Sony has today confirmed that its next handheld console, the PS Vita, will not meet its previously expected late 2011 global release time-frame. It will, however, be released in Japan in December 2011. Everyone else is going to have to wait until “early 2012” to get their hands on the device.
Sony big-wig Kaz Hirai said that the delay was necessary to strengthen the PS Vita’s launch line-up. Did Sony learn from Nintendo’s folly? The 3DS was launched earlier this year, but sold so poorly that Nintendo’s stock fell 21 percent, marking the company’s first every quarterly loss. One of the possible reasons the 3DS did not sell well was a lack of compelling launch titles.
“We packed so much into the device and made it very affordable. There is no need to lower the price just because somebody else that happens to be in the video game business decided that they were going to lower their price,” said Hirai, when asked whether the recent 3DS price cut will affect PS Vita pricing.
The PS Vita was revealed earlier this year, and is the successor to Sony’s PSP. Sony announced at E3 that Vita would launch globally this year, so the recent announcement comes as a bit of a disappointment to the Western market. The device is expected to sell for between $249 (R1689) and $299 (R2028), which puts it roughly in line with where the 3DS launched.
There is no indication of when Vita will launch in SA, or how much it will cost, but with a strong Sony presence in the country, we can expect it to hit shelves at around the same time as European markets.
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