VITA SELLS 36k IN JAPAN LAST WEEK

Published on March 20, 2013, by Paul Murphy - Posted in VITA NEWS 9

Three weeks on from the cut, and with no main title to push it we still see some decent sales.

This weeks Media Create sales have come in from 4 Gamer and whilst not as strong as two weeks ago (when there was the price cut and Phantasy Star Online 2) or last week (with the release of Soul Sacrifice) all eyes were on whether it would return to the pre-cut performance of around 10,000 units a week or whether it could continue the 62k+ momentum, and it came in between the two with 36,028 and returned to the second spot in the charts after the combined 69k+ sales of the 3DS.

Considering this is three times the level of previous performance and being around the 2:1 ratio of the 3DS does anyone thiink that this is poor? It still represents 24% of the total sales last week (down from 36%) and it’s a bit lower than I hoped it would be, but with nearly 170,000 units shifted in just three weeks in Japan, Sony can be pretty pleased with the sales, especially with many more titles due out soon.

Speaking of titles, Soul Sacrifice was lasts weeks best Vita performer, dropping to fifth overall and Tale of Hearts R in fifteenth place. Senran Kagura props up the twenty.

What do you make of the sales? decent performance? Disappointing? A mark of consistancy? The start of a decline? Sound off in the comments!

Author: Paul Murphy View all posts by Paul Murphy

Editor-in-chief of The Vita Lounge, 34 years young and gaming since 1990, with a preference for Action/RPG games, Shooters, Racing Games (despite ironically not being able to drive!) and quite impartial to a game of FIFA. Can also be found as a Moderator on www.psvitaforum.com

Kyle Wakeling

Eh, 36k isn’t bad – but it isn’t the 50k+ I was expecting. This week’s release of DoA5+ will hopefully bump that up again.
Undrey

I just hope this makes Sony realize that a price cut helps the Vita a lot. And hopefully they’ll have a big release along with a price cut for other regions.
JonofPDX

I think 30k-ish is going to be the new normal for sale w/o some other release driving purchases. Whether Sony is happy w/ that is going to answer the question of whether we’ll see that price cut move out of Asia.
- http://thevitalounge.com/ Paul Murphy
  
  30kish weekly eqates to 120k+ per month and means the Vita will double its Japanese base within a year as opposed to just 300-400k from before. I’d take that if I were them.
  - JonofPDX
    
    Hey, I would too . Still, I guess I am a little gun shy when it comes to Sony.
    
    Their TV and audio businesses are both posting (or would be posting if not for contraction) losses for 2012. Their mobile phone/tablet business is growing pretty well but they aren’t a big player yet. I keep feeling like it isn’t enough that the Vita supports itself, but that it does well enough to prop up some of Sony’s flagging assets.
    
    We’ll see–but this is definitely positive news.
http://thevitalounge.com/ Jasper Bekema

It’s all right, but I’m not too thrilled. I hope this trend continues, though. If it sinks back to 7k a week again…
http://www.facebook.com/yannick.decorte Yannick Decorte

I predicted 35k, so it matched my expectations. Next week (meaning this current week in Japan) should be bigger with One Piece: Pirate Warriors 2.

But none of this really matters to me. This is the honeymoon period for the Vita. Sony put everything they had in those 30 days to “re-launch” the Vita, so if it did 10k right after a price cut and by far their most-hyped Vita release to date, that would just be absolutely unheard of. The GameCube and Dreamcast also boosted in sales with price cuts and major releases, so it doesn’t mean anything except that it’s not defying logic.

There are two things that matter: 1) Where does it go on a weekly basis when no new title releases or nothing significant; 2) How frequent the big releases will be from now on.

I will definitely be following that closely as it’s much more interesting than the situation last year where you just knew it would keep doing poorly and big exclusive titles in established IPs would have just not done well enough for the publishers on the small install base, but it has to be significantly higher than its pre-price cut numbers for the drop in price to have been worth it for Sony and for the Vita to go beyond the niche audience it has now. At least I want it to be a mainstream device, and no one can deny that’s what Sony expected it to be as well.
Josuey_de_PR

ok sales but i hope it sells more i want those “must have games” come to vita ASAP,
Buckybuckster

I take it as a positive. Would have been business as usual if sales had slipped to below 20k. Represents a good base for Sony to maintain and build upon.

They have to pick it up with the major releases to secure the increase in sales tho.