One Monthly Game Release Isn’t Good For New Systems; Japanese Vita Sales Tanking

Three months ago, everyone was making fun of Vita for only selling around 10,000 units per week. Sony decided to drop the price, and that move, combined with a flood of software, gave the machine a great March and April. Now, however, we’ve just seen three straight weeks with the Vita unable to clear even 13,000 units. - PSLS

[dedicatedtogamers]

I'm not making excuses for the Vita (it is selling horribly) but just wait and see how the market looks this same time next year. This fall the final two 8th-gen systems will launch, and they'll launch at $450+ no question. That price point will make cheaper options like Wii-U, Vita, and 3DS seem very attractive.

[sdozzo]

No Damn Games. I Own One And It's Ok.

[Knushwood Butt]

I have PS+, and now have more Vita games than I can possibly play. They are all stacking up on the HDD of my PS3...

[Rhomiel]

The fact that every PS4 will have remote play will be the biggest selling point when PS4 comes out.

[DEATHxTHExKIDx]

Playing PS4 games on Vita shouldnt be the biggest selling point. Vita should be able to stand on its own without relying on another console's games. It a great feature for sure tho.

[Rhomiel]

Can the Vita give me a good rpg then so I don't have to wait for a PS4 one :)

I'm really enjoying Soul Sacrifice right now but a good Legend of the Dragoons 2 or something would be awesome.

[Knushwood Butt]

Last week:

Model Unit sales
3DS LL 40,651
3DS 14,059
PS3 13,318
Vita 12,171
PSP 5,749
Wii U 5,648
Wii 1,192
Xbox 360 382

[TwistedMetal]

ehh in japan the vita has been selling more then the wii u every month. i think we need more wii u tanking worldwide then vita articles. how about you work on that since the wii u is brand new and shouldnt be selling less then a vita.

[knifefight]

1) Re: "ehh in japan the vita has been selling more then the wii u every month"
^ Right, and the Wii-U is selling utterly horribly, so I'm not sure how good of a bragging point that is.

2) "how about you work on that since the wii u"
^ Site's name is "Playstation Lifestyle" so that seems unlikely. Probably focused on the PS brand.
And wait, even then, it DOES mention the Wii-U flailing, a few paragraphs down. It doesn't go on at length, because, hey, Playstation website, but it does point that out.

I'm really not sure what your beef is here.

[PrimeGrime]

If anyone hasn't noticed really nothing has been selling in Japan this month. All sales are low currently there besides the 3DS LL but even that was selling more before.

So what does that say about systems that are getting more than one release a month and still selling low in Japan this month?

[knifefight]

Well in the case of the 3DS, it has outsold the Vita by more than 4 to 1, so...I guess that means maybe more games can lead to it, I don't know, selling more? ;)

The other platforms are kind of EXPECTED to sell very little by now. (The nice thing is, by this point in the life cycle, the company isn't struggling to pay back development costs. It's almost all profit now.) New consoles have been revealed and the others are 7 years old. What do you expect from a 7-year-old system when some new ones are just released and others are on the horizon? Expecting much from those would be silly. That's why the emphasis of sales analysis right now is on the new systems, like Vita and Wii-U.