The notion of Sony and participating publishers charging a bit less for digital purchases of PlayStation Vita titles than they would normally cost at retail has been kicked around for a while, especially given that such discounting was available right at launch when the Vita debuted in Japan. Still, Sony's American division had yet to confirm any digital discounts for the region...until today.
Shacknews' Andrew Yoon managed to get Sony to confirm once and for all that digital copies of Vita games will sport a 10% discount over their retail prices. Uncharted: Golden Abyss, for instance, will reportedly cost you $44.99 through the digital store, as opposed to $49.99 in physical form.
The discount theoretically should apply to all Vita games, since all Vita titles will be available in the online store--though some titles, like Escape Plan and Super Stardust Delta, will be download only, and thus there won't be anything to discount from.
Though Sony didn't confirm a uniform 10% discount for all titles, an intrepid NeoGAF user discovered that Best Buy will also be distributing purchasable codes for downloadable copies of Vita games, which are set at the discounted price.
While a 10% discount might not necessarily be a make-or-break for many players--especially given the not terribly inexpensive pricing of memory cards, which you'll need to store digital copies of games--it does lend some credence to the notion that hardware makers (or, specifically in this case, Sony) as well as third party publishers are very much planning on getting on board with this whole "digital revolution" we keep hearing about yet typically see no real progress on from anyone besides Valve and kinda sorta EA.
In other news, hey guys? The Vita is coming out soon. Like, really soon.
Here's that official list of launch titles, just in case you forgot.