Sony announced today that the PlayStation Vita sold over 160,000 units in the US during Black Friday week, with its various bundle offerings all reportedly selling out at retail. That’s not a huge number, but it’s a pretty strong showing for a platform that’s had such lacking market visibility up to now.
Now Sony’s angling to get the Vita into even more households and gamer pockets for the holidays with an all-new bundle offer. The PlayStation Plus Instant Game Collection PlayStation Vita Bundle will, as the title suggests, come with a 1-year membership to PS Plus for immediate access to the Instant Game Collection, which currently includes free digital copies of Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Gravity Rush, WipEout 2048, Jet Set Radio, Tales From Space: Mutant Blobs Attack, and Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions, along with a discounted price for Pinball Arcade (not to mention all the free stuff and discounts available on the PS3, if you own one).
The $300 bundle will also come with a 3G Wi-Fi Vita system, a voucher to download third-person shooter Unit 13 and a 4GB Memory Card. That’s a nice value and all…but hey, wait a minute, is that a measly 4GB Memory Card? In an Instant Game Collection bundle? Seriously?
There in lies the problem with this bundle. Having the Instant Game Collection is great, but when Uncharted alone will fill up the provided memory, Vita bundle buyers are going to be immediately smacked upside the face by the system’s greatest weakness at this point. And that weakness still happens to be grossly overpriced memory. A better bundle would have been the PS Plus membership and a 32GB Memory Card (or 16GB at the very least) in place of the free Unit 13 copy and the 4GB card. Hell, it wouldn’t even need to be the 3G model as long as enough memory was provided to match what’s being offered in the Instant Game Collection. What’s the point of having all those free games if you can only download one or two at a time?
Again, this bundle is a great deal overall and I would say it’s an even better option for new Vita owners versus one of the single-game bundles. But it’s also a microcosm of Sony’s mishandling of the memory situation. Consumers are always going to want a price drop on any piece of hardware, but if Sony just offered more affordable memory the Vita would likely be doing better than it is. This bundle would have been a great place to start, too bad it ain’t happening.
Matt Litten is the full-time editor and owner of VGBlogger.com. He is responsible for maintaining the day to day operation of the site, editing all staff content before it is published, and contributing regular news, reviews, previews and other articles.
Matt landed his first gig in the video game review business writing for the now-defunct website BonusStage.com. After the sad and untimely close of BonusStage, the former staff went on to found VGBlogger.com. After a short stint as US Site Manager for AceGamez, Matt assumed full ownership over VGBlogger, and to this day he is dedicated to making it one of the top video game blogs in all the blogosphere.
Matt is a fair-minded reviewer and lover of games of all platforms and types, big or small, hyped or niche, big-budget or indie. But that doesn't mean he will let poor games slide without a good thrashing when necessary! 
