Fergal Gara, Sony’s UK Managing Director, has confirmed with IGN that sales of the Vita dramtically increased by 163% after the PS4 launched in the UK, though actual figures weren’t presented. However such a large increase in both sales and interest for Sony’s handheld is only a good thing for consumers and developers, which will bring more games to the Vita. The reason for the surge was explained by Fergal Gara.
“A significant number of PS Vita purchasers in the UK indicated that Remote Play was their reason for purchase, and we are subsequently seeing lots of these new PS Vita users connecting to PS4 with this feature.”
On Thursday Sony announced that the Vita Slim would be coming to the UK from this week at a cost of £180, and that the OLED model has stopped being manufactured. The next few months will be even more crucial for Sony to advertise the new Vita model, and I look forward to seeing the sales figures a few months down the line.
Source: IGN
tonycawley
Makes sense, ps4 and vita go together like a beer and a cigarette. The fact people are buying them mostly for remote play though doesn’t bode well for vita software sales.
cc_star
Indeed, may as well just be a ‘dumb terminal’ screen as far as that’s concerned.
Also, unless some actual figures come out to highlight how many like Nintendo have done with pretty impressive numbers for the often laughed at 2DS, a percentage increase on a very tiny number is still a very tiny number.
beeje13
I don’t think that’s the problem. IMO the problem was low hardware sales and actually getting people to buy the vita. If only 10% of people who buy a vita for remote play end up playing vita games as well then that would be great for the platform.
What I don’t get is how the new model isn’t actually cheaper. And why only 1GB internal storage? My £170 Xperia M has 2GB internal in a much smaller form factor. Ditching the memory cards in place of microSD would be another great step.
NeverWinning
Remote Play is likely to force a purchase for me. I’ll pick up the ‘fat’ OLED model once it hits £100.
ArrebatoTarugo
I am not sure how common is my case but I bought the Vita only for remote play, and after a few months it has become my most-used platform for gaming. I have bought a few games already, and I am sure that a significant amount of people with the Vita at home will get into Vita gaming.
Foxhound_Solid
Well oil beef hooked! (say it fast) that’s some going :-)
Gotta get me a Vita real soon. Gotta get a MK1.
camdaz
Could be a few bargains about if retailers want to get rid of the old model.
gazzagb
I reckon sales must still be pretty low otherwise they’d release actual figures rather than percentages.
ron_mcphatty
Good point, I imagine the big publishers will be equally cynical. Hopefully Sony can bring all the good things about the Vita together and make some big sales this year. I think the Vita really needs more multiplatform big bidget games from the likes of EA, personally I love the indie association that the Vita is getting but to be a success perhaps veriety is going to be key.
DividSmythe
It’s great news really 163% is massive but are they going to ruin it with Vita slim. There only really negativity coming out of it what I can figure. If it had OLED on the slim I’d be first in queue but I don’t like the idea of LCD I did that in my Gamegear days years ago. I know it’s different but still…
ron_mcphatty
The LCD downgrade has become a massive stigma, which is a shame because its honestly still a brilliant screen :) The price is a even bigger shame though, if the Vita 2000 is going to compete with the 3DS at the spending branch of the bank of mummy and daddy it needs to be much cheaper.
freezebug2
I don’t think that the Vita’s LCD screen will give an inferior experience, the OLED does have slight advantages over LCD with ambient light affecting the screens contrast and black levels, but graphically the resolutions are the same.
Most people have been happily gaming with PS3, PS4, XBox360’s, XBone’s etc. using LCD screens for years and that seems to work wonderfully well, mine does!
As I’ve mentioned before, the only drawback for me was pricing otherwise I’d have gone for the slim over the phat that I ended up ordering the other day.
Great news for Vita and hopefully it continues….figures would have been nice to see though!
Lieutenant Fatman
Good news, more sales means even more support and more games. I do love my Vita, great piece of kit.
pdannysan13
I got one this holiday season and not because of the PS4. I just had so many games waiting with PS+!
flatspikes
So 1,000 sales becomes 1,630… Still poor? Please show the actuals!
stonyk
I may be wrong but isn’t that a 63% increase? I think you mean 2630?
flatspikes
100% right!!! It’s a good increase but hard figures would be more reassuring.
lambchop
I like the idea of it using Micro UBB for charging but thats about it.
DividSmythe
As long as there loss of stock of chargers for the fat Vita’s because there bound to break after a while.
DividSmythe
*lot damn you autospell.