Vita Sales Get Even Worse

Last week's Vita sales are bad. "How bad?" Less than 20,000 bad.

Last week, Sony's John Koller claimed that the company wasn't bothered by the Vita's less than spectacular sales performance in Japan. I wonder if that statement still stands now that weekly sales have dropped yet again. This time by 57%.

This week Sony managed to shift 18,361 Vitas, meaning a total of 500,000 have been sold in the four weeks since the handheld's launch. For comparison, the 3DS sold nearly 200,000 units more during its initial four weeks of sales.

Many Japanese retailers are offering up to a 20% discount on the Vita's current RRP in an attempt to boost sales, and many gamers are wondering if Sony is going to take a leaf out of Nintendo's book and slash the unit's price, presumably driving down sales even more. Sony, however, maintains that despite the Vita's arse-poor sales performance, it's still "selling to forecast."

While market analysts are no doubt already working on their "traditional handhelds are dead; long live the smartphone" spiels, we won't have a real idea of the Vita's overall performance until it launches in the west on February 22nd.

Source: IndustryGamers