PlayStation Vita sales have hit an all time low in Japan. Sony's latest handheld has dropped behind the PSP and 3DS as it accrues sales of just 13,939.
At launch, the Vita shifted 324,859 units and went down from there, selling 72,479 in its second week and 42,648 in its third. The next week it managed to flog 42,915, before plummeting down to 18,361, then 15,219, 18,942 and 17,141. Meanwhile, the 3DS sits atop its throne with 75,018 sales, followed by the PS3 at 23,293 and PSP at 15,847.
Still, Gravity Rush was able to penetrate the top ten selling 43,462 copies to become the second best seller of the week, while Ragnarok Odyssey got to ninth place with 41,614.
So ... it's not all bad I guess?
Suikoden, Gravity Daze Top the Charts [andriasang]
Contest:
10:30 AM on 02.16.2012 | 
I can buy a 16GB SD card ranging at $19.99 to $29.99. A 32gb card would be $39.00 to $49.99, but the Vita equivalent is $99.99.
It totally kills the Vita price point.
And yes, Monster Hunter is out. Its doing quite well on the Vita's competition, that other system whose install base is growing exponentially faster than the Vita.
Fuck that.
Color me surprised.
That said, I think handhelds in general are in a bad place.
FACT!
Sorry Sony, even if you'd like to be, you're not Apple. Gamers won't fall for your overpriced shinies.
get the fuck over it
The Vita certainly doesn't have a problem with lack of software, and I think it really caters to a Western audience. Gamesradar had an excellent article on the Vita in which they pointed out that the entry price isn't as terrible as most make it out to be. The PSP was $250 when it was first released, by comparison the Vita should cost even more for the tech it offers.
I don't think the price is going to deter initial buyers, they know what they're paying for. The argument I hate the most is "The Vita will drop in price and see a redesign, why bother?" Of course it will see a redesign and a price drop, can you name a console that came out in the past 10 years that hasn't?
I'll admit that I ranted a little bit there, but my point is that I think the Vita has a chance to do quite well outside of Japan. The sales numbers in Japan are abysmal but that doesn't signify the end. I really look forward to seeing how the Vita does over here when it "officially" launches next week.
1. all japanese retailers dropped price of 3G version of Vita less than 2 weeks after launch just to sell remaining copies and currently 3G version is already dead.
2. turned out that japanese developers and publishers canned most original Vita games that were in the works for Vita so it will be left with Wii/ps360 ports.
3. FOR FUCK'S SAKE, there's NO MONSTER HUNTER for Vita - capcom itself confirmed that when they said that it will be simply downloadable version of Monster Hunter 3 Portable for psp and since Vita emulates psp games you can play MH3Portable on Vita. that's it. you can forget about MH game build specifically for Vita.
4. as we've seen so far all Vita games bombed horribly and before sony fanboys will start blabbing about supposedly western-oriented games released so far on the Vita, i would like to point out that all japanese oriented games that are huge IPs there bombed in japan. Hot Shots Golf, Dynasty Warriors, Tales of or Ridge Racer - franchises that were launch titles on original PSP with first iterations that sold between 200-600k in japan alone can't even pass 100k copies(except Hot Shots which still is a flop considering the fact that original launch title on PSP sold over 600k in japan).
it's been 10 weeks and Vita didn't even manage to sell it's first initial 700k shipment in japan despite sony's claims how there was over 500k preorders for the damn console BEFORE launch.
The question here is - what is the card speed? Because if it's at 40-60+MB/s write, it can sit on that price point and call it, more or less, fair. Especially since Sony hardware always was more expensive.
Until I see specification that proves me wrong, I will treat those as super high grade flash cards, which are not in the price range you list here.
Also, if it will actually help to prevent hacking the hardware, I can bare the price. One of the main reason I use consoles is that 3rd party software is not openly allowed. I would love for MS to implement gaming mode in Windows, that, even with use of hardware card, prevents that. Because fuck that guy with aim bot.
And PS3 already proven that hacking the Sony machines, with their architecture, is 99.9% for piracy, since I don't think there is single worthwhile homebrew released for it, excluding backups launcher. So this argument is bullshit as well. Especially since you can develop for Android/iOS much much easier, do the same as you would like to on handheld and reach more people.
"Turned out that japanese developers and publishers canned most original Vita games that were in the works for Vita so it will be left with Wii/ps360 ports."
Link or it didn't happen.
And I seem to remember sofik being in all the comment threads when people were claiming 3DS doom 2 months after launch, and he turned out to be right! So yeah, a little hypocritical.
For me it's attractive as device I can use to extend my PS3 experience - sharing games and saves between machines, achievements, remote play etc. so I still consider getting one, but probably a little later this year, even if it wont have too many notable games.
The data transfer speeds on Uncharted are well within reason, but the demo for Gravity Daze/Rush/Whatever - takes a minute to load to its own start up screen and then about a minute and a half to load the actual game. When it finally loads the game is good, but I could have been playing anything on my 3DS minutes before it got starteed
I don't recall PSP games taking this long and games saved to SD on 3DS certainly don't take this long.
The price of the Vita cards isn't for speed, it certainly isn't for security that'll be cracked in days after the US launch and the amount of storage for the asking price is pitiful. Drop the 32 GB card to $50 and then we'll talk, Sony.
It may take longer in Japan because most of the games we're looking forward to (Resistance, Bioshock, Mortal Kombat, Call of Duty) aren't big over there. Once Persona comes out I expect to see a spike in sales.
The reality is 3DS and Vita are being destroyed by iOS. I don't known that I world buy any other portable device unless it made phone calls too.
Real shame the 3G version does not make any phone calls
Isn't the PS Vita better on nearly all accounts compared to the 3DS? It has better touch interfaces and more powerful hardware and networking features, and even a second analog stick right out the gate (not nubs either). So, is it really the price point of the memory cards that is causing these slow sales?
The 3DS may not have had a Vita to compete against at launch, but it did pretty well at $299 all the same(not great, NO WAY, but decent enough). These sales numbers are pretty baffling to me, and I thought Nintendo would be humbled for once these past six years.
Its an expensive investment that not everyones going to have the money for. I had to bend over and do a triple somersault to pull the money together for mine, surely the price point is an issue. Maybe Nintendo proved a point when it dropped the price of the 3DS?
Also, maybe it proves something I've said for a while (not betting that it does, but its a hope): Having your prior system out, and still supported, for a cheaper price, hurts you. Maybe a lot of people aren't seeing a reason to jump to a Vita when the PSP is a cheaper, still viable, alternative. Sony didn't exactly sow this kind of confidence with the PS3, seeing as the PS2 is still getting some games from what I hear. So, maybe Sony should muster up bits of their douchieness and say "hey, we're cutting off this old thing, buy the newest to keep up." Its not the greatest plan in the world, but it might work for them.
Was 100% joking about the truth bomb thing.