While 3DSes continue to fly off the shelves in Japan, Sony's newly-launched PS Vita saw its sales decline dramatically in its second week on shelves.
In all, the company sold just 72,479 units during the crucial Christmas week ending December 25, a historically low number for a console's second week on shelves and a nearly 78 percent drop from the units sold in its debut.
Supply constraints do not appear to be at issue here, as the system's life-to-date sales of around 397,338 units falls well below its initial shipment of 500,000 units.
It should be noted that the Vita is available in two models, a WiFi-only version (¥24,980/$320) and a more expensive model that adds 3G connectivity for a higher price tag (¥29,980/$385) and a monthly connectivity charge. Sony's shipment estimates do not break down the unit's numbers by SKU, nor does Media Create's sales data, so it is unknown if consumer demand for one model versus the other may be contributing to its overall sales.
At 72,479, the system was outsold by not only Nintendo's 3DS, but by the Vita's predecessor, PSP, as well as by Wii and PlayStation 3.
When 3DS launched in Japan in late February for around the same price as PS Vita's WiFi model, it sold 374,764 systems during its launch weekend. By comparison second-week sales dropped by less than 45 percent to 209,623.
Nintendo's portable, which has outsold all other consoles every week since its 40 percent price cut in August, pushed 482,200 units last week -- less than the 510,000 initially reported by Famitsu publisher Enterbrain but still a record high for the system.
That brings the number of 3DSes purchased since its launch to more than 4 million. Its sales have jumped in recent weeks thanks in part to a particularly strong software slate for the holiday that includes Super Mario 3D Land, Mario Kart 7, and Capcom's Monster Hunter 3G.
PSP was the second top-selling console last week despite having only one title that sold significantly last week (Bandai Namco Games' Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable). The PS Vita predecessor moved 101,121 units, up week-over-week from 64,468.
Below are the full sales rankings provided by Media Create and translated by NeoGAF for the week ending December 25, 2011 (The second chart lumps together sales of all models in a given line of hardware.).
| LW | TW | Platform | Weekly Sales | Last Week |
|---|
| 1 | 1 | 3DS | 482,200 | 367,691 | | 4 | 2 | PSP | 101,121 | 64,468 | | 5 | 3 | Wii | 91,176 | 60,916 | | 3 | 4 | PS3 | 75,943 | 65,119 | | 2 | 5 | PSV | 72,479 | 324,859 | | 5 | 6 | DS | 14,396 | 9,155 | | 6 | 7 | 360 | 4,245 | 3,584 | | 7 | 8 | PS2 | 1,582 | 1,400 |
| LW | TW | Platform | Weekly Sales | Last Week |
|---|
| 1 | 1 | 3DS | 482,200 | 367,691 | | | 2 | PSP | 101,121 | 64,468 | | 4 | 3 | Wii | 91,176 | 60,916 | | 2 | 4 | PS3 | 75,943 | 65,119 | | 3 | 5 | PSV | 72,479 | 324,859 | | 5 | 6 | Dsi XL/LL | 8,470 | 5,600 | | 6 | 7 | Dsi | 5,894 | 3,523 | | 7 | 8 | Xbox 360 | 4,245 | 3,584 | | 8 | 9 | PS2 | 1,582 | 1,400 | | 9 | 10 | DS Lite | 32 | 32 |
|
I'm very much over touchscreen games with virtual controls, so I look forward to the Vita's blend of inputs.
Price could be a factor. A $250 handheld with 30-99$ SD card purchase seems a little suicidal, when there is so much tech for under $200.
I'm intrigued by the Vita's blend of physical controls and a touch interface. Plus a whole lot more.
During the last months, I tried dozens of games on my Galaxy Tab and found no FPS, Platformer, Racing Game or Shmup that implemented touch controls in a satifsying way. Since Touch only devices are on the market for 5 years now and it seems nobody came up with a solution for gaming controls, I think it is at least possible, that there never will be a satisfying solution.
I agree with this point as well and think it spells doom for the Kid Icarus reboot unless Nintendo decides to make it use the optional circle pad.
I'd also add that the Stylus controlled DS Zelda's were hampered greatly by the stylus control.
Touch is great for some things, don't get me wrong, but not for a lot of the types of games I enjoy :). Which is why every time I see an analyst say "Mario on the iPhone would be a killer" I scoff and say, yeah, it would kill off the Mario franchise! Mario + touch screen does not equal platforming bliss.
At this point I doubt they can do that though - the internal design is already likely packed. Plus, Sony only removes features over time, it can't seem to figure out how to add them.
PSP games on the Vita are only available through download from PSN, and they are still worth pretty much the same as when they were released. If you go to a bargain bin or second hand stores, you can get those games a LOT cheaper. The PSP itself is a lot cheaper and has thousands of games available. Making the choice between PSP & Vita pretty clear for some people.
Additionally only a small fraction of existing PSP games is in the PSN store.
The PSVs price is too high, especially adding the cost for a inevitable memory card (even the smallest). Its around 300 bucks without games for the Wi-Fi version.
3DS costs the half and offers a small but decent catalogue of games. I think thats where the consumers handheld itch is taken care of.
The vita will have cool games eventually and thats when competition will heat up.
http://www.qj.net/nintendo-3ds/news/iwata-talks-3ds-plans-for-3d-less -games.html
So if the "other" features are to be focused on instead of 3D, that doesn't say a whole lot for 3D imo.
Firsthand I see fellow gamers, friends and collegues, children in my neighbourhood and so on and most of them dont use 3D, for several reasons. Some complain about battery life cut down, others feel strained and most just dont see the need or benefit to turn on 3D. Also statements like the one Ray Semonte has citied further down or the general customer/gamer echo in forums around the world make me doubt the actual importance of the 3D feature once the 3DS arrives in customers hands.
I personally love the 3D effect and always turn it on. And I 100% agree with you that Mario 3D Land utilizes 3D in a great way. Pushmo I havent checked out yet but I surely will and I do not doubt that there will be many more great games to make 3D an integral gameplay enhancement.
I dont think 3DS fares better than the PSV in the moment because of the PSVs lack of 3D, I bet its the PSVs hight price tag and the 3DS very strong software lineup and its low price. Nontheless I will buy a Vita too : )
And with Monster Hunter 4 coming to the 3DS, they can only hope for a port or a spin off from a side series, lets see, if this will be enough.
Maybe in the long term, the DS/PSP competition showed, that people in japan seem to be willing to buy a second handheld after few years, so maybe the sales curve will be similar on the PSV.
But in the end, I agree with you, it's all about games, so with only a few weeks on the market, it's impossible to predict anything. I guess we have to wait at least 10-12 months to see, if the Vita games are attracting customers.
When Monster Hunter was released for the PSP, nobody expected it to be such a hit, the game was already out on the PS2 and the success was more then moderate. The same goes for Brain Train, a title most reviewers refused to call a game.
If a publisher would know what the "must have software" is, he would only put out "must have" games, but as in movies (who predicted Juno would make $230 million worldwide revenue), in books (who honestly thought a girls vampire book series written by an mormon author would sell millions of copies) it isn't this easy to predict.
Some game systems never get good sales, despite many "must have" titles, just look at the Gamecube, almost every Nintendo title on the system was praised by critics as a milestone, but the system ultimately failed.
FIFA Soccer, Lumines Electronic Symphony, Touch My Katamari, Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, Michael Jackson: The Experience, Plants vs. Zombies, and Virtua Tennis 4: World Tour Edition.
None of these games seem to be "must buys" for a broad range of people---They all seem very specific the stereotypical gamer types.
I would say that once Little Big Planet and Modnation racer hits--there will be more interest across the board and large increase in sales. And as much as I say this, Call of Duty that has been announced it will be a game that sells the system(at least in the US) People will love to have CoD on the run.
As far as I remember none of them sold especially well in Japan in it's PS3 and PSP incarnations, correct me, if I am wrong here, but I think every title of the Hotshot Golf series outsold both games combined.
It will be interesting to see how CoD does, I have my doubts it will become the hit you predict, as I think most people see CoD as a multiplayer game and I think most PSV in the US will be WiFi too, but maybe I am totally wrong here.
But I think, it's safe to say, CoD on the Vita will have no impact in Japan and without being launched at all outside Japan, I don't make predictions how the console will sell in the US (or Europe), maybe it sells like hotcakes, maybe it will lie like bricks on the shelf, I tend to think the later, because of the price, but this is nothing but a guess.
Christian said it best, it's a MP home console game