PlayStation Vita Sales Surpass 62,000 Units in Japan Post Price Cut

Push Square: "PlayStation Vita sales surged to 62,543 units in Japan following last week’s price cut. The system – which saw its price slashed to ¥19,980 on 28th February – sold out in some stores, prompting SCEJ executive Hiroshi Kawano to hint that sales had quadrupled. However, the system actually performed better than the 40k figure that the executive insinuated, proving that there’s still life in the system yet."

[WalterWJR]

Congratulations are in order. It seems the "dead" can walk, now let's get these zombies sprinting.

[xursz]

Indeed. Thats a huge boost for sure. The surge was larger than SCE expected even.

[kayoss]

And to think they could have done this earlier... imagine if they dropped the price before the holidays of 2012? Sony should have learned from the PS3 mistakes and learn from Nintendo when the released the 3DS. I just hope this carry on for a while so that I wont have to see "doom" article.

[Harkins1721]

Except their trying to make money. So why should they cut a fairly priced handheld? (Cards are whats expensive)

[SandWitch]

3DS was overpriced. With PS VITA, I can hardly imagine how it can break even with a $250 price tag.

[torchic]

n4g economists.

gotta love them.

[DarkHeroZX]

well.... that's bigger than I expected.

[Trunkz]

That's what she said. :3

[GreenRanger]

....to me.

[portal_2]

...Whilst holding mine :D

[TongkatAli]

I was there too

[stragomccloud]

I as too late. She's gone now. :P

[axisofweevils]

3DS still sold 15,000 more though. :P

[Sweelix]

that's 14,500 more then the 360...

[just-joe]

They don't sell the 360 in Japan anymore.

[RTheRebel]

without comPetition theRe is no innOvatioN ;)

[YoungKingDoran]

P...R...O...N. PRON? ahh, pr0n.

[zebramocha]

@axis isn't the 3ds still cheaper than the ps vita?

[talocaca]

3DS is still cheaper everything considered. They biggest hurdle now is that many people here still enjoy PSP, that also became cheaper this week.

Until last week, PSP was more expensive than 3DS....so, yes, it sells more.....compare Toyotas to BMW's....

[Good_Guy_Jamal]

I didn't realize Toyotas were only a couple of dollars more expensive than BMW's. Also, lets not compare Vitas to BMW's, Bmw's sell to expectations and are very successful and well liked.

[talocaca]

Wow...that makes all the whining about 50 bucks all that much more lame doesn't it?

I guess Kutaragi was right...people like you just need better jobs.

xoxo

[DarkHeroZX]

lol BMW's are only well liked amoungst a small group of rich folks. And last time I checked they where doing crap like this:

http://www.nbcnews.com/busi...

[TongkatAli]

I thought it was a know fact Nintendo fanboys work in Mcdonalds. I knew that.

[Lvl_up_gamer]

@ talocaca

What is the saying....

"a fool and his money are easily parted"

Looks to me Good_Guy_Jamal is not so foolish.

$50 may not be that much money, but just because you have it, doesn't mean you just throw it away because of a nice shiny new toy. There has to be value that the consumer sees which would be worth spending that extra $50 over what the competition is offering.

[Donnieboi]

Level_up_Gamer is obviously jamal's alt account. The way they both seperate three words with underscores in their usernames just makes me laugh.

[miyamoto]

So it has begun...

PSP & PSV versus 3DS & 3DSLL next round...

this shall be interesting...

as always pricing is king!

right, Wii U?

[LOL_WUT]

Of course ;)

[Tito08]

That reminds me of the Gamecube, it was the cheapest at the time and saw more price drops in a short period time, but still failed in comparison to PS2, while Xbox being Microsoft's first console, outsold it as well.

[BigStef71]

My feeling:
http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[DiRtY]

Still not enough to be a relevant gaming platform.
The Vita is dead in the West for some time now. It died last holiday season.

And it gets outsold by the direct competition in the last remaining gaming market that actually cares about handhelds - Japan.

[classic200]

LOL sound like you don't like the idea the VITA selling, I don't know about america but if this drops in euro territories you will be wondering if all European countries are playstation fanboys.

When you say it wont sell in the west make sure you remove Europe from your equation because that is Sony territory.

You dont even sound like a troll, you sound more like a real bitter person lol.

[bicfitness]

I'm quite certain that "the West" is Vita's strongest market at the moment. AC Vita did like 600K, and hardly any of that was in Japan.

The Vita's relevance will take a sharp upwards turn if Sony deliver on ACTUAL remote-play for all PS4 titles too.

Don't count the Vita out until production stops.

[VitaOwner]

Troll harder

[Protagonist]

Just Ignore him, he will soon become a one bubble!

[BlaqMagiq24]

Proof if you can even find any.

[MasterofMagnetism]

Cut the price in EU & NA and the sales would super quadruple.

[abzdine]

we have the new japanese king of handheld.
now we'll see good games coming!!

[xursz]

relax you're getting ahead of yourself.

[UltraVegito]

This Is great,SS should put the Vita at it's peak in quite sometime :D

However sadly there isn't anything over the horizon to keep it steady after SS :/

Still,this shows there is some hope left,now it's up to sony to spend the $$ to keep it going.

[xursz]

One Piece?

[UltraVegito]

Multi-plat with the ps3 however I expect it to do well in the portable front.
But still that alone isn't enough to keep it steady.
Only time will tell though,I really want the Vita to keep pushing out these numbers.

[GABRIEL1030]

Let's go Vita you can do it¡¡¡¡

[CaptainYesterday]

Great news! Now slash the price everywhere else and also memory cards! It's a great system I got a great deal on mine but I need a bigger memory card thanks to PS+ ;)

[DJ]

Cool, now do it in the US!

[lovegames718]

Resp to Kayos....

You do know that the hardware in the vita is and was more expensive than that of the 3ds and that Nintendo purposely inflated the cost of 3ds upon release and swindled many gamers right? They had the luxury of dropping the 3ds price when things didn't go there way, Sony on the other hand could not as the Vita hardware cost more to make and reducing the cost would put them in the red. People need to use common sense and research before making comments.

But damn its good to see the Vita selling well over there and it can only get better with time as they have many ppl that have never bought a vita and are potential buyers.

[PimpDaddy]

Nice numbers. But I'm afraid it's just a temporary sales spike because of the price cut. The fact that the 3DS still outsold it indicates that there will not be any sustainable momentum. I think certain members of N4G still haven't grasped that there isn't much demand for a dedicated handheld gaming console that plays PS3 type games on the go. Sony needs to create more games that appeal to casual gamers like Nintendo does...

[DEATHxTHExKIDx]

kool now slash the price in the US by sumemr then I can get one. Maybe a new bundle.

Summer for me will be the best time to get a Vita still a few 3DS,360,PS3 games coming out his year BUT, theres always that gaming drought in summer. I get a Vita bundle few games(uncharted,gravity rush, Persona4)with PS+ good setup.

[DivineAssault]

memory price drops need to be permanent as well..

[josephayal]

Extreme Victory for SONY in japan

[Protagonist]

Indeed! ;o)

[izumo_lee]

I think the numbers could've been bigger cause i heard since many of the retail outlets did not stock a lot of Vitas prior to the price cut sold out really fast. Some stores even started selling the system at the reduced price before the Feb 28th.

Now with the price cut in effect next week numbers should be interesting since more retail stores will be stocking a lot more of the system.

[miyamoto]

Yeah. remember what happened to the PSP when Mon Hun Portable 3rd released?

Sony couldn't keep up and had a huge shortage that time. And had to convert export models to Japanese configurations just to meet demand. Those were crazy times!

This time I hope Sony is prepared not to face the same problem again.

I also expect old PSV titles to climb up the charts next week.

In light of these events, that 16 million PS4 shipment, if true, could only mean one thing ... PS4 will not be very expensive.

PS
oh and down below... keep hoping!
LOL!

[SDF Repellent]

The main problem here is not so much hardware, it is the price of software. In Japan where portable systems are bigger than home consoles, no doubt a price drop will help the VITA, it is only natural. But in the western world, people perceive value of the software more so than hardware. The main function of the VITA is game but the price is $40-$50 a pop and people just ain't going to spend that kind of money on games when they can get games on their smartphones and iPads, even though they are more casual in nature and inferior. I just don't see the VITA is going to take off all of a sudden even if a price drop do occur in the States. It is just my opinion and I hope I am wrong, but I doubt it.

[Ult iMate]

>>but the price is $40-$50 a pop and people just ain't going to spend that kind of money on games

They are spending those money on 3DS games already.

[Hicken]

Don't waste your time on this guy. He claims to be against Sony fanboys, but he's really just against Sony.

He doesn't hope he's wrong. He'd be perfectly happy if the Vita failed, the PS4 failed, and Sony disappeared off the face of the Earth.

There's no difference between the 3DS games at $40-50, and Vita games at the same price. There's a difference in the hardware between the two, which is why one is- and should be- more expensive than the other.

As for this talk of mobile games: stop. They're not the same market. You could make an argument that the people who would once have bought a dedicated handheld for time-wasting games no longer does so, but to think they're eating into the handheld market at anything more than a marginal pace is silly. Furthermore, it's completely unsubstantiated. He's right that they're more casual in nature and inferior, which is why people will and do still see a need for a dedicated device. That's the say nothing of the price difference between those smartphones and tablets, and a Vita or 3DS.

This is really getting old now. But I guess he needed some way to make the Vita look bad. Or try to, anyway.

[ritsuka666]

Those are "ok" numbers, but I'd wait to see if that keeps numbers up for more than a month before dropping again. We'll see...

[DarkHeroZX]

"I have to say those are pretty horrible Vita numbers for essentially their last gambit, but I guess it all comes down to Sony hoping Soul Sacrifice becoming Monster Hunter. lol"

That was your original comment on this article:

http://n4g.com/news/1187241...

Seriously stop talking on anything Sony related and go....

[Protagonist]

Awesome news! Go PS Vita!!!!

[Xsly]

They should cut the memory card prices too, because i really want to get ps+ but i need a bigger memory card for that.

[killerorca258]

Booyah! If this keeps up, Sony will EVENTUALLY realize that price cuts do increase sales, it's simple logic, the Vita costs about $200 Australian to make and they were selling it dor $350. If Sony sells 11,000 Vitas in Japan for $150 profit each, that equals $1.65 million. But if Sony sells 62,000 Vitas at $250, or $50 profit each, that equals $3.1 million. It isn't rocket science Sony, get with the program.