Kaz Hirai: PS Vita Performing Almost As Expected

Kazuo Hirai, Sony CEO and President, has said that the Vita's sales are not all that bad for the company.

[units]

This guy cant be serious

[Derekvinyard13]

... He expected low sales??

[zebramocha]

If those are his words verbatim,it suggest they had a higher expectation but may have been unrealistic that's why he said "almost" and adjust the sales of the vita.

[gaffyh]

Well tbh, if they expected low sales, what that means is that it isn't a big issue for them that sales are low at the moment. This is either because they're making profit at the current price, or because they expected holiday sales to be stronger than the March-August period, which has low sales anyway, or both.

[gaffyh]

Or of course, damage control.

[joeorc]

" He expected low sales??"

the device is not subsidised, the only other dedicated Handheld game system is Nintendo and it is $100.00 less than the PSVita that is with what many say when you have to buy a Blank Memory card. and its price is the same as the PS3. and we are in a world wide recession, plus did'nt many people even today still say there is "no game's they are interested that's on the PSVita"

all that going against the PSVita add in smartphones, Tablet's and you have a very competitive market, Sony is atleast offering a system that is not just made by Nintendo in this part of the market!

Nintendo is the handheld leader for dedicated Game console Handhelds, but that does not mean you could not offer an alternative to Nintendo.

[Mustang300C2012]

Yep. Talk about lowered expectations.

[Anon1974]

This isn't news. Sony reported two months ago that they were happy with Vita sales and they were in line with expectations and this was knowing that they were about to make an adjustment to the PSP/Vita sales forecast for the year as they had to do initially with the PS3, like Microsoft had to do with the 360, as Nintendo had to do with the 3DS, etc. They went further and noted that digital sales were actually performing much better than anticipated.

Sony's not one to shy away from admitting when something isn't meeting expectations, just like Nintendo has addressed and apologized in the past for issues with 3DS. But the truth is, the Vita could disappear overnight and it wouldn't matter to Sony's investors. The Vita is such a small source of revenue compared to the behemoth that is Sony, shareholders don't even blink regarding the portable market, any more than investors were all worked up about the performance of the Windows 7 phones. Sure sales could be better, but it's not like do or die in terms of the big picture.

People have to remember that when it comes to these sales discussions, they need to have some perspective. A lot of these "Sony doom" articles miss that point. Nintendo is in a different boat. More than half their revenue was from DS hardware and software sales for awhile. The 3DS needs to replace that lost revenue quickly because it's such a huge part of what Nintendo does. Sony and Microsoft simply aren't in the same position. Microsoft doesn't even care about the mobile market, to Sony it's just another in a huge list of electronic products they offer spanning everything from cameras to TV's to stereo equipment.

[Angainor7]

yeah right

[DivineAssault]

i love my vita.. Too bad its not doing as well as it should be.. The memory & lack of backwards compatibility transfers really hurt em.. Most ppl dont want to give up their collection of UMDs & dont want to pay all that money for memory.. Vita is awesome tho & im buying lots of new games & IPs on it for the nx 2 years.. Sadly im going to need an expensive 32GB card as well for the crossbuy titles, psp, ps1, & psn games.. My 16GB is almost full with apps n demos

[rhcpfan]

Honestly, I think it's because most people aren't even aware it exists.

[garos82]

thing that has been holding me back at the moment is the pricey memory cards, i dont want to by the 4 or 8 gig. hoping a drop in card price will be announced soon or a bundle with a hefty memory card included

[DivineAssault]

They arent marketing it very well in my opinion.. The commercials ive seen in the states just show someone taking their home console game on the go to continue playing instead of them showing that vita can have its own identity.. I didnt buy vita for console ports, i want original titles & theyre coming very soon..

[testerg35]

I'm not sure if its a great deal but amazon has the 32gb card for sale at $72.

Honestly I didn't even know the 32gb retails for $99. WOW.. You can now get 32gb SD for $20.

[Alos88]

That's pretty depressing if true.

[josephayal]

PS-VITA Graphics and games are really impresivee

[Ben_Grimm]

Well what do you expect this guy to say? Not really a lot of info on this issue.

[Zhipp]

...Maybe they expected a slow start, but great sales leading up to Christmas?

[Mustang300C2012]

If that was true, they never would have changed the originsl expected sales twice and then group the sales with the PSP

[TheColbertinator]

Advertising.No one even knows Vita exists.

[Xperia_ion]

A good commercial is all it needs and make more apps for it.

[chrisarsenalsavart]

If the CEO is happy we,ve the sales, who are we to say otherwise
All matter to the consumer is that content always come along.

[Der_Kommandant]

Give me more games!!!!!

[OmniSlashPT]

A freaking massive Vita advertising campaign for Christmas and the fall, and everyone will be buying the Vita.

[Mustang300C2012]

.....Yeah!

If there is any indication from the first set of commercials it is not going to be an easy task.

[Silly gameAr]

Don't tell the internet that. They think they know more about what's going on with the Vita then Kaz himself.

[TheKayle]

yeah they selling underdesk to the family of sony employers ahahah

[Blankman85]

Okay you really cannot be this naive.
First off, he says ALMOST, so obviously its selling less than they expected.
Secondly, He's the freaking CEO, he CANNOT go out and say it's not selling well, he has to keep shareholders assured.
Lastly, according to SONY's financial reports, the Vita sold 400k in the last 3 months. Now you tell with a straight face that that is what they had envisioned when they launched this console.
Don't be a lackey man.

[Silly gameAr]

Not naive. Just not into this as much as you obviously are. Sales, financial reports and shareholders aren't my thing you see.

[iGamerZERO]

They Sold 2.3 Million units and expected to sell 2.5 million at this time....so I guess there on track to there standards.....I love my Vita to be honest and it has a lot of potenteion once devs learn the hardware

[Lol_Lmao]

In a world of smartphones and tablets, it's pretty good. If it was 2.3 million within 6 months, 3 years ago I would be disappointed.

[Kaneda]

That is pretty disappointing for developers...

[Blankman85]

2.3 million in 8 months. People like pretending the VITA didn't launch in December last year in Japan where it has sold the BULK of that 2.3 million. It sold 400 K in 3 months, how is that not disappointing?
In this same world of smart phones, 3DS has sold millions!

[raWfodog]

3DS is also cheaper and the world economy is hurting. Pushing 2.3 million Vitas worldwide when it was forecasted to sell 2.5 million is in line with exactly with what Kaz said:
"Worldwide, the Vita is pretty much along where we would expect it to be, maybe trending behind in certain territories."

[Cryptcuzz]

I wish I had the money and equipment to make my own Vita commercials. That way I can upload it to YouTube and see what kind of reaction I would get compared to the Sony official ones.

If it is good enough and garner enough attention, maybe Sony would notice and give me a marketing gig for Playstation.

Hmm...another great idea from me that I will most likely not go through with yet again :(

Any investors out there?

[DiRtY]

Beginning of the finacial year:
PS Vita + PSP will sell 16 million units!

3 months in this financial year:
I was wrong, we have to lower our forecast, PS Vita + PSP will sell 12 million units

5 months in this financial year:
PS Vita is doing exactly like we expected.

He can't be serious.

[tubers]

I wonder who from Sony expected 10m sales by the end of 2012.. :P