PS Vita Sales Dropping Off In Japan
Yikes! Things are not looking good for the new Playstation Vita, which was just released last month in Japan. On December 17th and 18th, the first two days that the Vita was available, roughly 325,000 units were sold. Since then, however, only about 176,000 units were sold, which for those of you doing the math, is just above 50%.
On a weekly basis, it’s looking even worse. Only 18,361 units were sold between January 9th and the 15th, which is over 50% less than the week before when the Vita sold 42,915 units.
However, Sony maintains that it’s too early to worry about if the Vita will fail. Jim Ryan, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe President and the CEO, said in an interview with MCV “One of the things we have learned over a long period of time is that whether it is PS1, PS2, PSP or PS3, it is dangerous to the point of impossible to take any experience from the Japanese Market and try and extrapolate it, and propose upon what will happen to in Europe or North America.” In other words, just because it might struggle in one part of the world, it doesn’t mean it will struggle in other parts.
But so far, the facts are saying that the Vita is facing some immense challenges in its first month, and I would venture that if the American and European launch doesn’t go so smoothly, we might not be seeing the Vita for too much longer.
