PS Vita: hardware hacker hints at upcoming MicroSD adapter

One of the most annoying points of the PS Vita is its “out-of-this-worldly” expensive memory cards. And that’s a field were I believe hacking can help. Back in the PSP days, microSD card adapters where all the rage, in particular with this model which allowed to support not one, but two cards, which was not only cool but dramatically reduced the price of storage for the device.

With memory cards on the PS Vita being almost as expensive as the device itself, it shouldn’t be a surprise that some are looking for an alternative.

Hardware developer RichDevX had released prototype Vita card readers in the past. He confirmed yesterday that he’s had a working prototype Micro SD adapter for PS Vita for a while (for which a video was published last year), and hinted at plans to manufacture it at scale.

@marek256 @PepeCobain95 @pomfpomfpomf3 @CelesteBlue123 @ps3120 Nope, had a proof of concept working for a while now, and will be sending the board to be manufactured when I get back from Toronto.

— Richard L ✈ (@RichDevX) May 10, 2017

@marek256 @PepeCobain95 @pomfpomfpomf3 @CelesteBlue123 @ps3120 Inventory will likely be stocked in the major regions at some point.

— Richard L ✈ (@RichDevX) May 10, 2017

RichDevX has not committed to a date as to when he wants to make this happen. He also pointed out possible limitations to this device: the market for the PS Vita is much smaller than it was for the PSP, and the adapter has a more complex architecture than what was required back in the PSP days. The direct consequence of these two facts is that if/when that adapter gets manufactured and sold, it will be fairly expensive. The question is of course “how much”, and at what price point people would be willing to buy the device.

One of the early prototypes from @RichDevX

The math can be pretty simple: If the cost of the adapter + a micro SD ends up being significantly less than the cost of a PS Vita memory card of the same size, there is some benefit in buying the adapter. Given the sky-high cost of 64GB Vita cards at the moment, I’d argue than even at $50 the device could be an interesting buy. By comparison, PSP MicroSD adapters are typically under $10.

Not to mention the possibility to (maybe?) support higher capacity storage such as 128GB Micro SD cards.

Not the actual thing

Update: Yifanlu has posted significant concerns about the possibility of such an adapter being real (or, if it is real, questioning its usefulness). His doubts are based on former research from vita hackers, in particular motoharu, which indicates the psvita memory card might not be compatible with the SD protocol, and/or might use security that couldn’t easily be bypassed with a simple adapter. Additionally, the hacker shared concerns on how articles like this one contribute to spread unverified rumors for such hacks. So, take all of the above with a pinch of salt, I guess, while I’ll go cry in a corner after this severe burn. Joke aside, Yifanlu makes very compelling points and you can read his take on reddit here.

Source: RichDevX on twitter, thanks to Dion F. for the tip!