Sony: Early Vita Sales Data is "Very Positive"

Internal estimates suggest the PlayStation Vita is selling “very, very positively” according to SCEA big-cheese Jack Tretton. In a chat with IGN, the executive revealed that both software and hardware is tracking well.

He said:

Memory is going out the door very aggressively despite the fact that memory is in a lot of the presale bundles. The software appears to be selling quite well top to bottom.

I’ve been involved in every platform launch we’ve ever had back to 1995, so I have the history to fall back on, and in terms of the press that we’ve gotten for Vita, in terms of the way we’ve been able to deliver the message and in terms of merchandising at retail and getting the hardware and software in people’s hands, I think this is probably our most successful lead up to a launch platform.

Now that the holidays are behind us and the marketing campaign is kicking in and the merchandising is appearing at retail and we’ve got our promotional campaign kicking in, I feel great about the velocity that we have going into Vita, and I’d say that we’re best positioned of any platform launch that I’ve been a part of in terms of positive momentum and positive feedback relative to it.

Tretton also responded to critics that have dubbed the system’s Japanese launch as a disaster:

Quite frankly, it scares me if people think that the Japanese launch is struggling. The fact is they sold 500,000 units in three weeks.

I would be pleased if we did 500,000 units in the first three weeks here in the United States. I think that’s a real healthy number for a new platform launch.

We should start getting some solid PS Vita sales data within the next week or so.