A lot of industry conscious gamers hold a significant amount of faith in Japan’s weekly sales figures. It’s those same commentators that invented the so-called "10k units rule". The fabricated philosophy states that if a system’s sales are above 10k units a week, it’s “alive”. But should the unthinkable happen and a system dip lower than said baseline, the opposite is true.
After months of teetering on the edge, the PlayStation Vita finally dipped below the 10k units mark in Japan this week – selling an extraordinarily disappointing 8,931 units.
This, of course, has spurned some naysayers to prematurely call time on Sony’s latest handheld endeavour – it’s a bit of a knee-jerk reaction, in short.
Indeed, to put things into perspective, the Xbox 360 was the only platform not to see a significant drop this week. While the numbers certainly aren’t positive for Vita, they’re far from as disastrous as the hyperbole on message boards would lead you to believe.
The figures do stress the increasing need for high quality software on the platform though. Not one Vita title appeared in this week’s software top 20, which is worrying.
It’s even more concerning when you consider that this week’s top seller, 2nd Super Robot Wars Z Saisei Volume, was a PSP title. The on-going popularity of the PSP (and its continued software support) is clearly one of the things that’s hurting Vita in Japan.
Feel free to make your own conclusions and share them in the comments below.
Hardware
1. 3DS: 72,115 (121,921)
2. PS3: 19,370 (23,771)
3. PSP: 14,804 (18,356)
4. PSV: 8,931 (12,105)
5. Wii: 7,099 (9,292)
6. X360: 3,764 (1,317)
7. PS2: 1,355 (1,374)
8. DSi LL: 793 (941)
9. DSi: 743 (771)
Software
1. [PSP] 2nd Super Robot Wars Z Saisei Volume (Namco Bandai, 04/05/12) – 265,439 (New)
2. [3DS] Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance (Square Enix, 03/29/12) – 42,231 (255,810)
3. [PSP] Pro Baseball Spirits 2012 (Konami, 03/29/12) – 26,908 (87,049)
4. [PS3] Pro Baseball Spirits 2012 (Konami, 03/29/12) – 26,886 (117,319)
5. [3DS] Kid Icarus: Uprising (Nintendo, 03/22/12) – 25,710 (205,415)
6. [3DS] Super Mario 3D Land (Nintendo, 11/03/11) – 21,996 (1,486,692)
7. [NDS] Pokemon Conquest (Nintendo, 03/17/12) – 17,989 (285,597)
8. [3DS] Monster Hunter Tri G (Capcom, 12/10/11) – 16,770 (1,375,179)
9. [3DS] Mario Kart 7 (Nintendo, 12/01/11) – 16,024 (1,637,655)
10. [3DS] Mario & Sonic at the London Olympics (NIntendo, 03/01/12) – 10,364 (122,967)
11. [PSP] Yakuza: Black Panther 2 (Sega, 03/22/12) – 10,356 (141,948)
12. [360] Kinect Star Wars (Microsoft, 04/05/12) – 6,010 (New)
13. [PS3] Devil May Cry HD Collection (Capcom, 03/22/12) – 5,887 (61,604)
14. [3DS] Harvest Moon: The Land’s Origins (Marvelous AQL, 02/23/12) – 5,844 (160,607)
15. [PS3] Mahjong Dream Club (D3 Publisher, 04/05/12) – 5,701 (New)
16. [Wii] Wii Sports Resort (NIntendo, 11/11/10) – 4,810 (910,448)
17. [3DS] Hatsune Miku and Future Stars Project Mirai (Sega, 03/08/12) – 4,679 (129,297)
18. [Wii] Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo, 04/10/08) – 4,622 (3,543,434)
19. [PSP] Monster Hunter Portable 3rd PSP the Best (Capcom, 09/22/11) – 4,387 (232,809)
20. [3DS] Nintendogs + Cats & New Friends (Nintendo, 02/26/11) – 4,299 (533,026)
[source andriasang.com]
Comments 15
Don't know about Japan but after E3 NA customers should be more excited
Japan's market is always representative of Japan only. In Europe PSV is outselling the PSP by far (5 to 1), the same happens in USA. For some reason PSP is still pretty strong in Japan only. The difference is even more extreme when compared with 3DS. Looking at the numbers of last week of March, in Europe 3 3DS were sold for every 2 PSVita, while in Japan 10 3DS were sold for every single PSVita and in USA 2 3DS for every PSVita. Then you have top sellers as Skyrim with 1.4 millions sold in USA, another 1.4 in Europe and only 160k in Japan, something similar can be said about Mass Effect 3 and others. Japan is pretty different than the rest of the world.
@Mandoble: Wow, Skyrim did that badly in Japan? Good for them! JRPG's > WRPG's anyway, so why would they bother buying the imports when they already live in the land of the great stuff? My opinion regarding the two genres, of course.
I do definitely agree with you that Japanese sales numbers can NEVER be taken as a sign of worldwide success or failure, though. As an American, I think it's INSANE that the PSP is still popular in Japan, but there you go. I have a Vita, I like the Vita, but darned if the thing doesn't need some more games stat. I've barely touched the thing since I finished with Golden Abyss.
Agree, PSV needs many extra more games, add the fact that some ones are marketing new games for the very wrong market. Little King Story 2, which Wii previous version had pretty bad results in Japan and pretty good (in comparison) in EU and USA has been released first in Japan with no release date for the rest of the world, and the result has been the again the very same as for the Wii previous version, pretty poor sales in Japan (as should have been expected).
I just wish I could find more time in the day to play through all of my Vita games I already own!
Wow that sucks. Still, proclaiming the death of Vita is indeed foolish.
A price cut and some more awesome games is all it needs to turn things around. It worked for 3DS!
Clearly too soon to say the Vita is 'dead' but I am surprised to see the sytem getting crushed by the 3DS like this week in and week out. I still think it's too soon for a price cut, they need to get a few big Japanese franchises out soon though. Just open the wallet up to Capcom already.
I'll wait until after I see what Sony announces for Vita at E3 and how sales are through the holiday shopping season before I begin considering the Vita in serious trouble. But clearly Sony need to get some top tier titles on the Vita, especially in Japan, and soon.
I just can't justify spending $350 on another console. It's not like I don't have the money, it's just that I can't see myself getting much use out of it for a while (learnt my lesson from the 3DS ).
As much as I'd like to play MHP3rd with Vita controls (and Rayman Origins), I'm going to wait for some more games to come out.
The system is selling so bad as it doesnt have the same grab or pull the 3DS has i have both and once i finsihed uncharted i didnt lift it up for ages until i got wipEout which when compared to Mario Kart On my 3DS it was dull but still awesome! The 3DS has awesome grab as it has potential which i think the vita does not!
@TitanBryan
That's something that definitely varies from person to person. I play games on my 3DS a lot, mainly Kid Icarus these days which I just started a second playthrough of, but I also play the Vita a lot. I'm on my third playthrough of Uncharted and play MLB 12 almost every day.
@Slapshot Yeah. I agree with that. I find it baffling that people are already turning to the "not enough games" statement. Obviously the system needs the enthusiasm of big announcements — and a few more regular releases wouldn't hurt — but I haven't got through the launch line-up either yet.
Have you guys really run out of things to play?
Yes, I have ran out of things to play with (Vita titles). Even if it is not as bad as with my 3DS (there is nothing I can play with it after a year even having many more titles than Vita), the fact is that these few games interesting enough can be finished in a pair of weekends and then what? ATM my Vita is more or less active mostly because of PSP games available through PSN.
I know it's not that important in the big scheme of things, but I can't get passed the idea that my Vita is "broken" until they fix very simple things like allowing me to play my free ps+ minis. They fixed it for Europe so they can fix it for me too. I could also use some RPGs and a nice addictive multiplayer game like Clash of Heroes.
I wouldn't be too worried since the 3DS also had a slow start even in Japan where the first few months (this time last year) the PSP was outselling it. The PSVita is still a young platform. It only came out in February here in the US. Though they could of had better timing with its release, usually this time of the year game releases can be slow which I think the Vita is suffering from.
I wouldn't be calling it "dead" yet. Just having a slow start and I agree with everyone, it needs more games to generate sales. I would only be starting to worry if its STILL in this state at this time in 2013. I love my PSVita so far but I do fear it will eventually collect dust once I am done with the games on it. Then again, I also own a 3DS and for awhile, it was collecting dust once I beat Zelda: OoT 3D until some more original titles came out for it (like Super Mario 3D Land which came out like 8 months after the 3DS itself did).
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...