PlayStation Vita gets unofficial price cut in Japan

Sony’s successor to the PlayStation Portable, the PlayStation Vita may have had a fairly decent start (in Japan) selling approximately 325,000 units in a week but sales have slowed down drastically since then. According to Softpedia, Sony is currently struggling to sell the Vita in Japan with just about 72,000 units being moved in the second week. This has prompted many retailers to slash the price of the product just so they can sell it off. While these aren’t official price cuts approved by Sony, many retailers across Japan are offering the 3G version of the Vita at a 20% discount incurring losses in the process.

What lies in store for the Vita?

Weak sales for the PlayStation Vita have led many analysts to believe that the era of the handheld console is over thanks to smartphones and tablets but if that was the case, why have sales for the 3DS suddenly picked up? Metro.co.uk has reported that Nintendo moved a staggering 482,200 units of the 3DS the same week the Vita sold a paltry 72,000. The only explanation I can think of now is that the Vita doesn’t have a strong launch line-up.

More from News & Analysis

What is the US HIRE Bill and why is India’s $250-billion IT sector worried? Is the internet dead? What's this theory that OpenAI's Sam Altman says might be true?

Either way it’s too early to deem the Vita a failure. Sony faced the same teething issues when the PlayStation 3 was launched but today, that very same console is doing rather well for itself. The PlayStation Vita is expected to launch in India this February.