it cost us to actually use it?"

in a vaguely useful way - between 60-100$.

it's a nice addition, but it's becoming less like a free addition although that depends on what sony throw into the PSP package.

"( very close to what you pay for 8 MB PlayStation 2 Memory Cards )"

32$ here for a memory card. And i think this is more of an indication as to how much sony are taking the piss, rather than the value of the mem cards imo.

 

[kaching]

Hopefully, they allow at least one more round of price cuts on MS media before the PSP arrives in NA.

Also, from the press release:

Since its introduction in 1998, the Memory Stick format has continued to grow and anticipate broad uses of high-capacity, high-speed storage. Sony reports that as of 2003, the cumulative number of products featuring Memory Stick(TM) slots exceeded 50 million and continues to grow.

That could have been 120+ million devices featuring MemStick slots by now, if you had included a slot in the PS2, Sony. Hell of a missed opportunity.

What I don't understand is why SCE still hasn't capitalized on the use of MS with PS2 by at least selling a Playstation branded USB reader/writer for MS. Include drivers with it to update the PS2 browser like the HDD has so you can at least use the MS to archive game saves.

 

[Panajev2001a]

Yep. At least SanDisk Memorysticks come in a little lower but they're still more expensive than most comparable Compact Flash or SD cards. :/

They are worth it considering their size and Read/Write speed capabilities.

 

[jarrod]

They are worth it considering their size and Read/Write speed capabilities.

Debatable. Read/Write speed might be an issue for video but I don't see any size advantage in MS over the competition.