PlayStation Vita's First Japanese Sales Figures Are Good

nice ;D

I don't want the be all pessimistic and all, but these sales are far from impressive. If I were to rate Vita's launch (based purely on sales, not system or game quality), I'd give it a 6.5-7.

In it's favor, I did have a healthy amount of competition. Consumers only have a fixed amount of yen, so they had to decide between a newly-launched Vita, or the already established 3DS, PS3, or Wii. Even getting some games for the other systems could rule out a Vita for a consumer. So that obviously contributed to lower than expected sales. Also, there were some reports of malfunctioning Vitas (they would freeze or the touch screen would stop working). Although I'm 100% this will be fixed very, very soon, the (very) vocal minority of people were there to talk about it. Those who had issues were (surprise, surprise) vocal about it online, which could've scared some interest away.

Now the bad side; the Vita launched with a great library, in the middle of the holiday season, up against 2 five year old consoles and a handheld that's just now hitting its stride. Considering the home field advantage Sony holds and the amount of hype in Japan leading up to its launch (the 700k in shipments shows that hype), the fact that it didn't sell more than it did is slightly troubling. Also, not noted in the article here, the PSP sold more than half of that in half the time, which also doesn't bode well for the Vita, sales-wise.

Sorry about being the party-pooper, but I just wanted to bring some more context to the issue. I've checked out a plethora of unboxing and tests of Vitas online and I'm very, very stoked to get one. I absolutely cannot wait. Sales mean nothing to me outside of garnering 3rd party support, so I really don't care about it too much. I just want me my Vita

Saw this earlier today. Sales wise, that's pretty good. It's not amazing or anything, but if the Vita can sustain these sales, then it should keep up a good level of software support and hopefully not become a flop like the PSP. I think the reason it didn't sell quite as well as expected is the price. Cut it down from £230 to £180 ($250 to $200) and make those Memory Card prices non laughable, and the Vita is sure to have mammoth sales. The fact that software prices are lower than expected (£18 for Little Deviants) shows that Sony realize prices need to be lowered and that they are commited to making the system more widely available to the public, they just need to make a few adjustments.

It's twice as many systems than PSP sold on its first day back during its launch. I think it was pretty impressive. Can't wait to see how the unit does in the US and Europe come February.

Good? very impressive? Most of the reports say that this was very disappointing. Nintendo sold more in February with less games with the 3DS, and this is the holiday season now.
http://www.destructoid.com/media-create-disappointed-in-ps-vita-sales-performance-218312.phtml just an example. Everybody seems disillusioned with this product. I always thought this was dead on arrival but will do at least as good as the PSP did (which is far less than the DS, and there will be obviously no competition this time either).

Well, I am pretty excited about the prospect of playing LBP on the 3DS sooner or later, when Sony goes third party, so I don't mind.

3DS launched before the Japan earthquake though: it's easy to think "oh that was months ago, it's over now" but Japan's economy certainly hasn't recovered yet. Media Create might be disappointed but only a fool writes off a console after its first two days

Good to see someone not looking at these sales as a travesty.

@stomboli, I really, really, want to see that data you're looking at that says "since the sales weren't impressive, they must be a downright failure." I mean, you must have access to some sort of super-secretive data that no one else has, or else you wouldn't be making such an illogical, irrational, and frankly pure fanboy-ish comment.

Honestly, if you thought the Vita was dead on arrival, I shudder to wonder what you thought the 3DS was at its launch (with no games and its devious price).

Just in case your Nintendo-fanboyism prevents you from understanding sarcasm, I will make things plain for you. The Vita's launch was extremely mediocre. Not good, not bad. Definitely not "dead on arrival". 325,000 sold with 20+ launch titles is not DOA. An average tie ratio of 1:1 is not DOA. 100+ games coming in the first two quarters of 2012 is not DOA. Either make cogent, coherent arguments that people can actually comment about, or just keep your raving comments to yourself.

It is a pretty impressive launch in my opinion. Especially considering the way the economy is right now. It will be interesting to see how the Vita fares when it makes it's debut in other territories. I am considering picking one up myself but I'm not sure if I'm going to do so at launch or wait till later on. The cost of those memory cards are a real turn-off.

Considering Vita launched at the dead-end of the holiday shopping for the year and the economy is still in shambles from the earthquake, the sales we're a bit under what I expected, but still not bad in the least.

Then when you add the fact that the 3DS is absolutely kicking butt on the market with it's cheap price point and loads of fantastic fresh game releases - including the massively popular Monster Hunter franchise that sells phenomenally in Japan regardless of the system - then I'd say that Vita sold pretty dang well indeed!

I just hope I can knock out a few more 3DS titles before Vita releases or I'm going to have an absolutely ridiculous backlog!

I definitely would not write it off. Sony's products are too big to actually "fail", same as Nintendo's. PSP is far behind DS, but it obviously did well. It was Pachter who said that Vita is "dead on arrival" and later I think flip flopped again and again. Personally, I thought the 3DS would kick the Vita of course, but I still thought the Vita will do incredibly well in Japan. As it turned out, 3DS is performing much better in Japan that expected (I looked at Japan's amazon list, and it's full of 3DS games), and Vita is doing worse than expected, and that's in Japan...

So I wouldn't write it off, but it seems like a bit of a raw deal. It's expensive, the games to most people look like another port/version of the PS3 version they already can play, and it has these annoying flaws - no MANUAL, what's that about?? no card included?? (and why not use an SD card? or the PSP stick?) ... add to that the growing Android market, the fact that the 3DS has a head start, a great lineup of 3DS games flowing and coming, kids buying both ipads and 3DS's... and Sony already taking huge hits in the stock markets ... it seems somewhat bleak, together with Sony's arrogance and their legions of fans though - they have that market cornered, it just makes no real competition to Nintendo, and puts Sony in a bad light, similar to the situation with the Wii and the PS3, except that this time the 3DS has comparable graphics, especially with the 3D effect and all.

Many people probably are waiting for the next iterations of the PSP, like with PSP-1000, 2000, 3000, and I think in the U.S/Europe people will wait for the next Christmas/Black Friday bundles. By that time, this and the Wii U might be the 'new' consoles to buy.

@Rambo-Hamster - I am actually an admirer of all video-game makers. But Sony is fun to be made fun off sometimes, seeing as they attack Nintendo, and later follow, somewhat.... pathetically. It's just what the websites like Destructoid reported, just fun. Do not be querulous.

@stromboli, it's pretty unfair to compare a 5 day old console to one that's had 11 months to hit its stride. You say you wouldn't write it off...but then you spend the rest of your comment explaining why you write it off...

In addition, we still haven't hit that point where a person can compare a smartphone/tablet to a 3DS or Vita. The overlap between consumers of both isn't too heavy, and it's not enough to really warrant saying that Sony's situation is bleak. They just launched a new console and it had a mediocre launch. Let's not read into things too much now, it hasn't even been a week.

Also, if you want to bring up the iteration argument, then the 3DS itself shows that people don't think about that. Case in point, the 3DS sells like hot cakes at the moment, but just about everyone knows that the next iteration will come sooner rather than later and will be a fundamental redesign to include a 2nd stick. So even when an upcoming reiteration is effectively guaranteed, the 3DS still sells. So to say that the marginally different iterations of the Vita in the future is staving off consumers now makes no sense.

Finally, Sony doesn't attack Nintendo. SCEA's arrogant president Jack Tretton does. Besides, you act like Sony is the only company that "copies" ideas from the competition. Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft have all been copied and have all copied (the latter one hasn't been copied much as its rather new though). Sony did copy motion controls, but Nintendo is copying dual analog sticks for the Wii U and MS copied that for their Xbox and 360, something Sony pioneered over a decade ago. Also, when Sony jumped to optical discs, who scoffed at them? Nintendo, stating it's an impractical media to use. And what's Nintendo using for the Wii and Wii U. Optical discs. Not saying anyone in this is right or wrong, just saying that is doesn't just go one way, like you insinuate.

The Vita will be successful simply because it has much more going for it than against it, and that effectively determines how successful it will be in the long run. So its had an average launch, so what? The 3DS had horrid launch, and look where it is now. In time, the sales and support for the Vita will grow and show your points to be invalid.

Oh, and the 3DS does not have comparable graphics to the Vita. At all. Not with 3D or without. Not even close. Don't kid yourself.

One by one:
(1) I'm not writing it off, but it does not look auspicious. Two different things.
(2) the overlap between consoles and tablets/smartphones is huge, according to all industry expert. Sadly as it is. Nintendo though has the 3D advantage and the kids market cornered. Sony doesn't.
(3) It's different though. The iteration of Vita are much more substantial here. The iteration of the 3DS is pure fantasy, and it will be the same hardware anyway.
(4) Sony = Jack Tretton and other Sony executive who always attack the competition and disparage them. Sony copied from Nintendo from day one - the analog stick came from Nintendo, not Sony... the idea of dual controls was already present in the Virtual Boy. There are tons of example (rumble etc) that Sony took from Nintendo. Not vice versa. That is a fact even if you don't like it... Sony didn't start with optical discs either (nor did Nintendo), and Sony just copied the cartidges for the portables... Sony fanboys won't admit that Sony copied a LOT from Nintendo, but it's the truth.
(5) Vita will be successful simply because... ok, can't argue with prophecy. 3DS' launch was actually record breaking in numbers.
(6) Have you looked at RE:Revelations? Didn't see any Vita game coming close. Don't kid yourself. It's the same thing at this day and age. And smartphones are surpassing Vita in graphics too. The differences are minimal.