PSP Outselling Vita in Japan

The Sony Vita is off to a rocky start, suddenly generating nearly 150,000 sales less than its debut week.

Since its initial sales boom during the week of its release beginning on December 17th, sales of PlayStation’s latest handheld have dropped. Precipitously. After getting the Vita into the hands of 324,859 gamers and gift-givers on the 17th, Sony’s week two system sales nosedived to 72,479 units. Now compare that to the PSP’s sales that same week: 101,121 units.

Sony is probably clamoring for answers as to why the sales tanked, but there are a few key factors likely to blame. For starters, sales always dive come the actual week of Christmas, however, relatively speaking, that still doesn’t account for the drop as compared to Sony’s now old-gen handheld. Another reason being posited is that the Vita is yet to offer new games post-launch, also causing not one Vita title to appear on the week’s top twenty sales chart, which featured five 3DS games, two DS games, nine Wii games, three PS3 games, and one PSP game. Then, of course, there’s the price dynamic. The Vita is currently the most expensive handheld on the market (compared to the DS, 3DS, and PSP).

It should be noted that these figures don’t necessarily spell certain doom for the Vita. Nintendo’s 3DS suffered a similar slump during it’s post-release due to a similar issue: lack of games. The 3DS, however, has since u-turned after the release of titles such as Mario Kart 7 and Super Mario 3D Land. We’ll likely see the same upward swing once Sony’s larger IPs hit the streets. Whether or not the system will be able to stick it out for the long run, though, is a different question entirely.

Source: Andriasang