We all knew the Vita was doing rather badly sales wise, but not quite as badly as was revealed at this years Gamescom.
Since it’s launch in Japan last December and in Europe and America in February of this year, Sony have shifted a rather lowly 2.2m Vita units worldwide.
At the same stage in its lifecycle, PSP had sold 5.05m units and the 3DS 6.68m. DS had shifted 6.65m units and the Game Boy Advance 9.58m.
A high price point and a selection of lacklustre titles have been cited as the cause of the unit failing to get customers to part with their cash, and with very little of real note heading toward the system between now and the first quarter of 2013 it doesn’t look set to improve all that much.
With the PSP Vita, while arguably very impressive, seemingly nosediving into oblivion – and in light of mobile devices taking over handheld gaming etc – perhaps it might actually be in the interest of the already struggling Japanese giant to drop the system altogether rather than continually pour money into the project?
I rang the death bell for the Vita long before it even released. I knew full well that this would happen.
Ironically, I actually own one. It’s a great piece of kit but without great games, it’s completely useless.
It’s still got life left in it, but Sony need to change their strategy, fast.
Selling the games for less than £40 a pop would be a start. They should be a maximum of £19.99 in my opinion.
Sony’s Cross Buy thing is a step in the right direction, but they’ll need to get third parties on-board if it’s to gain any momentum. This will be hard as Sony have admitted it’s struggling with any form of third party support.
The entire PSN game back catalogue needs to be accessible on Vita too. I can’t believe they haven’t done this already.
The console needs a price drop. They’re not going to sell any if it’s more than a hundred and fifty notes. Yes, they’ll lose money, but they’ll lose even more if they scrap it altogether. The simple fact is, that the Vita will never be a success unless they do this.
I pretty much stated all of this from the very beginning but Sony’s millionaire board members knew better than I, didn’t they?
Reading elsewhere, Sony intend to focus on making the system more child/family friendly. Sadly I don’t see that as any kind of solution, it needs to appeal to more than the DS audience.
That’s the worst possible move they could do.
Nintendo always have and always will own this segment.
Sony need to distance themselves from Nintendo and go in the opposite direction if the Vita is to have any chance at all.
I’m not so sure. The child market probably ARE the handheld gaming console market now. Most adults are happy (if they want to be gaming handheld) with their mobile phones.
Mobile phones are what’s killed the handheld console… Well, that and recession. I suppose if people had disposable incomes a PS Vita might be an attractive purchase, but as it is, why bother? When they can do pretty much anything on that one device which also makes phone calls?
Children on the other hand don’t tend to have mobiles. Which is why Nintendo aren’t suffering so much.
But Nintendo have covered that market. It’s probably time for SONY to bow out of the handheld market all together. Or start packaging the vita with the PS4 as direct competition to the WiiU.
I’ve owned a Vita since it came out, and I still haven’t got any games for it at. Borrowed Rayman from a friend, which I played for about half an hour because I don’t really get on with platformers. It’s a shame – it’s a nice console, but it’s not really surprising it hasn’t sold well. I’m hoping I get to use mine soon….