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Vita Sales Still Struggling

Posted Jan 5, 2012 at 5:45PM EST by

Listed in: News Tags: ps vita, uncharted: golden abyss

PlayStation Vita launched to an impressive 325,000 units sold, but tanked hard in its second week, dropping to 72,000. Unfortunately for Sony, the third week’s sales numbers are even worse – the device only managed to move 42,000 devices. While it’s obviously too soon to start ringing death bells for the device, the lack of interest in the Vita certainly isn’t inspiring confidence.

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The Vita, launched in Japan on December 17th, was outsold by the PS3, 3DS and original PSP on the hardware charts. As we saw yesterday, some retailers have even resorted to dropping the device price in order to get it off their shelves.

Naturally, the Japanese launch has little to do with the western launch, where games like Uncharted: Golden Abyss will likely draw a much larger number of buyers to the handheld’s open arms. However, one can’t help but draw conclusions from the rapid drop in interest for the console – high profile devices don’t usually fall of the map like this.

One thing is for sure – Sony is eventually going to drop the Vita’s price, maybe sooner than expected. If so, gamers may wait to pick it up until the inevitable discount, hoping to avoid a burn.

What do you think of the Japanese numbers? Are they having any impact on your willingness to buy a Vita?

[Destructoid]

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(4)

(5)

I have 3 things to say

1. I'm 26 and I have a 3DS

2. I have alot of friends on my list with a 3DS that are my age

3. 12 year olds can't buy Resident Evil Revelations or any 14+ game

and just cause...

4. Your not a true gamer and shouldn't be on this site if you don't appreciate every system for what it has to offer!

and lastly

5. This topic has nothing to do with what you said!

# RE: are you serious? — truk 2012-01-07 22:14

i just want to let you know that you listed 5 things her. you even numbered them. are you dumb?

# RE: RE: are you serious? — xnamkcor 2012-01-08 04:14

I have 3 reasons why he isn't dumb:

1) I say so

# RE: RE: RE: are you serious? — truk 2012-01-08 19:31

i have ONLY 3 things to say to that:

1)ok

# RE: RE: RE: RE: are you serious? — teh 2012-01-10 22:36

I have 36 things to say to you both.
xnamkcor: 36 things
truk: 36 things

Good day to you both, gentlemen

# RE: Vita Sales Still Struggling — sweetwq 2012-01-05 20:35

Well if they keep this up with all of the bad news, people here in Canada and the USA will start to think its not worth it.

I might drop my pre order if they keep it up.

I wish qj had spoiler tags "but i won't"

+2 # Nope — zer0 2012-01-05 21:31

Has no effect on me, I imported one and have one pre ordered at amazon for the US release. This is an amazing console. I can't get enough Golden Abyss. From my contact in Osaka Japan, news is they are mostly sold out completely across the country of Wifi vitas and only 3g vita's remain, and no one wants the 3g one in Japan hence the poorer sales.

+2 # RE: Nope — xnamkcor 2012-01-05 22:38

So, the low sales could be low total supply of the model people want?

Does anybody know the numbers that Sony said they produced of each model for the first batch?

-1 # ... — SeRosiS 2012-01-05 22:06

Sony should learn to sync the release of a console to a really popular game.

I'm sure that if they could have waited another half year or so they could have gotten GTA 5 or Mass Effect 3 on it at release and it would have sold like nobody's business.

# RE: ... — xnamkcor 2012-01-05 22:39

Or sell it now and then and have it sell like nobody's business plus some.

I think the fact that is wasn't on shelves early enough before Christmas is a bigger factor.

# money... — muchling 2012-01-05 23:50

I think they wanted to sell there Playstation 3D display for Christmas in the west. maybe, that is why they opted to release PS Vita in 2012, so people could buy the display and then buy Vita later; giving enough time for ppl to save money for vita.

# RE: RE: ... — luckymouse 2012-01-06 09:29

Also, ever thought about how Christmas in Japan isn't about giving gifts to everyone you know but it is more a 'couples' holiday rather than big family holiday like it is in, for example, America.

-3 # RE: Vita Sales Still Struggling — senz 2012-01-05 23:54

No backward compatibility and limited game library and maybe the high price too.

# RE: RE: Vita Sales Still Struggling — Azariel_z 2012-01-06 04:23

Quoting senz:

No backward compatibility and limited game library and maybe the high price too.

You got that right ..not a "maybe" is not a "maybe"..

# ... — eaxc 2012-01-07 00:22

You do realize that People were expecting the Vita to be $400+...? Why should they complain when the price is $250 and eventually lower? Must have slipped their minds.

# RE: RE: Vita Sales Still Struggling — truk 2012-01-06 20:51

Quoting senz:

No backward compatibility and limited game library and maybe the high price too.

high price...for realz?

# RE: RE: Vita Sales Still Struggling — LiftarensGuide 2012-01-09 09:13

Just because it doesn't have an UMD drive, doesn't mean the PS Vita isn't backwards-compatible. And the price is to be expected for a new SONY handheld (the cost of the PS Vita is actually LOWER than the original PSP by about $40USD [2005] when you account for inflation).

# RE: Vita Sales Still Struggling — NOTORIOUS 2012-01-06 03:26

I actually don't see a good reason for the console to sell this bad besides the wifi/3g supply somebody mentioned. Now if they did something useful with that 3G maybe everybody would want to buy one.. you know, like a phone... just sayin'

# RE: RE: Vita Sales Still Struggling — teh 2012-01-10 22:39

they did make a PSPhone, and its shit and still freaking expensive, even in China and Japan

# RE: Vita Sales Still Struggling — DJ PON-3 2012-01-06 06:27

I hope they make an official price drop.

# Goodnes — MY 2012-01-06 08:24

If SONY drop the price soon - it won't be by much for the wi-fi version, but they might drop the 3G version by a a more considerable amount?

Besides, the 3DS is selling well cause there's a Flash cart on the way and the same goes for the PSV. As soon as there's a CFW it'll sell like HOT CAKES!

I have my Japanese 1.0 PSV ready & waiting!!!While I play just UNCHARTED - I'm fine with that.

# Sony Can Suck It — Danny101 2012-01-06 06:53

psp is awsome console but not to include memory stick in it is f**n Bullsh*t

+1 # RE: Vita Sales Still Struggling — Aldo_P 2012-01-06 09:00

I've said for years piracy wasn't the major cause of the Psp's western demise it was Smartphones that did it and without the Japanese buying Psp's by the shit load the Vita would never exist, and if this thing doesn't sell well in Japan the developers won't bother making games and translating them for us, so i predict this is gonna bomb like Hiroshima in the west.

# truth — turteee 2012-01-06 16:27

There are a few reasons why the PS vita fails to outsell other devices
1st. CFW those that bought the psp surely know that they can hack it and play every single game for free.same goes for the 3DS flash card.PS3 jailbreak
2nd. Price Tag,due to the price drop of the 3DS the customers shift their focus to the 3DS as its much cheaper as compared to the Vita
3rd.Game selection, how many games are available for the vita when launch in japan? 10 that is insufficient and maybe most of the people are not interested in those like western differnt people different taste.
4th.date,after the christmas season is over most people will start to tighten up their cash flow for the new year most of the people wont buy a expensive consoles
5th.numerous bugs, i personally own a PS vita and before the update was out it freezes when i connected it to my ps for file transfer,maybe all those negative reviews are keeping the people to buy it as well.
6th.The vita should come with a memory card included in the price tag so not having that will make people think twice before buying
7th.PS vita locked to 1 account,that is somthing i hate.i have 2 psn account and to switch over i deleted all my game data just for that and it really piss me off i think read about this gamers that is will wait for a firmware to hack this before buying the vita.

# In North America — squeeks 2012-01-06 19:48

Pre-orders of the Vita get Uncharted for free plus there is a 4GB memory stick in the pack. I don't think they were doing that in Japan.

Wonder how well the 3DS would be selling if it was still $250?

-1 # RE: Vita Sales Still Struggling — Aldo_P 2012-01-06 20:23

Just goes to show just because you throw a load of technology at a console it doesn't mean people are blindly gonna buy it.
Ps3 - Overpriced & took 3 years to begin to catch up to 360.
Psp Go - Overpriced & dead before it started.
Vita - Overpriced & struggling to sell in Japan for Gods sake, and this is the country that's obsessed with Handhelds.
So do you see some pattern emerging here from Sony? And yeah the 3DS was overpriced but they fixed it pretty much straight away, so if Sony's learned a single lesson from it's many, many fuck ups it needs to drop the price by minimum 20% right now. But will they do it? No.

+1 # RE: RE: Vita Sales Still Struggling — truk 2012-01-07 22:09

Quoting Aldo_P:

Ps3 - Overpriced & took 3 years to begin to catch up to 360

you mean under priced right? cause we all know that when the ps3 was released sony was losing $200 per system sold.

# RE: RE: RE: Vita Sales Still Struggling — Aldo_P 2012-01-07 23:17

No i do mean overpriced, i mean it makes fuck all difference how much Sony were losing on each console because every market has a price people are willing to pay for a certain product and the Ps3 just cost far too much, so it really makes no difference how much technology Sony want to throw into their consoles because they still just consoles, and it's exactly the same with Vita where it's price point should be about 20% lower than it is.

# RE: RE: RE: RE: Vita Sales Still Struggling — xnamkcor 2012-01-08 04:16

If it's 20% lower than it is, it would create a recursive loop when trying to calculate.

# RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: Vita Sales Still Struggling — Aldo_P 2012-01-08 07:17

That's what software and peripheral sales are for so they can make the money back they lose on early sales to subsidize the early low console price, i mean Ps3 got away with it because developers just made 1 game and could halve their risk with 2 consoles (Ps3 & 360) but like Psp games are made specifically for Vita so you need more customers, and less consoles means less software sales which makes an ever decreasing circle which eventually leads to Vita's demise.

# RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: Vita Sales Still Struggling — xnamkcor 2012-01-08 14:21

Software sales prevent recursive loops?
Awesome.

# RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: Vita Sales Still Struggling — Aldo_P 2012-01-08 14:47

Well if you trying to use the intellectual term for Vicious Circle then yeah software and peripheral sales do prevent it.

# RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: Vita Sales Still Struggling — xnamkcor 2012-01-08 18:18

A recursive loop is when a program refers to a variable within itself and never ends because it must continuously execute and will never stop.

# RE: RE: RE: RE: Vita Sales Still Struggling — truk 2012-01-08 11:19

Quoting Aldo_P:

No i do mean overpriced, i mean it makes fuck all difference how much Sony were losing on each console because every market has a price people are willing to pay for a certain product and the Ps3 just cost far too much, so it really makes no difference how much technology Sony want to throw into their consoles because they still just consoles, and it's exactly the same with Vita where it's price point should be about 20% lower than it is.

But by definition it would be under priced...

I wouldn't argue the price. It's more timing and marketing.

# RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: Vita Sales Still Struggling — Aldo_P 2012-01-08 11:36

Yeah i think marketing is key for Vita because blame it on Piracy, Smartphones or whatever you like but it's a fact that Psp is all but dead in the West and has been for years, and people are just used to that idea so how can anyone presume people are just gonna jump straight on the Vita when they've seen the demise of Psp? so the only possible way Vita can survive in the West is aggressive and expensive marketing and for Sony themselves making a constant string of AAA titles so people will keep looking at Vita, but with Psp Sony did almost no marketing and where was the games? The answer is they gave up and focused completely on the Japanese market which now isn't really taking well to Vita.

# RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: Vita Sales Still Struggling — truk 2012-01-08 17:10

Yeah dude, with good marketing you can sell anything.

# RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: Vita Sales Still Struggling — Shrapnel76 2012-01-18 17:11

I would in fact argue the price in terms of the PS3. It is completely unrealistic to ask someone in the market for a Video Game console to pay $600 while other consoles are $299 or less. The fact that Sony could have charged $800 instead isn't going to make the consumer feel any better about it either. Are we all going to pretend that this isn't how Sony completely stole Sega's thunder at E3 before Sega's demise? Sega was first to the podium and after promoting their console and announcing a $399 price point. When Sony's rep walked up to the podium the very first thing out of his mouth was "$299". The very first thing! So, don't tell me that no one at Sony knows that pricepoint especially compared to your competition isn't a very important thing in the minds of it's consumers. It was a marketing tactic they themselves used!!!

+2 # RE: Vita Sales Still Struggling — Spitfireben 2012-01-07 09:22

F*cking CAPCOM release new Monster Hunter already. Give that japanese Monster Hunter. Japanese love Monster Hunter

# RE: Vita Sales Still Struggling — vampyren 2012-01-07 20:29

Its just a temporary thing, just like 3DS, people are waiting for more big titles (like uncharted), also it didnt release globally. I think it will sell like hell in rest of the world to be honest. The price is just right in my opinion and the memory cost is not to bad.
i just hope the OS isnt to buggy by 22 feb. I want to use it for surfing as well.

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