PS Vita: Sales, Market Share and the 3DS

TheSixthAxis takes a reasoned look at the first few weeks of Japanese sales data for the PS Vita and demonstrates some interesting trends.

[matey]

ps vita is going to fail going off no games in the top 10 charts in japan compared to 3ds has 6 of the top 10 plus 3ds has tons of good games already and lots of services to boot infact the 3ds is just getting better and better 3D video playbk is a must after seing it plus Kingdom hearts/resident evil/Tekken/MGS/Mario/DOA/even that new game Battleships isnt coming to vita as activision think its not worth it the 3ds has 70% more games in development.

plus nintendo and 3rd partys are hard at work making games compatible on 3DSWiiU cross plat 4 the Nintendo Network which means the 3ds is the only handheld to link up to a next gen console.

[Urrakia34]

Chida historia hermano.

[rezzah]

Hey did Skynet take over the world yet?

Just wondering since you came from the future.

[Half-Mafia]

Comparing software libraries to a year old console to a console that is just about to launch world wide is a bit crazy. After the 1st month in Japan the 3DS only had 1 game in the top 10 Japanese charts. Yes things have change now that the 3DS finally has a few games.

I would rather play on a 5' OLED then go blind looking at the 3DS screen.

'only handheld to link up to a next gen console'

Next gen as in the same thing we have had for 6 years now. In less then 2 weeks you will beable to play Wipeout, Vita vs PS3. We are still 9-10 months away from the 3DS and WiiU talking to each other. How many PS3/Vita games are we going to have from now till then?

[Hisiru]

I already finished Wipeout on PS3, I finished Resistence on PS3 and I finished all Uncharted games on PS3 (and I don't see the point in playing it on the go even if it's different from the PS3 versions). I need "pick up and play" games on the go.

I don't see the point of buying a PS Vita just yet.

Vita - It's giving you the same experience you can have on a console (just like the PSP did in the past), but I will prefer to play it on my PS3 with a bigger screen. I am a busy man, so I can't play at work or something like that.

3DS - It's giving you something different just like the DS did. Something you can only have on the 3DS.

You know what? PS Vita is unnecessary for now (in my opinion).

[TheFirstClassic]

@Hisiru That depends on what games you played on console I guess, but it seems all the games on 3ds so far have been sequels to console games, or ports. SSF4, Zelda, Star Fox, Mario, Resident Evil, mario kart, etc. what "different" experiences do the 3ds give you that you can't find on consoles? At least the Vita has games like Gravity Rush and Escape Plan.

[MasterCornholio]

Jeez when will this troll finally disappear for good? He has an unhealthy obsession with praising the 3DS and bashing the Vita.

Why cant he just accept that they are both good handhelds?

XperiaRay

[cochise313]

that's what they said about the psp, and it went on to sell 70+ million.

[360GamerFG]

And has the lowest software attach rate of all current gen consoles

[rezzah]

That's because many pirated the games, it was easy to.

So because of prior thought to knowing of low sales, devs were shaky in the thoughts of creating games for the PSP.

I remember one of them (think it was the dev who created the PSP Battlefront games) were pissed about low sales do to pirating.

[yabhero]

@ rezzah it was really easy to pirate ds games too... that still sold well

[rezzah]

thats because Nintendo has many iconic series/ characters.

Also the DS held this type of casual or kid friendly type of handheld.

One thing that was really marketed in the news (as I had seen many times) was the brain games. This showed the DS to be more than just a game device.

On the other hand, PSP is displayed solely as a gaming device, and there are people might hold negative views about video games.

Thus if their child begged them to get them one, they would be more likely to pick the DS as it had many games for children.

Soduko, Brain testers, pet dogs/cats, pokemon, mario (adults see this image as friendly and safe for kids), Metroid, and kirby are some examples of why it sold more.

And by looking at that list it is logical to see the nostalgia, casual, kid friendly, learning type games the DS had.

The PSP also had nostalgic games, however those iconic characters and series are not as deep in gaming history as Nintendo`s games.

The PSP had an image of gaming for older people rather than for children.

And over all, children is what brings the biggest profits.

It is not just the marketing, but the image as well.