Downward spiral

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]