PS Vita's struggle to gain traction in Japan continues as the portable's weekly hardware sales sink even further, with its titles still notably absent from the country's top 20 retail software chart.
Sony's new handheld is already tracking behind early sales for PSP and 3DS at this point in its life, due in part to what some believe was a lacking launch lineup. PS Vita fell below 20,000 units sold for the first time two weeks ago, but now its numbers threaten to drop past the 15,000 mark.
As consumers wait for more system-selling games to arrive for PS Vita, the highest profile releases planned in the near future are this week's Tales of Innocence R, a Namco Bandai port of a 2007 DS RPG; and in two weeks Sony's own Gravity Rush, a new, unproven IP.
Nintendo 3DS, though selling a fifth less hardware than last week, still remains relatively strong after pushing over 80,000 units, more than all other consoles combined. PlayStation 3 sales (and sales for all other systems) also fell, moving around 21,000 units.
PSP outperformed its successor for the fifth week straight, selling more than 17,000 handhelds. Wii sold 10,000 consoles last week, while the Nintendo DSi family, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 2 remained at around the same numbers as the previous week's.
Below are the full sales rankings provided by Media Create and translated by NeoGAF for the week ending January 22, 2012 (The second chart lumps together sales of all models in a given line of hardware):
| LW | TW | Platform | Weekly Sales | Last Week |
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| 1 | 1 | 3DS | 80,960 | 100,668 | | 2 | 2 | PS3 | 21,155 | 30,332 | | 3 | 3 | PSP | 17,181 | 22,538 | | 4 | 4 | PSV | 15,219 | 18,361 | | 5 | 5 | Wii | 10,173 | 14,179 | | 6 | 6 | DS | 2,022 | 2,721 | | 7 | 7 | 360 | 1,588 | 1,519 | | 8 | 8 | PS2 | 903 | 766 |
| LW | TW | Platform | Weekly Sales | Last Week |
|---|
| 1 | 1 | 3DS | 80,960 | 100,668 | | 2 | 2 | PS3 | 21,155 | 30,332 | | 3 | 3 | PSP | 17,181 | 22,538 | | 4 | 4 | PSV | 15,219 | 18,361 | | 5 | 5 | Wii | 10,173 | 14,179 | | 6 | 6 | 360 | 1,588 | 1,519 | | 7 | 7 | DSi XL/LL | 1,200 | 1,515 | | 9 | 8 | PS2 | 903 | 766 | | 8 | 9 | DSi | 822 | 1,206 |
New software releases last week include Sega's 3DS rhythm game Rhythm Thief and the Emperor's Treasure, D3 Publisher's Xbox 360 action title Onechanbara Z: Kagura, Namco Bandai's PSP RPG Heroes Phantasia, and Konami's 3DS RPG Beyond the Labyrinth.
3DS titles continue to dominate the upper half of the top 20 software sales at retail chart thanks to Capcom's Monster Hunter 3G, Nintendo's Mario Kart 7 and Super Mario 3D Land, Level-5's Inazuma Eleven Go: Shine / Dark, and the aforementioned new releases.
In the bottom half, many of Nintendo's evergreen Wii games populate the list, but its new release this week, Kiki Trick, an audio-themed minigame collection from the team behind the Rhythm Heaven and WarioWare series, is noticeably missing from the top 20.
The complete top 20 chart, as supplied by Media Create is shown below:
| LW | TW | Title | Publisher | Platform | Weekly Sales |
|---|
| 2 | 1 | Mario Kart 7 | Nintendo | 3DS | 351,505 | | NEW | 2 | Rhythm Thief & the Emperor's Treasure | Sega | 3DS | 31,598 | | 3 | 3 | Monster Hunter 3G | Capcom | 3DS | 31,369 | | 4 | 4 | Super Mario 3D Land | Nintendo | 3DS | 26,051 | | NEW | 5 | Onechanbara Z: Kagura | D3 Publisher | 360 | 22,013 | | NEW | 6 | Heroes Phantasia | Bandai Namco Games | PSP | 15,163 | | 5 | 7 | Inazuma Eleven Go: Shine / Dark | Level 5 | 3DS | 14,190 | | NEW | 8 | Beyond the Labyrinth | Konami | 3DS | 14,176 | | 1 | 9 | Super Robot Wars OG Saga: Masou Kishin II - Revelation of Evil God | Bandai Namco Games | PSP | 11,598 | | 6 | 10 | Warriors Orochi 3 | Koei Tecmo | PS3 | 10,690 | | 8 | 11 | Final Fantasy XIII-2 | Square Enix | PS3 | 8,706 | | 10 | 12 | Just Dance Wii | Nintendo | Wii | 8,315 | | 13 | 13 | Monster Hunter Freedom 3 | Capcom | PSP | 8,126 | | 12 | 14 | Wii Party | Nintendo | Wii | 7,133 | | 11 | 15 | Wii Sports Resort with Remote Plus | Nintendo | Wii | 6,594 | | 16 | 16 | Kirby's Return to Dream Land | Nintendo | Wii | 6,162 | | 15 | 17 | Mario Kart Wii | Nintendo | Wii | 6,137 | | 19 | 18 | Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 - Dubbed Edition | Square Enix | PS3 | 5,945 | | 18 | 19 | Nintendogs + Cats: French Bulldog / Shiba / Toy Poodle & New Friends | Nintendo | 3DS | 5,932 | | 17 | 20 | Go Vacation | Bandai Namco Games | Wii | 5,460 |
Looking forward, this week's big releases in Japan include Capcom's BioHazard: Revelations (or Resident Evil: Revelations in the West) for 3DS, Namco Bandai's Tales of Innocence R for PS Vita, and Sega/From Software's Armored Core V for Xbox 360 and PS3.
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Sony wants vita to be a dl or cloud based system offering big games like uncharted which is a 4GB game on a card and on psn so those with slow internet or who simply prefer physical over digital can buy the game but @ sony's mem prices vita will do negative business...though droping vita $50 on each sku would help and put the wi-fi vita within striking distance of the 3ds.
Suggesting that the system came out and there where no games for it is silly. The over head title is used a lot when a system comes out and the AAA titles only core gamers want to play are not out. And by AAA I meant squeals of generational titles like Final Fantasy, and Dragon Quest (JAPAN).
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That tells you everything you need to know about Sony's portable gaming strategy.
And in other words developers will have to choose between supporting Android---a software platform that feeds into millions of tablets, and the Playstation Vita---an obtusely propriety hardware that doesn't really appeal to mainstream consumers.
And in the Christmas season, granted different segments, but Wii U will probably be "the item" for 2012. PSV has an uphill climb... but so did PS3 at launch, so long term, system's prognosis isn't all bad. Companies are simply learning about the new economics of the industry in an increasingly competitive and crowded market space.
1) Monster Hunter 4 HD Portable
2) System price drop (or enough cheap second hand systems)
3) Monster Hunter FOURTE Hybrid G HD Portable
And maybe throw in a handful of Idol Master, Love Plus and AKB48 dating sims to warm up some cold cold nights.
That is all a little ways away however, so yeahhhh...lots of short-term pain for Vita in Japan. Good thing Sony seems to be focusing more on the West, what with that launch lineup.
Agree with Harry that the US market has yet to show it will embrace a $200+ dedicated portable game system.