Digital copies of PlayStation Vita games will be 10% (ish) cheaper than copies on ye olde physical format. Meaning I can pay $45 instead of $50 for Uncharted by downloading it instead of buying it on one of those diddy cards in one of those diddy boxes.

Sony! NO DICE. You don't forge brave new all-digital worlds with sandwich-price discounts.

They don't want to price their physical format into oblivion, sure. Got to keep that physical media slot relevant. Already it's the hardware equivalent of a vestigial tail, maybe an appendix. This withered evolutionary artefact, one generation from total obsolescence.

And then there are the retailers to think about. Don't want to completely hamstring the physical stuff with digital discounts, enrage the retailers. Need those guys on board to sell the actual hardware. Hey, remember when those Dutch stores refused to sell the PSP Go because it took them out of the picture? (Hey, remember the PSP Go?)

So 10% is a sop to the consumers who understand they shouldn't pay as much for a non-physical thing.

But those same people also know it's a lot cheaper than that for Sony to flog them a download than a physical copy, with all the associated physical expense. And they know they can't trade in a non-physical thing for money off their next purchase. Four bucks off a boxless MLB 12? No dice.