PlayStation Vita sells 1.8 million units
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Sony says initial sales "a good start," projecting to sell another 10 million systems in current fiscal year; game division posts loss for the year.
How well is the PlayStation Vita performing? Sony today announced that the new system has sold 1.8 million units in its lifetime. On top of that, the company is projecting to sell another 10 million units during the current fiscal year.
The news came during a postearnings investor call attended by Gamasutra for Sony's 2011 fiscal year earnings report. During the presentation, newly appointed Sony president Kaz Hirai noted initial PS Vita sales were hitting the mark.
"The last year, 1.8 million units for US, Japan, Asia, and Europe [were sold]," he said. "And as a starting phase, I think it was a good start."
In February, Sony announced that the PS Vita had sold 1.2 million units worldwide, indicating the system has moved an additional 600,000 systems during March.
Later in the call, Hirai explained that strong, alluring software will spur the PS Vita as a platform.
"For a game platform, like Vita, the software is the key to success--how good the software is, that is the key to business success. We have to reinforce the software area in order to improve the business, that is the basic line."
Sony also today updated sales figures for its game systems. The company said during the 2011 fiscal year, it sold 13.9 million PlayStation 3 consoles, compared to 14.3 million the year prior. Additionally, the PlayStation 2 moved 4.1 million units, a dip from the 6.4 million sold a year ago prior. Lastly, the PSP sold 6.8 million units in fiscal 2011, down from 8.0 million last year.
As for software, Sony said it sold 156.6 million PS3 titles worldwide, an increase for 147.9 million during the previous year. The PS2 moved 7.9 million games, a drop from the 16.4 million from a year prior, and the PSP sold 32.2 million games during the last fiscal year, down from 46.6 million year-on-year. PS Vita software sales were not announced.
As for Sony's actual earnings, for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2012, revenues for the firm's Consumer Products and Services division (which houses its game business) dipped 18.5 percent year-over-year to ¥3.14 trillion ($39.4 billion). Net losses for the period came in at ¥229.8 billion ($2.88 billion), compared to profits of ¥10.8 billion ($135.5 million) from a year prior.
Sony's overall business was also down. Revenues hit ¥6.5 trillion ($81.6 billion) during the year, marking a decrease of 9.6 percent compared to the previous fiscal year. The company took an operating loss of ¥67.3 billion ($844.5 million) for the year.
Looking ahead, Sony said it anticipates a return to profits in the current fiscal year. The company is presently expecting revenues to surge 14 percent to ¥7.4 trillion ($93 billion), and net income of ¥30 billion ($380 million)
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He lives in Connecticut, works out of the company's New York City office, and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
I love my vita and hope It does well so there can be more support for it. The hardware is excellent, all it needs is new software combined with new versions of the franchises we love and I think it might just reach somewhere close to 10 million units.
Its not as bad as i thought. I think once they reveal some stuff at E3 and once they get software rolling it will sell better in the states. As for Japan, once PSO comes and/or monster Hunter...It will strive. While I am not worried, I do wish i saved my money and bought it at a later date. But on anynote, I will be extremely happy once more games release/reveal (e3)
It has a lot of potential, but I don't think it'll reach the sells they are anticipating for if they don't use that potential.
Usually when a new system like the vita comes out its pouring with games then the system would be announce. Its like the games are the first priority and after is the system. Hmm it feels kind a reverse to me now.
Uchiha_Sasuke1 I don't remember that ever being the case. Sure some of the earlier consoles had more games at launch but that was cause they didn't take much time to make but I don't recall ever seeing a lot of games at launch for any console
Good sales
MGS, GT, GOW and Resi Evil would do the trick...
btw the 1.8mil units sold was through March so it has sold way more then that by now maybe even over 3mil or at the very least close to 3mil
I love my PS Vita. I'm hoping that E3 does announce that the memory stick is getting a price drop, the digital comics on Vita, The You Tube app everybody is whining for.(just to shut them all up) more AR games and Visualizer for Mp3s.
Still, the original PS1, 2 and 3 are the best motherf****** systems ever!
It appears theres a mIstake they say lifetime sales than give only the sastisics for the last two months which when it was realsed in north america but the japanese has had the vita for longer than that which means world wide sales should be larger than 1.8 million unless they already equated the japanese sales into febuary.
i didnt have any excitements about this product , i had a psp3000 before, but when i checked it out at a bestbuy, the controls were perfect, second stick made a huge difference for the controls, feels like a controller with a screen , very nice machine, i m thinking of getting one, would love to see another china town wars style game on this...
add metal gear resident evil god of war a proper Silent hill and a Not emo Devil may cry games and you will sell 3 billion units i dont know what you are waiting for
If they drop the price on the overpriced memory and overpriced games they might pull through this.
$40 got good games thats not overpriced but the memory card prices those are brutal.
wasakawaka i guess you are expecting a game to be what?$9.99?do you even know how much money is needed to even make a full fledge game?
graphidz yeah full fledges games, but what about the PORTS that the Vitta is and will be flooded with?
Nice to know the thing is selling, because all I've heard are good things..
However.. Purchasing one myself all boils down to the rumoured GTAV heading to the handheld.
If it has that I'm sold :)
Is it too long? or Sony sponsors this?
Where is the freedom of speech? GS.
It was a really tough period to launch the Vita, massive world economic crisis and all the disasters that were happening in Japan, earthquakes, tsunamis etc around the same time, it's a small miracle Sony actually got this out there tbh.
When you take all that into account, those sales figures don't look too bad.
But yeah, it looks to be selling slowly but surely and the software lineup even I have to admit trounces what I have available for my 3DS, so big props to Sony there as well.
"projecting to sell another 10 million systems in current fiscal year"
pfff ahahaha
I'm definitely getting a Vita, but I do not approve of Sony's memory stick prices.
Sony!!!! IF and I mean IF you want the PSV to sell well then 1 thing will do. Allow Developers and Publishers to charge what they think the Price should be and NOT some preset price on games. IF you want to fight off Smart-phones then you need to charge less for royalties and less on the APPROVAL process.
DO this and do not lessen the price and you will sell loads and still make some money.
Ravenlore_basic NO. because a game like Uncharted dosent deserve to be 99c like Angry Birds.
Ravenlore_basic
How greedy are you? $40 pfft thats cheap thats like chump change especially how much game time you get into them i mean i have owned Blazblue continuum shift extend since febuary 10 and disgae 3 (since the game came out) and i have stopped using my x-box to play these games beacuse there amazingly fun. Although if they want to sell more units the should shave of at least 20% of the current cost of the memory cards $80 32GB memory instead of a hundred ect.
blackwing55
They need to shave more then that. You can buy 32GB SD cards now for under $50. Sony's cards can't be more then $60 if they seriously want people to buy them. That's just one of the many reasons I'm not buying a PSVita this year.
lower the price, put some actual games on it, and do not make the ps3 version of your games cost less than the vita version. these are just some thoughts, but it remain up to sony to see if they want people to buy the product or not. put ratchet and clank, killzone, a vita exclusive GTA game, a good rpg line up(final fantasy 7-9 remake??????) , and i would buy the console in 5 seconds. they have the hardware to do it good, but knowing sony, they will not have anything great for a long time after launch.
im2cool123 The Price is not bad $299.00 compared to other similar devices. MORE games is a must. They need to have a mix of great games from PSP, PS1, PS2 and NEW games come out every month. The Best PSP, PS1, and PS2 games would get a HD remake. PSV can get some DLC to go with PS3 games.
Ravenlore_basic
$299 is too high. They need to get the price down to $199 if they want to move a lot of systems. They definitely need more original games and not just PS3 1st party games.
im2cool123
There making a Final fantasy 10 remake if that will satisfy your rpg addiction plus they do have great games check out Blazblue continuum shift extend and disgae 3.
I see Vita easily selling 10 millions, but only if Sony unleashes hell on E3. Make every announcement you can sony, every damn exclusive you know we'll love, and you got yourself some sales. Remember: Nintendo lifted up 3DS's sale from something like this to more than 8 million units sold world wide with exclusives and a price cut.
I'm rooting for Vita, but I just don't see it selling 10 million in that time frame. Still waiting for a better library.
soulless4now you're probably right. I think that estimate is inflated a little to help encourage buyers & developers. Still 1.8M is pretty good
Still a little expensive for me, but that's solid sales, and the Vita has great potential.
All they need is games, games, games. The console itself is really good, but if you run out of things to play it ends up on the shelf real quick.
i feel sorry for anyone who wasted money on this piece of junk.
and no i dont own a 3DS either. handhelds are a waste of time.
HiImUPSMan Handheld are what separate the poser from the real gamers. I feel bad for you poser... Please don't comment back because there's a lot a poser like you wouldn't understand.
shadow655
Haha theres plenty of hardcore games for the vita especially fighting games like Blazblue you ever try play a fighting game on the x-box completely and utterly inaccurate controls the d-pad on that thing is great. I can't say anything about the ps3 beacuse i don't own one YET with price drops recently im thinking about it to get exclusive games like killzone and hopefully recored of agarest war 2 and final fantasy versus 13 when it comes out.
HiImUPSMan feel sorry for you troll
HiImUPSMan so i guess you never smell the fresh air outside while enjoying playing games on the move is it?
PSP Vita sold better than PSPGO, but that isn't saying much lol. :P
we need more games , Sony !!!
ashleekien YES, yes we do. Best of all Games out there. I want Herzog zwei, Elite, and a few others from gens past. (yes I know Wii does this now but who cares its not on the go.) Also The BEST PSP, PS1, and PS2 games need an HD update with real effort so it looks, and plays a lot better. Also make these games so they can be played on the PS3 WITHOUT paying extra!!!!! IF I pay for the HD collection of God of war I want to play on either PS3 or PSV from my PSN account.
10 million isn't a huge stretch. That's average sales of 833k a month, and they hit 600k in March with no new games. Even if they stick around 600k a month until October, Xmas/holiday sales will likely make up the difference.
chibi-acer agreed. as soon as cod and ac come out
It's not a good sign to hear the majority of responses indicate that they are waiting for price drop.
games man!!! games!!!! Vita needs them gamess
I was give a vita for my birthday. I mostly play psp games I never got to play cause the psp never interested me. If you never had a psp, the vita is not a bad system, if you have one I'll say wait till the price drops or more games are released, right now games are trickling down at around 2-3 a month, which is not good at all if you ask me.
10 million Vitas within the next fiscal year seems like a pretty big stretch.
Nonetheless, if you can port your PSN downloads onto the Vita then it's a decent deal. I had a bunch of PSOne games on my PSP, back when I owned one, and wouldn't mind rocking them on the Vita. But, like most people, I'm waiting for a price drop first.
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