Sony PS Vita sales reach 1.2 million, software at 2m
updated 12:50 pm EST, Tue February 28, 2012
PS Vita sales numbers updated after wider launch
Sony's latest portable games console, the PS Vita, has reached 1.2 million units sold, the company revealed on Tuesday. The console was launched in North America last week, along with Latin America, Europe, Singapore, and PAL territories, which boosted these numbers. Still, when it debuted just in Japan in December, the console moved 321,400 consoles in just two days.
The 1.2 million milestone was reached on February 26, and on February 19, sales were at 580,000 units. Up until then, it was only available in Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea. The new regions since the more widespread February 22 launch must account for some 620,000 unit sales then.
At the same time, Sony sold more than two million software titles, both physical and through the online store, for the Vita.
The sales are fairly impressive but Sony is keen on recapturing gamers who rely on smartphones for gaming instead with an aggressive $50 million ad campaign. The campaign is meant to change the worrying trend of Apple and Google beating Sony and traditional video game hardware makers in terms of gaming revenue for portable software titles. Apple has lots of developers for its iOS devices and Google's Android OS is found on tablets and smartphones from multiple manufacturers.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2001
Omission
The PS Vita may well sell great in North America and Europe. But what the "Sold 324K in just two days" figure omits is that in its SECOND week, it sold 72K units, and in the fifth through eighth weeks on the market it never topped 19K units per week.
Which is to say it opened to gangbuster sales and then dropped precipitously. This is, quite conspicuously, almost EXACTLY what happened when the PS3 hit the market--it cleared shelves initially and hit speculative prices of over double retail on eBay, but within a month or two the eBay bubble had collapsed and it was easy to walk into any big-box retail store and buy one, because sales had completely tanked.
At this point it's actually being outsold by the PSP in Japan. Again, maybe it'll do much better in the US--US gamers have certainly embraced the iPhone more than Japanese gamers, that's for sure. But while booming launch-day sales are nice, it really says nothing about the actual potential market, especially when you combine anxious hardcore gamer buyers and the possibility of second-hand-market speculation.