Sony PS Vita sales fall shy of 3DS launch volume
But a better seller in the long run?
Mobile-mad Japanese gamers bought 321,400 PS Vita handheld consoles this past weekend, local market watcher Enterbrain has revealed.
A lot of units, to be sure, but behind Nintendo's 3DS launch, which saw 371,000 units snapped up in a similar two-day period.
The original PSP clocked up two-day launch sales of 166,000 units back in 2004.
Nintendo shouldn't get cocky. The 3DS has arguably a broader appeal than the Vita. Yet 3DS sales plunged quickly once eager fans had acquired the device. It has largely failed to build a more mainstream audience.
Sony hopes the Vita will reach beyond its core fanbase. But it faces an uphill struggle persuading folk who already game on smartphones to buy a second device.
Hardcore gamers won't mind carrying two gadgets, knowing that the Vita delivers a better gaming experience than a phone, but more casual gamers may favour single-device convenience.
The PS Vita goes on sale over here at the end of February 2012. You can read Reg Hardware's preview of the PS Vita, based on a play with some of the launch titles, here. ®
COMMENTS
sterotype
that's such a typical response from a PC FPS'er
not everyone in the world plays Counterstrike or Modern Warfare. and equally, not every game that is available for the Vita can be played on a pc or a smartphone
the Vita just needs a few big brand exclusives to draw in the crowd. It's already got Uncharted. It just needs GTA, God of War, Killzone and Metal Gear Solid titles that aren't available on the PS3 and then it'll shift a chunk more units to fanatics like myself who otherwise wouldn't bother.
I think you'll find it was hyped, check the gaming press, sites like eurogamer ahve been running nearly daily articles about it up till the JP launch.
I can imagine its been hyped up in JP as well.
Oh and they sold more 3DS's in the launch 2 days then vitas launch 2days, and i believe they sold more 3ds's in japan last week than vita on its launch weekend anyway (i may be wrong on this, seen reports but not numbers)
but yeah, doesn't the 3ds obviously doesn't deliver......
Nice looking device
You get a lot of bang per buck from a Vita - quad core, 2xcapacitive touch, OLED, GPS, twin sticks, 2x camera, microphone etc. and on the face of it for an attractive price too.
It's too bad that half the games require you buy a separate memory card which pushes the price up. I don't think people would object if the device used MicroSD cards, but it doesn't.
Gizmo Saturation Level: Reached
That's pretty much the problem at this point. It's been an entire year of a major competing handheld system released after everyone's been pretty dry for some time, with a major new "wow" feature. Maybe it's of debatable necessity, but it's at least New and Different, while the the Vita's a serious and practical evolution of the platform, without anything really new. It's also competing against dozens of smartphones with a wide variety of applications including games, tablets with a wide variety of applications including games, and e-reader devices that support a wide variety of applications including games. And pretty much anyone that can afford to have any of those has at least one already. In order to do *well* in that kind of a saturated market, a new entry needs to have a reason to sell to someone that can afford the money and attention to a *second* (or third or fourth) device, not being able to rely on customers well-disposed to the Playstation milieu and looking for *a* device to do portable entertainment things.
Single PSN account?
May be people are holding off until this is fixed.
