The Vita launched in North America and Europe with a lot of fanfare from those already seeking it, but with little allure for those who weren't. This was despite a hard marketing push and one of the strongest launch line-ups in gaming history. Many will cite the price, and with a short supply of evidence going against that theory, one can't help but agree. Memory cards obviously aren't helping that either.
Fueling this reputation is a score of those who will call the system nearly DOA, and overall the picture being painted by industry pundits is one of doom and gloom. As an avid peruser of videogame forums, I don't have to tell you how ugly discussions can get when the subject is brought up. Obviously a lot of people feel the system has hit a dry spell of software, and enthusiasm levels are low, whereas others (namely people who bought the system) would rather view things more optimistically. Obviously the Vita suffers from unfavorable comparisons from the nearly-a-year-older Nintendo competitor, which has sold over 17 million units worldwide after almost 15 months on shelves.
The Vita has sold...almost 2 million. At first glance it seems as though you might as well bury the thing in a coffin and move on with your life. After all it doesn't have a Mario Kart or Pokemon to pull it out of the ditch, and it doesn't look like it'll have a price drop any time soon either.
3DS has all those things. Well, we're still waiting for a Pokemon game, but people buying it know it's coming. They also know an original Zelda game is coming, and a Metroid game, and (it could happen) an F-Zero game. They already have a top-tier Mario adventure, Mario Kart 7, and an excellent up-rezzed port of LoZ: Ocarina of Time. We also have announcements for a Smash Bros. game, another New Super Mario Bros. game, and plenty of filler games that, while not promising the same level of sales, offer a lot of fun in between.
Impressively, the 3DS is actually surpassing the sales of its predecessor in the same time period. Admittedly the DS didn't start with loads of enthusiasm though, and its success was built up gradually as skepticism gave way. The 3DS had difficulty retaining that momentum, but Nintendo steered the ship sharply and set it on a more sprightly course sooner than most would have believed. Before that happened though, 3DS owners will recall a similar tune being sung by the industry to the one Vita owners are hearing now.
3DS was doing badly. How badly? Nintendo predicted sales of 4 million units by the first month of release. By the time Nintendo was forced to announce the drastic price drop four months after release, it's estimated the 3DS sold a little over half that, though it's difficult to get hard numbers.
Interestingly, that's the same time period that the Vita is in now. We don't know how many Vitas sold in its four months of life so far, but that 1.8 million figure was achieved by the end of March, just over a month after its worldwide debut. Sony made no such bold predictions about where their sales should be, and of course they'll say the sales are right where they expected. But clearly that indicates the sales haven't actually been that bad, right? Unfortunately it seems most people following the market actually find them to be disappointing, and this may be due to a couple factors.
One, people focus a LOT on Japan sales. Why? Well, in a quiet room, people will listen to the one who speaks, and it just so happens that Japanese sales numbers are the only ones people have access to on a regular basis. Thanks to Media Create, the cold reception the Vita has had in Japan, aside from the first week, has affected everyone's perception of the Vita's overall health. NPD is keeping their mouth shut unless you have the money, and Sony only announces worldwide numbers whenever they feel like it.
The second factor is fairly recent, and that concerns this year's E3. Sony essentially shot themselves in the foot by granting the Vita barely any mention in their press conference, and for many this spelled a very alarming message. To the outside world, it appeared as though Sony's attitude was one of complacency, or worse, indifference. Vita, despite being a terrific piece of hardware, has a very steep uphill battle in today's market, and Sony seemed unmotivated towards pushing their new portable platform on a successful path.
Let's be fair here, the public isn't wrong to think that. Sony has a very large number of consumers still not sold on the Vita, and it was their job to make a convincing and enticing pitch at them. The PS3 is on its way out, and most people expect next year's E3 will be all about the next PlayStation console. That means they only had this year to make a case for the Vita on the most-watched gaming trade convention in the world. They blew it. We had footage of Little Big Planet on the Vita, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, Assassin's Creed III: Liberation, and a logo for Black OPS 2: De-Classified. No sizzle reel, no mention of other games, nothing.
Was Sony throwing in the towel? Did they not care? Worse than the potential impact on sales was the impact this had on the perception issue the Vita is having. It projected the wrong image at the wrong time, and it was the last thing the system needed from its parent company.
People want an aggressive and hungry company at the helm of a platform, and Sony's response is to say they're relaxed about the system's future. They obviously cite the upcoming lineup, the stuff we know about and stuff they have yet to announce, as reasons for that. Vita owners, myself included, and those observing from the sidelines won't be put at ease so easily, but with recent releases like Gravity Rush showing what a wonderful, in-depth experience can lend to the Vita's liveliness, confidence can be restored.
Sony's only hope in fixing this little PR disaster is to have more games like that to show people the handheld will host some great games that are worth their time. The Vita is a system that just begs to be played, even as it sits there sleeping on your desk, and its chances rest on Sony's current state of complacency having merit. Once that itch is scratched, gamers can take things from there, because a great piece of hardware needs only a little push to get us going. Then the perception issue will just work itself out.
