Always look on the bright side of life

Sony as a whole may look in much better shape under the guidance of new CEO and former SCE president Kaz Hirai, but the outlook does not seem quite as good for the PlayStation Vita. Speaking as part of an earnings call earlier today, the firm revealed that it only expects to sell 5 million portable systems over the coming fiscal year, which spans the period between 1st April 2013 and 31st March 2014.

That means that the platform holder anticipates that sales for both the Vita and the PlayStation Portable will be less over the coming twelve months than they were for the same period last year. The manufacturer sold just 7 million handheld systems during the fiscal year that’s just ended, and even those figures were undermined by the losses incurred by the Vita’s price drop in Japan.

The forecast suggests to us that Sony doesn’t have a rescue plan in mind for the Vita. While the prediction will no doubt be affected by the declining interest in the PSP, it’s troubling that the company doesn’t expect its current flagship handheld to pick up the slack. We think that you can pretty much rule out any major announcements at E3.

[source sony.net, via vg247.com]