Price Cut Prompts PlayStation Vita Sell Outs in Japan

Push Square: "See that red text at the bottom of those PlayStation Vita promotional posters? That's the sign of victory. After having its price slashed to just ¥19,980 yesterday, Sony’s struggling handheld has finally started flying off the shelves, with the pictured Akihabara retailer only having two models left in stock."

[antbolton89]

I think the japan price cut was a test to see if it would make a difference to sales, i expect europe and america to get a price cut soon if it is selling out

[Blastoise]

I read something on this last night. Apparently they sold out within the hour!

I imagine Phantasy Star Online 2 & Soul Sacrifice helped a lot too

http://www.inside-games.jp/...

Use google translate

[bicfitness]

What's funnny is this troll article that was trying to paint an entirely different story:

http://n4g.com/news/1183421...

I told the fool to wait until the official date and more numbers/ samples started trickling out before making assumptions, but some people just don't listen.

Would be nice to see the Vita do 50-70K for the next few weeks (or more, obviously, but we have no idea what supply is like).

[G20WLY]

"...PlayStation Vita Sell Outs in Japan", now there's a headline I was starting to think might never be written! :)

[stuna1]

It's also safe to assume that the announcement of the PS4's functionality with it, has helped in some regards.

[knifefight]

March is definitely going to be big for Vita in Japan.
http://www.gamerevolution.c...
^ As said, here as well:
"This, plus the launches of Phantasy Star Online 2 and Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus should lead to a big jump in Vita sales on next week's charts. The releases of Tales of Hearts-R, Soul Sacrifice, Dead or Alive 5 Plus, One Piece Pirate Warriors 2, and a portable Atelier Meruru should keep the system's performance respectable all month long."

We've seen the prelude, now March will show how the machine can do with a lower price and appealing software.

[miyamoto]

So the battle begins in Japan...

PlayStation sends a message that it is still the Platform for Hunting games

http://gematsu.com/2013/02/...

Enjoy Hunting!

PS.
This proves that price point is the number 1 factor in Japan.

200K next week confirmed?
Assasin's Creed: Black Flag Vita this year?
PS4+PS Vita bundle next year?

Gonna be exciting!

[bryam1982]

so it has begun buaaaaah! cool i love my vita i am thinking of buying a new one cuz my kid have my old one all scratch and dirty please price drop for americaaaaa c'mon sony lets do it baby

[Ddouble]

I would not go as far as 200K. Dengeki said they only shipped 30K of the new ice silver colour.

So if those sell out, plus sales of the other colours then expect at least 50K.

Remember Sony is also pushing Soul Sacrifice hard and that comes with it's own special SKU so people might be waiting on that as well.

[3-4-5]

Another point for Logic.

Now if only somebody could slap some sense into Sony NA.

[TongkatAli]

Dude, they're bleeding money on it why do you think the memory cards are that expensive ? For fun ?

[SilentNegotiator]

They would have to be on something to think a pricecut wouldn't make a difference in the West.

They should have rolled out a pricecut at the Playstation meeting, instead of giving Vita another year of slow sales and thus keeping developers scared off even longer.

[GraveLord]

The portable market in Japan is very differnt from the one in EU/US. A price cut in Japan could increase Vita sales by millions this year, while one in America could only increase it by a few hundred thousand. I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's all about the games. Sony was smart to time this price cut with games like Phantasy Star Online 2 and the upcoming Soul Sacrifice.

[Denethor_II]

We all remember the articles about the PS3 being still born and what not, whatever happened to all the Xbox trolls that once ruled and littered this site?
Anyway, now we're seeing the same with Vita, with people like Cliffy B saying 'Sony should give up on Vita'. It's obviously going to sell, give it a rest.

[Apollosupreme]

Price cuts usually mean they're also prepping for a new and improved product to fill that price point. I expect a new Vita by Xmas that will have some new bells and whistles.

[shutUpAndTakeMyMoney]

Perfect timing before ps4..

They should promote ps4 + vita sales! Buy a ps4 now and save $70 on vita when bought together..

[Apollosupreme]

Bundling them together at some point would be an excellent idea.

[Tei777]

I don' t think this is the case actually. The Japanese price cut has been very strategically timed to to coinside with all of the Vita's biggest releases. Starting this week with PSO2 the Vita has a least one major flagship title being released everyweek of march. Next week its soul Sacrifice, then Gundam, then One Piece. There are also a ton of other notable titles but the above are the biggest I think.

They didn't offer this cut in west because they have no software to support it and they we will probably never have a month as strong as this in west. To be honest I thinking over here sony's flagship title is the ps4 lol

[TheGrimOfDeath]

I like this version better: http://i.imgur.com/m7d9kMB....

[Sanquine90]

LOL I laughed. Kaz is cool!:D

[SandWitch]

LOL WTF, why are all WiFi models sold out and 3G models not if price is the same?

These must be a great portion of geniuses there in Japan

[oONinjavitiSOo]

Well you can tether your ps vita to your phone. Might be why they aren't. Besides you can't use multiplayer games over 3g only social functions.

[Baka-akaB]

why would there be a frenzy on 3g version ? You can't play with it and most people in japan got 3g and beyond capabilities on their phones . They obviously dont care and dont have to

[Sanquine90]

Justice! Hopefully the price drop comes soon in EU and NA

[OlgerO]

I just realized something, every person that owns a Vita will buy a PS4 over a xbox 720 because of the remote play option. So the existence of the Vita will help PS4 market share

[theDECAY]

That's assuming that all the Vita owners out there right now aren't already going to be early adopters for PS4.

[abzdine]

great! a lower price was what Vita needs.

[majiebeast]

Psvita+8GB card+1-3 month card for psplus, would sell for sure. I love my Vita i have it since launch it deserves more succes its a amazing device.

[swice]

Sweet. Soon I'll be able to afford one

[Sanquine90]

Mark my words @ price drop will be announced. If sony watches this development of what the price drop can do to sales ,they should lower it in NA/ EU

[TemplarDante]

"Pricecuts of Vita Wordwide, leads to global sellouts"

After the pricecut and 4G/LTE Vita is announced at E3 :)

I'll be two of them.

[Conzul]

Hope there's a 4G Vita. Also hope they upgrade the Camera to an HD one. Fewer reasons to put it down and pick up my phone instead, wut wut? :S

[SandWitch]

Better camera is good and all, but honestly that's just a waste of money, gaming-oriented device does not need a good camera if any. They should better increase battery capacity and make screen less glossy (or a bit brighter) for better visibility outside. That's what I hope from the PS VITA Slim model

[Baka-akaB]

I dont see the point of going 4g for now on Vita. Barely anyone wanted the 3g version already and it will ramp up costs again .

Bare some real way to play online games and with the slow adoption rate of 4G/LTE worldwide , it's probably at least a year or two off .

[dolkrak]

Yeah, only thing stopping me really is the price of memory cards... 75$ for a 32 Gb, Sony dropped the ball on that one.

Maybe I'll wait for a PS4+Vita pack for christmas. Not sure I can wait that long :op

[The_Devil_Hunter]

Is there reallyl going to be a PS4 bundled with Vita? That sounds too expensive no!?

[dolkrak]

Possibly... So many things (PS+, remote play, and so on) are made to use both Vita and PS4, would be highly logical.

[SandWitch]

"Blast from the past" bundle for a nostalgic $599?

Sounds good to me :$

[holdmyown83]

Where in the hell did u find a 32gb for $75?

[dolkrak]

I mean 75 € I'm in Europe. No idea what the price is in the US.

[Kingthrash360]

That was my thought exactly

[DarkHeroZX]

I bought a 32 gig for $79 with free 2 day shipping on amazon.

[holdmyown83]

Looks like best buy has the 32gb on sale for 35 this week

[MasterCornholio]

Wow it took them 1 year and 2 months to drop the Vitas price. Thats a lot longer than what it took Nintendo to drop the 3DSs.

BTW the 3DS had its price cut after 3 months on the market right?

EDIT: LOL i was trying to find the answer to my question but instead i found loads of rumors that Nintendo is going to respond to this with a price drop.

[bothebo]

That's because the 3DS is a piece of crap hardware wise. The fact that people bought it at launch for $250 was ridiculous because it is not worth that much. I believe it is only a little big stronger than the Wii, so figure that out.

[TongkatAli]

The Wii wasn't suppose to be 250$ and I bought it at launch, go figure, I thought there was more under the hood.

[younghavok]

peice of crap? Wow. 3ds may not have all the extra bells and whistles the vita has but the 3d effect is amazing and the games are great as well. Dual screen, touch screen and built sturdy? Plus the games are 40 bucks at most. Its a great handheld, and its crapping all over the Vita sales wise in both hardware and software.

[Snookies12]

Honestly, being able to play DS games on the 3DS as well is a good selling point. It's definitely not the best hardware, but it's pretty good overall. It is, by no means a piece of crap... I enjoy the Vita a lot more, but there are just some games that you need a DS/3DS for. Just as all consoles have those certain games. :]

[Baka-akaB]

I wouldnt say it's crap , but the 3ds wasnt fairly priced at all ... while it was difficult to cut down on the vita given its hardware .

[Vallagard]

They need to work their price drop around the playstation 4 release. When that is i don't know. When it should be? I don't know, but i hope Sony knows when the best time will be to gain maximum unit sales. (I'm assuming once the PS4 hits, those who want it will buy it for the system, then they might choose to do a price cut shortly after to give the vita more attention, which would give the ps4 more attention, which would give the vita more attention, which would...).

[bothebo]

I think Sony's aim is to dominate the West come holiday season, the most important part of the year for the industry. The PS4 is rumored to be launching then. Also, if Sony comes out at E3 with a PS3 drop, a Vita price drop, and a strong Vita launch line up for the holiday season, you better hold on to your hat. Of course, this is just hypothetical, but I like to dream.

[HiddenMission]

It's not rumored it's confirmed that it launches end of this year and if Vita get's a price cut then Sony will be killing it again.

I actually believe the PS4 is going to be the PS2 all over again...just you wait and see.

[swice]

I think they should do a price drop on the Vita sooner rather than later. If the Vita gets the price drop at PS4 launch, then people with less money will still have to choose between the two. If they lower it now, people can buy it now and save up for PS4

[Y_5150]

That's great. Amazing differences, it went from selling very poorly to selling out!

The rest of the world needs a cut then the Vita can start dominating everywhere. Saying from a proud Vita owner that got my PS Vita during black Friday. :)

Edit: I would like to add some fellow Vita owners, I don't have enough fellow Vita owners on my Friends list!

[Obamanationn]

how much is it now ? USD plz

[Godchild1020]

249.99 and 299.99 in the US. The US nor EU got a price cut yet.

In Japan it's 19,980 Yen which translates to about 210-215 dollars, I think.

[Toolster]

Yeah it's $213 and £143 and €163

[tiffac008]

Sony has yet to announce a price cut for the western market. I guess we have no choice but to wait for E3 at the soonest.

Does anyone know if Sony dropped the price on them memory cards?

[tigertron]

A price cut in Japan and the Vita sells out. You see that Sony? now cut the price in Europe and the rest of the world, and whilst you're at it, cut those bloody 32GB memory cards, then I'll buy one!

[Ddouble]

Japan just got Phantasy Star Online 2, Soul Sacrifice with it's own edition and the new ice silver colour.

The price cut could not have come at a better time for those in Japan.

The situation in the west is different though, we don't have those games or the new colours. I can see a price cut being announced at E3 to coincide with Killzone Mercenary, tearaway and other games that appeal to western gamers.

[wtfbbq8]

If Sony is smart, they should also bundle PS vita with Soul Sacrifice in US/EU. That gonna sell and then price drop during the holiday season.

[redtideone11]

I think people now adays are greedy, they don't understand the raw power of a device and how much money goes into it to make it.

[Kennytaur]

I thought the standard price was cheap, but I'm glad it's starting to get the sales it deserves so we get better third party support.

[imt558]

I'm glad that PS Vita almost sold out in Japan.:)

[Clarence]

This is all the people were waiting for. The 3ds started selling as soon as the the price was dropped Now its the Vita's turn. I'll be getting 1 as so as the price drops here in the states.

Let the battle begin. All the Vita needs is a dragon quest, and Monster Hunter game.

They also just sold a build in Tokyo for 1.2b
http://www.zdnet.com/sony-s...
Sony's domination for next gen is starting.

[dboyman]

"Let the battle begin. All the Vita needs is a dragon quest, and Monster Hunter game."

Tell that to Capcom and Square-Enix...

[XabiDaChosenOne]

Long live Playstation.

[talocaca]

The picture is from yodobashi camera in Akihabara. pretty much the biggest electronics store in the country so I imagine they had many units in stock.

It also sold out near my house and has been the only Hardware on Amazon's Top 20. The 32gig card also on the top 10 which makes sense.

Buying the Vita at a store makes sense since they give you 10%points...but the memory card is a lot cheaper on Amazon. I paid 65usd for my 32gb...that came from Korea apparently.

[Bowzabub]

Take note Capcom.

[DivineAssault]

I knew this would happen eventually.. I know E3 is going to be amazing for sony.. They got some great games out & incoming for ps vita & that price cut will just skyrocket sales.. Vita being so integrated with PS4 is going to make it sell even more!

The price drop was going to happen sooner or later & if they did it any sooner, early adopters which were probably their biggest fans would've been pretty pissed off about it.. Soul Sacrifice & tales of hearts scored really well & theres some great future titles we dont even know about yet... So its a great handheld system to begin with, great software, price drop, & PS4 connectivity is going increase vitas sales BIG TIME..

Sony knew what they were doing with vita.. This is only the tip of the iceberg too.. Killzone is a great western title to help sales when the price gets cut (right around or after E3 im sure) & PS4 connectivity with it is going to make it an even more attractive handheld.. Sony hit a home run i think.. I dont see anything the competition can do to prevent this $h*t storm thats about to smash into em.. So many great things happening now that the company is back in good hands.. Best damn game company imo.. Untouchable value, exclusives, features, hardware, software, & support..

[imXify]

The Vita ain't tired yet. It has plenty of energy to continue his marathon.

[Bumpmapping]

Vita FTW greatest handheld ever.

[sherimae2413]

finally the vita is picking up
go my vita ^_^

[younghavok]

A pricecut is a temporary sales boost if the software isnt there to back it up. NA needs more software to help a price cut be effective. Nintendo dropped the price of the Cube alot but it did very little outside of a few short bursts of sales. People saying the battle has begun tho, idk about that. Its going to take more than a week of good sales to really show anybody anything. The 3ds is doing 70k a week I believe, and pokemon and MH4 are on the horizon. It should make things a tad more interesting tho

[boybato]

when the hardware sells the games will follow.

[knifefight]

At least in March, the software is coming.
http://www.playstationlifes...

When the install base grows, hopefully devs feel more confident in the Vita as a viable platform, and things begin to form a cycle.

[younghavok]

The psp sold quite a bit but its software didnt perform as well, which is probably why developers are treating it like the Wii of the handheld world. Over a year and still not one million seller? THey need a killer app, and should position a price cut for when it releases to not only boost sales, but to sustain them as well

[Hicken]

The PSP's poor software sales are because of how easy it was to hack and thus play pirated games on.

As for the Vita, those devs that ARE still supporting the PSP are choosing it instead of its predecessor because of a perceived smaller market to sell to, as well as costs being a bit cheaper to develop for PSP.

Sales wise, the Vita's sitting at around 4 million sold; can you name ANY game out there that's been sold to 25% of the install base? Wii Sports is probably the closest thing there is, and it doesn't count since it was bundled with nearly every Wii.

As others have said, the better time for a price cut would be sometime prior to release of the PS4. Scheduling a "killer app" around the same time would be even better incentive. On that note, Soul Sacrifice is poised to be that for many. PSO 2, for others. Still others have already found theirs in Gravity Rush or P4G or Wipeout...

Actually, if the Vita has a killer app, it'd be its diverse library that is positioned to expand even further this month. Or PS Plus. Or its upcoming connection with the PS4, and versatility that continues to expand. A killer app is different things to different people, after all.

The sales will come, given time.

[Cam977]

Sony have the power to dominate the JP market. Come on Sony, give us Monster Hunter.

[dboyman]

Need tell that to Capcom

[lovegames718]

Same ps3 effect. Everyone hated or didn't get a ps3 when it was expensive but deep down they really wanted one and when it went below 400 everyone jumped ship to it, PS vita is the same situation everyone wants one but they don't want to pay.

[Gamesgbkiller]

E3 will have more info on price cut.

[supremacy]

Now, sony has to do 2 things.

Kill off the psp entirely in Japan so that all that energy and focus can put towards the vita.

Try and get some deals made with several key 3rd party publishers so that games like dragon quest and monster hunter can help boost sales further.

For now phantasy star online 2, soul sacrifice, and final fantasy x which i hear comes in june should do with the trick. But ofcourse the vita is also getting a few more jrpgs in the mix as well, and some other games like god eater 2 and much more. But we shall see how the vita perform in the coming weeks and months.