Revised sales expectations come as the PlayStation owner posts a 15 percent drop in year-on-year revenue in its Q3 FY2012 results.
The games division at Sony has slashed its sales expectations for the PS Vita by a whopping 3 million units after reporting a 15 percent drop in year-on-year revenue for the company's third quarter of FY2012 of ¥268.5 billion ($2.86 billion/£1.82 billion), with the first-party publisher blaming poor hardware and software sales for the result.
Sales of Sony's PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 2 consoles, which are lumped together in the company's reports, were down to 6.8 million from 7.4 million this time last year. Software sales for Sony's home consoles were 61.7 million units, down from 2011's 68.7 million units.
The PSP and the PS Vita, sales of which are also combined in Sony's reports, saw an increase to 2.7 million units sold as opposed to last year's 2.4 million. It's worth remembering, mind, that the PS Vita was available only briefly in Japan before last year's report was calculated.
However, 2.7 million units was not enough to stop Sony from cutting 3 million off its forecast for PS Vita sales, with the company predicting 10 million units to be sold before the end of Sony's financial year in March. Sony saw the "slow penetration" of the PS Vita as an ongoing issue, and promised to support the handheld device with more software.
Software sales for Sony's handheld consoles dropped from 11.4 million units in Q4 last year to 8.9 million this year.
Looking ahead, Sony is holding an event on February 20 where it is expected the publisher will unveil the PlayStation 4 to the public. The event will be live-streamed from New York at 18:00 EST/15:00 PST/23:00 GMT, and GameSpot will be in attendance.
Overall, the Sony Corporation posted a 6.9 percent year-on-year increase in revenue, to ¥1.95 trillion, and stemmed the massive ¥159 billion loss in net revenue this time last year to a far healthier ¥10.8 billion.
Martin Gaston has absolutely never at all had the song from Beauty and the Beast sung to him at any point during his life, ever.
How does it happen that one of the world's biggest electronics companies "promises" that they'll bring new software to their Playstation Vita, and there are still stretches of time bordering on months without any big releases?
It's depressing, is what it is.
Vita is in an awkward spot since its not getting meaningful support from the third parties. No one will buy a Vita for second rate home console style games, yet it doesn't have the install base to justify much attention from publishers. Sony needs to fix this with a strong first party line up and a price drop.
I have a vita, and the last game I bought was ragnarok oddysey, it's been a while since the ps vita was launched, and there's too few games. seriously Sony, make or get more games for the ps vita. Preferably good games
I have the original DS,3DS,2 PSP's & a PSVITA but I find myself playing games on my ipad mini as of lately huh,I wonder why? Well, anyway I saving up so I can get a desktop so I can get the OCULUS RIFT when it comes out...THAT my fellow gamers is the next big thing.But i'am disappointed in SONY they finally crafted the perfect PSP (vita) with TWO analogs sticks and its like they don't care much for the damn thing...come on GAMES=SALES. Sony has an announcement coming up on FEB 20 & there better be some kind of news about the VITA. times has definitely changed MICROSOFT,NINTENDO & SONY were once in competition against each other but now they have all forms of phones & tablets ect. that are making great games(funny thing is that I really didn't care much for mobile gaming at first but now it seems to have my attention more than my other devices)well,this is a new year so lets see what's in store.Man,I love being a GAMER :) :) :) :)
Never been interested in a PS Vita or PSP..
I own all consoles and have for most previous gen consoles as well but never even considered getting a PSP / PS Vita because there are no good games for it.
Does anyone recommend getting a PS Vita?
If so what's a good game for it?
1 Like @GH05T-666 The PSP had some really good games, unfortunately the Vita's best games are just ports or portable versions of home console games.
Sony really isn't providing consumers with a compelling games library to buy the Vita.
I love my Vita, and would love to see it sell more, but Sony needs to step up it's game.
A price cut is a great first step Sony.
3 Like Cut prices on memory and hardware THEN bring out the games. It worked for the Nintendo 3DS (At least hardware-wise. SD cards are already VERY cheap nowadays).
And they are somehow surprised by this? I am not. Handhelds are garbage. Games should be played properly on a HDTV, not on some tiny screen to give you migraines.
vita would be good except for those stupid memory card things that i don't want to spend money on. if my phone can have an hdd, why shouldnt the vita?
uncharted sucked me in, assassins creed would be worth buying but it bores me, wrc rally champ looks good, call of duty would have been great but its too short, unit 13 looks the part, Sony need 2 release a gran turismo for it or port the indie games over like fez, hopefully if the rumors weigh in the new GTA vice city will arrive soon. Sadly if they don't i ll be selling mine
and why isnt sony getting in trouble for selling defective items when they promote it? i got stuck buying the highly promoted 3DTV bundle that they sold and that thing sucks and it has an issue with the MOBO on the tv that causes it t constantly shut off.
HAHAH are you kidding? man the vita blew just as much as the PSP GO did. my store doesnt even want to order them because we have too many of them being sold back used at our company that the idea of even selling them new was not even an option for us. Sony just needs to stop at the hand helds and need to focus on fixing the ps3's lack of games and OS because that thing is too slow
1 Like They need to slash prices before it's a completed fail. If they don't sell more this year they will abondon it like the pspgo
Sony needs to price drop Vita at the same time one of it's best AAA games releases. E3 would be a great time to do so.
2 Like I own only 3 games, Wipeout 2048, Ninja Gaiden and Gravity Rush, and i'm already a super happy Vita owner. I don't see the need to yell over the memory card thing. Just how many games can one afford anyway.
All Vita needs is a few killer titles to rise from the ashes. I'm sure i'm not alone in wishing for a remake of the final fantasy xii and some kingdom hearts games for the system. Hey, sounds like square enix could be the saviour of Vita!
@TFC01 Yeah I had unit 13, resistance, and uncharted. I was happy for the first couple months, then my vita collected dust
@TFC01"Just how many games can one afford anyway."
Really, that's what you come with???? Since the holidays I've bought 3 3DS games not counting the cheap games on the eShop, 4 for my Wii U, and two for the 360. Not saying I'm loaded, but I'm a gamer that likes to play games. If the Vita had cheaper mem cards, I probably would have gotten one of those instead.
1 Like @FallenOneX @TFC01 you don't need a lot of memory for Vita and 4gb cards are pretty cheap.
@FallenOneX @Morphine_OD I don't need to imagine it - I do so myself. Vita games are less than 2 gigs in size.
@Morphine_OD Yeah, they may be cheap, but I own a 3DS, and a 4GB SD card doesn't hold as much as you think it does. Just imagine trying to put Vita games on a 4GB device.
the vita phone is the savior of sony the psp phone did not go well because the tech wasn't there yet but today tech is here vita phone should happen
@surprizemothafu @soulless4now lol That's why I won't bother getting one anytime soon plus I barely played my psp even though I just got that back in 2010. Sony handhelds need better libraries to stay relevant.
1 Like But the question is, does this FINALLY translate to a viable reason to LOWER THE STINKING PRICE??
@svaubel No, they still don't see it. No marketing, no software, and plagued by ports. Everyone I talk to that owns a vita is happy with the "digital support" it gets, (ports), but that doesn't sell consoles. I wanted the vita to work so badly, but if sony doesn't care, I don't either. I sold it
would people actually buy it if they cut the price? thats all people say nowadays cut the price cut the price. my god the new consoles from sony and ms will be more expensive than that and everyone will still complain. theres no winning in todays gaming world unless it was free or they did what the almighty god ...lord steam...(in peoples eyes) does and have constant sales where games are 75% off. do what a lot of your parents did for you when you were younger and wanted games. get a job and buy them instead of cry on the internet
Two obvious problems....no games and overpriced memory cards. $250 is a great price if Vita had built in storage. Not sure how it is my smartphone comes with 16gb built in and vita can't but oh well. The real shame is Vita is an amazing system.
2 Like Personally, I am waiting for a revised model.
Look at the PSP1 it was crap compared to the 2000, 3000, and Go.
@DrKill09 actually, if there is crap on that list of PSPs it has to be the Go. just looking at the Go stinks and eyes can't smell
@DrKill09 Well, I own the Vita and I don't think it's crap. But these game companies get so revision-happy with handhelds anymore that I honestly don't blame you for having that mindset.
I think a big part of the problem is gamers are divided on where they think gaming should go from here.
If the Vita fails, and they cease production, I really don't know what I'm gonna do about games anymore. But I know that it will send the sign to the industry that gamers don't care about powerful personal gaming systems.
No games is killing the system. They should have waited to release it after the next-gen consoles released. Most devs are just too busy making games for the PS4 and Xbox 720 to waste resources, time, and money on the Vita.
@SavoyPrime they should have released it before the psp go. soon the ps3 will look like crap once the ps4 and nextbox come out then it will make vita look and feel like even older tech
4 Like expensive memory cards and expensive hardware. fix that and you can satisfy your expectations. 3DS is much cheaper, and have more good games.
5 Like The Vita is an amazing platform with too few games.
I'm currently using mine to replay the Final Fantasy games (which are all on sale this week!), because I'm played through pretty much everything else worth playing and I'm getting tired of fighting games. Gravity Rush, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Persona 4: Golden, Hot Shots Golf and ACIII: Liberation are all worthwhile, as are Rayman Origins and LBP Vita. Fighting games like PS Battle Royale All-Stars, Mortal Kombat and Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 are also fun for awhile.
Pretty much everything else worth playing is an indie title (When Mutant Blobs Attack, Retro City Rampage) or an update/re-release of a previous game (Metal Gear Sold 2+3 HD, Ninja Gaiden Sigma). It's when you start playing those games that you start getting antsy and catching up on PS One / PSP titles. It's also at that point that you realize you need a 32 GB memory stick for the Vita to be worthwhile, because most of your options at that point require large downloads.
Still, I love the hardware. Sony did a great job on the platform. It just needs to ramp up the development efforts and get some nice exclusives. What this platform absolutely needs is some support from more core PS franchises and a definitive first person shooter that's not Killzone (since that game has a limited fanbase).
Incidentally, Sony should really consider porting Warhawk, DCUO, Twisted Metal or Dust 514 to the Vita... those would work quite well for the platform!
@SecularSage I don't see how 32 gigs are a must. I don't usually play more than 2 games at once, do you?
@luqmanr ainti pirate system first gaming system second. thats what they did with ps3 and now with vita. looks like sony will never learn... just make your money dont be greedy and worry about the modders. not that many is gonna risk bricking a 200 dollar system . but alot of people will not buy it if its really high priced no matter what
Strategy Analytics expects Sony's handheld sales to start strong and quickly drop, projects $2.2 billion in sales if average price of system drops to $180.
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