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[Laguna]

We, PS Vita users, really know 3DS is way too far on sales worldwide... and we are OK with that (I have a 3DS too, but I only have it for Atlus games).

We only know PS Vita sell well because that means third-parties will support the console in the future, so we are really happy with this news.

That's it.

Problem is, there are many Vita haters on this forum and well... they have declared Vita dead a lot of times... so it's really good to make fun of them right now.

Have you become a spokesperson for Vita owners now? lol

Vita cheaper than the 3ds now?

19k vs 20k. Basically the same, but due to its recency PSV benefits from the pricecut.

 

[zomgbbqftw]

Do Sony have a spare 100 million bucks or so to give capcom?

Well they have $14bn in the bank, so yes. The question you should be asking is whether they would spend that money. I would go with a big no.

 

[watershed]

Wow, the Vita above the 3ds! I knew the Vita would do well but I didn't expect this.

 

[Frillen]

Wow this thread got hot quickly. These are good numbers to sustain. My prediction last week was right. They hovered around the same number in sales.

Again I'm going to say Vita sustains these numbers since One Piece game is releasing next week.

There's basically nothing this week though, so expect numbers to go down in next week's chart.

 

[AranhaHunter]

.

I really expected a normal 50%+ drop given that the biggest games this week were a new IP from a company not known to have big selling games and a horrible "remake" from a game that undersold in its original form. I'll happily eat the crow.

Source: http://www.siliconera.com/2013/03/12/next-neptunia-game-is-for-playstation-vita/#4AA5pYpQAfR64He1.99

Otaku market on lockdown.

Now is the time to announce an exclusive Idolmaster from Bamco and Love Plus from Konami. A remake of the old game out this year before a new install next year would pretty much set the psv as the otaku machine.

I just don't understand why Sony didn't work theirs arses' off and get some of the multiplatform games available for the Vita only. Games like God Eater 2 or FFX HD shouldn't be found anywhere else. That might have helped a lot.

The best they can do at this point is exclusive features/timeframe. I.e. some exclusive monsters, quests, etc on psv GE2, 3 month exclusive FFX on psv, etc

PSP is still a viable platform, though. It's selling better than the Wii U.

Much better this week. Nearly twice as much this week. YTD is close.

| PSP # |     18.023 |     11.171 |     16.176 |    172.105 |    221.110 |  19.801.116 |
|  WIU  |      9.454 |     10.021 |            |    183.194 |            |     810.481 |
| PSP # |     17.954 |     11.665 |     15.621 |    175.620 |    280.955 |  19.354.720 |
|  WIU  |      9.089 |      9.528 |            |    182.206 |            |     820.545 |

 

[Father_Brain]

Let's read the full post again shall we:

"For the west, it would take games like GTA and CoD to fix the system, and proper portable style games not just lazy ports of the mainline ones. [/B]Sony also need to release a Lite version of the device, 4.3" LCD, slimmer and with a better battery life for $150. That would get the market moving. They also need a much better strategy for non-game apps and a phone/tablet version. Vita in the west needs to become an ecosystem with access to music, videos, games, apps and ebooks. Sony need to work out how they are going to provide all of those services for Vita or it will never be a successful device."

It says right there what I meant by ecosystem, what's not to understand? Games are just one part of it.

But you said in your very first sentence that you don't believe the system can be fixed without such games.

 

[ElectricKaibutsu]

Congrats, Vita, I knew you had it in you!

At Nintendo HQ, Iwata takes notes: "Price drop plus games equals sales! Kaz, you brilliant bastard!"

Edit: In this scenario Miyamoto then reminds Iwata that this has already worked for the 3DS. Also, Miyamoto is holding the Master Sword.

 

[Asimov]

Soul Sacrifice saves Vita. I don't even know what Soul Sacrifice is, but japan must love the hell out of it.

Apparently some people don't realize that the Vita just had a significant permanent price cut in Japan.

I almost sure the high sales are mostly because the price cut and not the release of SS.

 

[jgmo870]

Just for comparison, Animal Crossing 3DS sold more than 600k in two days... with a lot more competition.

Soul Sacrifice sold 100k with no competition at all.

You're comparing an established series that has sold 5 million+ in the past to a new IP?

Okie.

 

[equippedwithtowel]

We, PS Vita users, really know 3DS is way too far on sales worldwide... and we are OK with that (I have a 3DS too, but I only have it for Atlus games).

We only know PS Vita sell well because that means third-parties will support the console in the future, so we are really happy with this news.

That's it.

Problem is, there are many Vita haters on this forum and well... they have declared Vita dead a lot of times... so it's really good to make fun of them right now.

Has Vita started tracking above the Dreamcast yet? Let's not declare the second coming so soon.

 

[Maedhros]

Just for comparison, Animal Crossing 3DS sold more than 600k in two days... with a lot more competition.

Soul Sacrifice sold 100k with no competition at all.

That's a pretty stupid comparison... Animal Crossing is a stablished IP (Of course, it's selling much more than the expected for it, but that's another story).

 

[BadWolf]

Just for comparison, Animal Crossing 3DS sold more than 600k in two days... with a lot more competition.

Soul Sacrifice sold 100k with no competition at all.

A brand new Vita IP versus a well established million seller IP on a system with 10 times the userbase.

Sounds like a fair comparison.

 

[ambientmystic]

Congrats, Vita, I knew you had it in you!

At Nintendo HQ, Iwata takes notes: "Price drop plus games equals sales! Kaz, you brilliant bastard!"

Pffttt... Big N did it first for the 3DS, with even more spectacular results. It'd be more accurate to say that Kaz took the page out of Iwata's notes.

 

[Devilgunman]

It is interesting to see how PS3/PSV multi-plat games will do on the vita, considering how many games are using that model (FFX, Dragon's Crown, Gundam Breaker, Onepiece).

 

[SmokyDave]

Just for comparison, Animal Crossing 3DS sold more than 600k in two days... with a lot more competition.

Soul Sacrifice sold 100k with no competition at all.

This gave me a good chuckle, cheers.

 

[Oersted]

Congrats, Vita, I knew you had it in you!

At Nintendo HQ, Iwata takes notes: "Price drop plus games equals sales! Kaz, you brilliant bastard!"

You missed the 3DS price drop, didnt you?


Oh, that comparison by Asimov. Juniors going silly again. Out for a while.

 

[Asimov]

The reason why I'm doing that comparison is because some of you have hyped Soul Sacrifice as Vita's holy savior since last year, week after week.

 

[ArtHands]

LOOKS like I did. Whoops.

Well, 100k still isn't bad. The game DID just release. I don't know why folks are painting this in a bad light. It sold 100K in, like, one week on a supposed dead platform. That should be something to look at, not scoff at.

It has better be. They have been preparing for this game's promotion for months, especially the price drop and bundles. I think its the most hyped vita title in japan since launch.

 

[zomgbbqftw]

But you said in your very first sentence that you don't believe the system can be fixed without such games.

Yeah, that's just one part of it though (as I said, no less). No good offering the games and nothing else, people in the west don't care about dedicated portable gaming devices, as evidenced by poor 3DS sales also. Sony tried that in the holiday season just gone and it only helped them go from dead to awful. They need to offer an experience similar to what people can get from iOS+iTunes and Android+Play as well as the big franchise games.

Seriously, what are you not getting?

 

[Maedhros]

I really expected a normal 50%+ drop given that the biggest games this week were a new IP from a company not known to have big selling games and a horrible "remake" from a game that undersold in its original form. I'll happily eat the crow.

You were ignoring the fact that SS was being heavily marketed... also the type of the game is pretty different from everything the company did in the past.

 

[Instro]

Numbers are interesting. Vita held up even though SS didn't have a really big week, I imagine the other games out right now are helping.

 

[~ZIO~]

Doubting that SS will spark a long term improvement for vita ≠ scoffing at its initial sales.

Not all of us are scoffing, correct. Some of us are, though, so I generalized, unless all of you want to come in and state you are not scoffing. It's such a small point to get hung up on . . .

Just for comparison, Animal Crossing 3DS sold more than 600k in two days... with a lot more competition.

Soul Sacrifice sold 100k with no competition at all.

Well, let's try not comparing it to anything other than how software tends to perform on the vita. Seems unfair to judge it in that way.

 

[BlackLagoon]

That's a nice "out of the ass" number. We don't really know how much it would cost for Sony to secure a exclusive MH... neither if Capcom would even want to make one at this point.

If it happens I would suspect it would have to be because they want a companion console HD version to release in the west, and Ultimate on Wii U doesn't manage to recapture the audience of Tri on the Wii.

 

[Hero]

Do people think Vita can stabilize at the 60K mark? It'll be lucky to sell 30K in the next week. We've seen this spike before whenever notable software is released.

 

[Canis lupus]

Vita nr1 wow

 

[Lexxism]

On a side note, 3DS already reached 1 million YTD on famitsu. It's a little bit down from last year YTD

 

[ElectricKaibutsu]

You missed the 3DS price drop, didnt you?


Oh, that comparison by Asimov. Juniors going silly again. Out for a while.

Honestly, I just want a game for my Wii U. Any game will do. Horse Adventures would suffice.

 

[Screamapillar]

Just for comparison, Animal Crossing 3DS sold more than 600k in two days... with a lot more competition.

Soul Sacrifice sold 100k with no competition at all.

Let Vita have it's two or three weeks in the sun, it's certainly been long enough since it's had any decent headlines.

When Tomodachi and Luigi's Mansion come out 3DS will rocket to over 80-90k units per week for a sustained period of time, and Vita will fall back to a more sustainable level near 20-30k per week.

 

[MechaX]

Do people think Vita can stabilize at the 60K mark? It'll be lucky to sell 30K in the next week. We've seen this spike before whenever notable software is released.

Most likely not, especially when the 3DS is getting somewhat notable releases soon (Luigi's Mansion and SRW). SS would have to have abnormal legs for the system for one to even consider the Vita near that ballpark on a consistent basis.

With that said, what it did this week was indeed an accomplishment.

 

[wrowa]

Let's read the full post again shall we:

"For the west, it would take games like GTA and CoD to fix the system, and proper portable style games not just lazy ports of the mainline ones. Sony also need to release a Lite version of the device, 4.3" LCD, slimmer and with a better battery life for $150. That would get the market moving. They also need a much better strategy for non-game apps and a phone/tablet version. Vita in the west needs to become an ecosystem with access to music, videos, games, apps and ebooks. Sony need to work out how they are going to provide all of those services for Vita or it will never be a successful device."

It says right there what I meant by ecosystem, what's not to understand? Games are just one part of it.

So, you want Sony to openly compete with Android and Apple? I'm sorry, I can't see how that's a good idea. At all. Sony doesn't have the means to establish a new tablet/phone OS alongside the already established ones. Building up a new ecosystem is only going to cost them a lot of money, while failure is more than likely. If they want to establish the PlayStation brand on mobile and tablets, they are better off abandoning the Vita in order to concentrate full-force on PlayStation mobile with PlayStation branded Androd tablets aimed towards gamers.

Your suggestions of moneyhatting new GTAs, CoDs and the MH franchise, while cutting the price and introducing phones and tablets is pretty much summed up by "Sony should just throw hundred of millions at the Vita!". How are they supposed to ever make that money back?

And why would Rockstar or Capcom even want to be moneyhatted? The resources that need to be put in a full-scale GTA game could better be used for a new GTA on actually successful hardware that is likely going to make them a better profit than even a moneyhatted GTA Vita ever would.

Why would Capcom want to change platforms? The 3DS is a striking success, MH3G sold nearly 2 million units despite being the third version of MH3. Even more, the success of the 3DS gives them the chance to actually expand the audience of MH4. MH4 will face the new situation that it'll release on a platform that is very popular among both the core and the casual audiences. Why would they give up on that for a platform that is so far only popular with Otakus? Even in the best case scenario MH4 Vita would only increase Vita's core audience, there's not even a slight chance that the MH franchise could grow on the Vita. Monster Hunter is a huge franchise, it's more important for Capcom to keep the franchise as relevant as possible than getting a moneyhat that might fill their pockets, but might actually hurt the long-term health of their franchise.

 

[Moosichu]

IF Persona 5 was announced for PSV, multiplat or otherwise. What would the implications be?

Also IF marketed a lot. What is the sales potential of Tearaway?

 

[BadWolf]

The creation of SS pretty much says that Sony knows it can't get MH back.

They basically made a replacement for it, and by the looks of it, they can definitely make it grow and have it end up a significant IP for the system.

 

[djplaeskool]

*swoon*

Can't understand some of the abject pessimism.
Just let the Vita have this moment...if only, just this one moment.

 

[Father_Brain]

Yeah, that's just one part of it though (as I said, no less). No good offering the games and nothing else, people in the west don't care about dedicated portable gaming devices, as evidenced by poor 3DS sales also. Sony tried that in the holiday season just gone and it only helped them go from dead to awful. They need to offer an experience similar to what people can get from iOS+iTunes and Android+Play as well as the big franchise games.

Seriously, what are you not getting?

I get that you're saying that Vita needs to compete more directly with smartphones and tablets, though I don't think that's realistic for something that was obviously designed primarily as a gaming device. I just don't see any evidence in the last couple years to suggest that GTA, COD, etc. could be big hits even on a successful handheld in the West.

I do think you're overstating your case regarding 3DS sales. It may be failing to meet Nintendo's expectations, but it's really not a comparable situation to Vita.

So, you want Sony to openly compete with Android and Apple? I'm sorry, I can't see how that's a good idea. At all. Sony doesn't have the means to establish a new tablet/phone OS alongside the already established ones. Building up a new ecosystem is only going to cost them a lot of money, while failure is more than likely. If they want to establish the PlayStation brand on mobile and tablets, they are better off abandoning the Vita in order to concentrate full-force on PlayStation mobile with PlayStation branded Androd tablets aimed towards gamers.

Your suggestions of moneyhatting new GTAs, CoDs and the MH franchise, while cutting the price and introducing phones and tablets is pretty much summed up by "Sony should just throw hundred of millions at the Vita!". How are they supposed to ever make that money back?

And why would Rockstar or Capcom even want to be moneyhatted? The resources that need to be put in a full-scale GTA game could better be used for a new GTA on actually successful hardware that is likely going to make them a better profit than even a moneyhatted GTA Vita ever would.

Why would Capcom want to change platforms? The 3DS is a striking success, MH3G sold nearly 2 million units despite being the third version of MH3. Even more, the success of the 3DS gives them the chance to actually expand the audience of MH4. MH4 will face the new situation that it'll release on a platform that is very popular among both the core and the casual audiences. Why would they give up on that for a platform that is so far only popular with Otakus? Even in the best case scenario MH4 Vita would only increase Vita's core audience, there's not even a slight chance that the MH franchise could grow on the Vita. Monster Hunter is a huge franchise, it's more important for Capcom to keep the franchise as relevant as possible than getting a moneyhat that might fill their pockets, but might actually hurt the long-term health of their franchise.

That's a better response than mine.

 

[Maedhros]

Let Vita have it's two or three weeks in the sun, it's certainly been long enough since it's had any decent headlines.

When Tomodachi and Luigi's Mansion come out 3DS will rocket to over 80-90k units per week for a sustained period of time, and Vita will fall back to a more sustain level near 20-30k per week.

I don't think Luigi's or Tomodachi will really have that big effect on 3DS on long term... of course, on the week of release it'll sell 3DSes... but after that, I'm not really sure.

Maybe it'll impress just like Animal Crossing did.

 

[Celine]

I actually think that worldwide the PSV has a better shot at resurrection than inside Japan for several reasons.

Most notably is the fact that Sony's own strongest IP are more geared towards Western tastes and I think that the inevitable God of War/Uncharted 2 Vita/Gran Turismo/Killzone, etc. will do more for the Vita in places other than Japan. I also look at games like AC:3 Liberation selling over 600k worldwide (which evidently Ubi was pretty pleased with) and see that even in it's first year the Vita can be a profitable place for a major third party game done decently well.

Problem is western third-party support for Vita seems even more hard to get than from japanese publishers.
Looks at the dreadful CoD situation or how Sony had to sign a contract with Ubisoft to get the AC spioff.

And

Every Sony IPs you cited is more likely to sell better on a console than on an handheld, and of those only GT is a really big hit and to a lesser extent Uncharted (we already seen this one on Vita) and GoW.

In short if Sony can't convince publishers to start work to "exclusive" (but ports are better than nothing) games Vita will have a rough life.

 

[AranhaHunter]

Pay Capcom a shit load of cash to make MHP4 Vita exclusive and withdraw all Nintendo platform MH games from sale. That's Japan fixed in one fell sweep.

For the west, it would take games like GTA and CoD to fix the system, and proper portable style games not just lazy ports of the mainline ones. Sony also need to release a Lite version of the device, 4.3" LCD, slimmer and with a better battery life for $150. That would get the market moving. They also need a much better strategy for non-game apps and a phone/tablet version. Vita in the west needs to become an ecosystem with access to music, videos, games, apps and ebooks. Sony need to work out how they are going to provide all of those services for Vita or it will never be a successful device.

That's it, in a nutshell.

Likelihood of that happening is less than zero. Also, we already had Assassin's Creed and CoD on the Vita last holiday, and that didn't do much to boost Vita sales.

Agreed that the chances are pretty low, but it's not because he's not right, it's because Sony is incompetent. As someone who is nearly platinuming AC: Liberation I can tell you that that is probably the buggiest game I have played to completion. It really left a bad taste in my mouth, but my OCD made me go for platinum. If there's an AC4 spin off on vita, I'll be VERY wary before buying it. COD has the worst score on meta of any COD ever and a total of 1 hour SP campaign.

Sony should also work on getting an ecosystem working because there may be a time where they need to call on it in their smartphone division if Google start playing silly buggers with Android. So there is an extra incentive for Sony to get Vita into a decent state.

Sony did say they don't want to be overly dependent on Android, but went with FF OS instead lol. Also, IIRC Vita OS is 100% developed in Japan, which is part of the reason why it's not more modern and feature rich as SCEE and SCEA cannot help with its development. The reason we got the web store is because SCEE somehow was able to pull that development away from SCEJ.

 

[Nekofrog]

No need for wake up call. They knew this will happen. If I'm correct, it was even mentioned that they won't do a thing for the first quarter of the year(no games or whatsoever)

Jesus. You know that you have an entire YEAR to yourself to build up a solid userbase and release great exclusive games and experiences only available for your system... and what do you do? Piss all goodwill away from your first round of customers, and destroy all brand name recognition from your most successful console in the past 25 years.

holy SHIT, Nintendo.

 

[CaptainTiptop]

How many weeks does Vita need to sell well in a row before people will stop saying 'we won't know how well it does until the next week or two' then?

 

[Soriku]

IF Persona 5 was announced for PSV, multiplat or otherwise. What would the implications be?

Also IF marketed a lot. What is the sales potential of Tearaway?

If exclusive - good for Vita.

If multiplat (like with PS3) - not that good for Vita. Good that it has it but it'll sell more on PS3. Like the other multiplat games Vita has right now.

Persona 5 will most likely be PS3 exclusive or PS3/360.

 

[Devilgunman]

Do people think Vita can stabilize at the 60K mark?

Definitely not. If it can stay at 20K, that's already big achievement. Sony can use PS4/Vita combo to push the Vita by the end of the year.

 

[Asimov]

How many weeks does Vita need to sell well in a row before people will stop saying 'we won't know how well it does until the next week or two' then?

Until next week.

The Vita had, in the last two weeks:

• First Week: A price cut (close to 3DS price)
• Second Week (today's numbers): Soul Sacrifice release

So, the third week (next numbers) is going to be decisive.

 

[VanWinkle]

Just for comparison, Animal Crossing 3DS sold more than 600k in two days... with a lot more competition.

Soul Sacrifice sold 100k with no competition at all.

Yeah. It's crazy that the new IP Animal Crossing sold so much better than Soul Sacrifice, an established franchise with a huge fan base and on a handheld with a far bigger user base.

 

[Nibel]

At Nintendo HQ, Iwata takes notes: "Price drop plus games equals sales! Kaz, you brilliant bastard!"

Yeah, they should have done this before Sony with the 3DS bac-... wait a second

 

[matmanx1]

I don't quite see how this is supposed to be some sort of massive vindication of Vita's viability for that sort of content. If GTA:LCS or GOW:CoO had sold only 600K worldwide in their first two months on PSP, no one would be shy about calling them bombs.

There's still a potentially profitable niche market for console-style games aimed at older males on dedicated handhelds in the West, but that's all it is: a niche market. Not one that serves as the backbone of an entire platform's ecosystem.

Maybe not a massive vindication but at least a promising indicator? I honestly don't remember but what was the install base for the PSP like when those games released? How many months had the PSP been on the market? I feel like both of those factors count when deciding on bomb status. In other words, I'm not sure where the goalposts lie for a title like that.

Ubi said they were pleased with the results and because it's an Assassin's Creed title with an (mostly) open world I'm assuming that the budget was larger than average for a Vita title. I guess my logical progression here is that you have a major third party exclusive that probably had a decently large budget with a publisher that went on record and said they were pleased with the sales (which in marketing speak means "we made money").

Now does that automatically mean that another 3rd party exclusive with a large budget is automatically going to make money? Does it guarantee success for a GTA title? Of course not. But it is a positive indicator that the Vita can be profitable for this sort of venture.

 

[Frillen]

How many weeks does Vita need to sell well in a row before people will stop saying 'we won't know how well it does until the next week or two' then?

Until next week. Then we'll see how big the decline will be.

 

[airmangataosenai]

Strange times we live in.

Vita beat everyone's predictions by a long shot this week, did anyone actually think that it would increases week over week? I mean, holy shit.

 

[Fabrik]

SS + Vita price cut sells combo is nothing to write home about.
Will be back to sub-10k very soon except if there's good word of mouth for SS but it just doesn't have an attractive look.

 

[Napalm_Frank]

I hope Vita is able to somehow stabilize in the 15-20k region but we need dem releases

 

[BadWolf]

Jesus. You know that you have an entire YEAR to yourself to build up a solid userbase and release great exclusive games and experiences only available for your system... and what do you do? Piss all goodwill away from your first round of customers, and destroy all brand name recognition from your most successful console in the past 25 years.

holy SHIT, Nintendo.

It definitely feels like they pissing their 1 year lead away, so far anyway.