Article written by Peter Chapman.
Published on 27/04/2012 at 10:35 AM.
People with a much better grasp of these things than I, have been poring over the sales figures for consoles. MCV notes that the PS3 is leading Europe for the year after figures from the Nintendo financials disclosed that the console has sold between 50,000 and 100,000 units per week in 2012. The 3DS is in second place with sales “between 50,000 and 30,000″ per week while the Xbox 360 is in third.
Of course, the 360 is still some distance ahead in US sales. A thread over on NeoGAF has collected certain sales information (such as it is) and worked out that Microsoft’s console is still selling significantly more units in the US than anything else.
That thread also notes the poor Vita performance in all territories. In Japan, it’s selling fewer units than the PSP (200,000 compared with 270,000). In Europe, it’s doing slightly better, with the launch week falling in this calendar year. The Vita has sold 380,000 here compared with 350,000 PSP sales. In the US, though, the Vita is performing much better than the PSP, outselling it by 430,000 units to just 90,000 PSPs. Nintendo’s cheaper 3DS outsells the Vita by some margin in all regions.
As we noted earlier this week, the Vita needs some new life breathed into it or it seems in danger of slipping further behind and becoming forgotten altogether. Perhaps we’ll see some exciting new games for it at E3 – maybe even a Call of Duty reveal? That would surely give it a bit of a boost.
I have faith that the Vita will be success.
The PSVita Wi-Fi/3G version is only £209.99(& the PSVita Wi-Fi version is only £179.95) now on Amazon.co.uk so that might boost PSVita sales(well in the UK anyway)
+ “while the Xbox 360 is in third” How much is it selling each week then? Is the Xbox sales that bad that you can’t print/say how many units per week it has sold? :D
why wouldn’t I be able to publish bad figures?
The weekly 360 figures aren’t included in the MCV data that the opening paragraph is based on but according to the NeoGAF thread linked as a source, it’s sold 700,000 in 13 weeks in Europe so, I’ll do the maths for you, that’s just under 54,000 per week on average. Which would actually put it in second place for Europe (way ahead in the largest US market and way behind in Japan), although the NeoGAF figures are based on several sources – none of which are ever exact (because precise figures aren’t collected outside of Japan)
So the figures suggest that the PS3 is outselling the 360 globally (as it has done for a while) while the Vita is dying a death, selling less that the Wii and less than half what the 3DS has done, globally. Of course, the Vita missed the first two months in the US and EU so perhaps it’s not too alarming… yet.
I think the MCV article says the 360s sakes fell after week 6. Not sure why but then but it has boosted it’s European figures
As long as they don’t stop supporting the vita am happy with my 3G version. I bought a few games here in America quiet cheap, even bought the play station monitor too
Price drop & a YouTube app will boast sales
Shame about the Vita sales, but I still love mine, and I’ll stick with it.
While the PS3 maybe doing well in Europe, I’d have to say that isn’t the case in the UK also. I think in the UK, the PS3 and 360 is much more evenly matched sales wise.
Vita sales suck a there’s no good game for it, even Uncharted was mediocre at best and coupled with horrible aiming. Ugh.
Rayman is exactly as console versions and small games from PSN is not why people bought Vita!
Agreed, well to a point. Uncharted was ok, certainly better than the incredibly shallow ‘Charted3, but not really worth playing more than once.
The Vita needs a title to keep you coming back but is also impressive on a technical level. Motorstorm, etc on the PSN are enjoyable but don’t exactly justify the crazy asking price for the Vita hardware.
Time will tell but I agree the launch line up, while impressive in number, wasn’t as great as everyone made it out to be
What’s your opinion on uncharted 2 then?
I found part2 to be one of the best games this gen. Good storyline and visuals, terrific pacing and, while full of “oh look at me” setpieces, there was some actual gameplay in between these moments, something I found Charted3 lacked.
Couldn’t disagree more. The Uncharted game’s great, and the aiming (once you get used to it, maybe) is great – it’s the only game I’ve ever really enjoyed using a sniper rifle in :)
Wipeout 2048 is amazing too, it’s been eating up all my gaming time for weeks – probably my favourite in the series since Wipeout 2097.
I really need to get back to Super Stardust Delta, Escape Plan etc. too and play them more but there just aren’t enough hours in the day …
Golden Abyss certainly felt like a step in the right direction for the series but, I dunno, they’re starting to feel a bit similar to me now. The extras like touch screen controls were nice though.
As for WipEout. Yeah I definitely enjoyed it at first. Not so much the campaign but the online proved enjoyable. It just didnt have enough content (game modes, tracks, etc) to keep it feeling fresh outside the first few hours.
Again, that’s just my view. Just didn’t want to create the impression I hadn’t given these games a fair chance :)
If you keep going, it does throw in new tracks, faster speeds and more ship variants (some of which are quite different!).
But yeah, fair enough – if you’re not such a fan of the series, it might not be such a draw :)
Gotta love different opinions! I thoroughly enjoyed Uncharted + found the aiming mechanic a joy to use once i’d gotten used to. I probably have more head shots in this than all the others together because of it!
Absolutely. Have to love TSA for that! :) I know what you mean about the aiming controls’, was surprised to see how quickly I acquired the “250 headshots” trophy lol
Oh, except the light puzzle, which felt like a childs toy addition to an adult game. Plus I had to actually stop playing at that point as I was in bed in the dark!
So negative.
there’s a pattern as well.
If they dropped the price and had a Steam style game sale I’d jump aboard. It just seems to be a stop gap and they’re gonna concentrate on PS4 instead. What do Sony do at E3? Announce PS4 and announce price cut? One will cancel the other.
ps3 leads in europe?
yet will sony give this region the support it deserves?
you can guess the answer to that one.
anyway, i do plan to get a Vita, probaly not till late this year though, maybe as a christmas prezzie to myself, hopefully there’ll be a price cut by then.
and a better selection of titles.
i think a killer app for the vita for me would be a great JRPG.
one of those comes along and i could be tempted to buy sooner rather than later, funds permitting of course.
I really hope Vita picks up. I use mine more than my PS3 nowadays.
I really hope the Vita’s game catalog picks up again… I’ve yet to buy any games apart from MotorStorm and Stardust due to financial issues. :P
The Vita has so much potential, it’s just a shame Sony have to charge a lot of money for it.