The North American video game market may not belong to Sony in the way that it used to, but that didn’t stop the Japanese giant from recording some impressive sales during Black Friday week (18th to 24th November). The platform holder has announced that it sold a whopping 525,000 PlayStation 3s during the seven day window, and a further 160,000 Vitas.
PS3 bundle sales increased by 15 per cent compared to last year, while total sales (including hardware, software, and accessories) grew by nine per cent. For comparison purposes, the Xbox 360 shifted 750,000 units during the same period (minus a day), while the brand new Wii U managed 400,000 units.
Sony claims that all of the specially prepared Vita bundles sold out at retailers nationwide, with the Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation package proving the most popular. Considering the significantly cheaper Nintendo 3DS only managed to sell 250,000 units during the festive window, that’s an extremely positive number for the pocketable powerhouse.
“We’re very pleased with the Black Friday sales results, especially the incredible reception for the PS3 and Vita bundles,” beamed Jack Tretton. “The demand was very strong which quickly depleted our inventory across retailers nationwide.
“The PlayStation brand generated significant revenue and year-over-year growth at retail because of our focus on what gamers love most in combining amazing hardware with great games and digital entertainment.”
The company concluded that it saw PlayStation Plus subscriptions increase by an incredible 259 per cent year-over-year. It looks like the Instant Game Collection is already starting to pay serious dividends.
Comments 19
Much, much, much better numbers than I was expecting. Awesome news.
Hooray! Hopefully momentum continues through Christmas and then devs start committing their support.
Those are decent numbers..
thats a good start
@JavierYHL I think this proves that there is a market — albeit a small one — for the handheld at the right price. Drop the system to $199.99 and bundle in some extras and it will start picking up steam.
@get2sammyb
if $199 bundle sold 160,000 units, imagine if this bundle was drop just down to $179.00 to compete with the 3DS? I mean Sony still have one more oppurtunity left before the Christmas. There should be no way the PS Vita should cost the same as a 250gb PS3 with games. If I had to pick one for the holiday i will pick the PS3 over the PS Vita over the same price.
The next move for Sony is to drop the price of the vita a little bit more and drop the price of the memory card by a lot especially the 32gb stick. Why? because now that PSN plus is launched for the Vita, people will go out and buy bigger memory stick if the price is right. If not, many who wanted the Vita will wait until the Memory stick price drops. I dont think Sony can afford to wait any longer.
@Squiggle55 Hardly massive dev attracting numbers but its a start.
Perhaps it can get a little momentum now.
@Pikachupwnage Oh yeah, it's by no means an AMAZING number, but it's certainly better than I expected. Like you say, hopefully it can build on it.
Dat PlayStation Plus!
Now maybe Sony will realize that there is demand for the vita, but not at its current price point. $200 with a game and memory card, and $170 for the system itself is literally all Sony needs to do at this point to increase Vita sales to safe levels that will entice third party publishers. That's the price that the psp set years ago and it was successful.
I picked up one for my brother at $180 for the AC Bundle + Battle Royal + 3 months of PSN+. At that price, it was a steal.
There should really should have been a Persona 4 bundle... Persona 4 yellow edition Vita + Persona 4 + the Persona 4 case for $200. Ready go! Instant sales!
This is great news. I have to admit I've been feeling a little doom and gloom for Vita myself lately and I hate to say that because I truly do think it's a fantastic product. This gives me a little bit of hope for it, it's definitely not out of the woods yet but maybe things aren't as bad as they might seem?
For me that confirms that price is the biggest roadblock to Vita's success. At the right price, people want the system. The only question is can Sony afford to drop the price in the current climate.
@Ginkgo
I don't think they really have a choice. It's either take the hit and drop the price to try and have a successful product, or watch the system die and still have to take a hit.
@Ginkgo I think they'll drop it next year without a doubt.
Not really good numbers for Vita,EVERYTHING sells better during the Holidays, it will go back to what it was doing before now, jack squat
@Cricket1 Considering what the Vita has been selling though, no one predicted the bump would be this big.
I think Plus has helped a fair bit here. If you pick up a Vita bundle in the US now and you happen to have a PS3 and a plus subscription anyway, you get whatever game came with the machine, plus three huge Vita exclusives (Gravity Rush and Uncharted:GA) plus a couple of smaller PSN titles and a couple of classics. That's a ton of content for a single bundle. I think a lot of PS3 owners were persuaded to take the plunge with that.
Every Vita in the hands of a player is the potential for another "word of mouth" recommendation. I was the first in my gaming clique to purchase the Vita and all the good things I've said about it have already resulted in another 3 Vita sales.
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