Sony not worried about Vita’s sales drop-off

The PS Vita has had a capricious sales pattern since launch, but Sony’s CFO Masaru Kato is remaining optimistic.

Vita sales in Japan to date are sitting at a little over half a million, with the lion’s share of 321,000 being sold in its first week.  The first week sales were certainly impressive and the Vita looked poised to sweep the market, until a sharp drop-off in sales occurred shortly after.

Momentum slowed to a crawl at 15,000 units a week, much, much less than the Nintendo 3DS, and rather embarrassingly less than the PSP as well. Only last week did the Vita manage to rise above the PSP’s seven-day sales numbers.

Speaking to analysts, Kato said, “Now the company has not publicly announced the units of shipping and sales. At the appropriate time, we would do so.”

“But as far as sell-through, three weeks have passed and our sell-through is 500,000. This was announced on the 10th of January. So as a start, I think we had a very – a good start.”

The CFO also added: “Including software and hardware, we are carrying out the sales promotions and we do it to boost the sales, and we do not think we have any problems.”

The steep price could make the new device less appealing than some of its cheaper competition. The standard Vita costs about R2,600 in Japan, with the 3G version hitting around R3120. After it’s big price cut, the Nintendo 3DS is sitting at a more attractive R1560. Of course the raw power isn’t comparable, but money is always a limiting factor.

The Vita’s success in the West remains to be seen, with UK and US launches coming on the 22nd of February.

Source: Eurogamer