Sony says initial sales "a good start," projecting to sell another 10 million systems in current fiscal year; game division posts loss for the year.
How well is the PlayStation Vita performing? Sony today announced that the new system has sold 1.8 million units in its lifetime. On top of that, the company is projecting to sell another 10 million units during the current fiscal year.
The news came during a postearnings investor call attended by Gamasutra for Sony's 2011 fiscal year earnings report. During the presentation, newly appointed Sony president Kaz Hirai noted initial PS Vita sales were hitting the mark.
"The last year, 1.8 million units for US, Japan, Asia, and Europe [were sold]," he said. "And as a starting phase, I think it was a good start."
In February, Sony announced that the PS Vita had sold 1.2 million units worldwide, indicating the system has moved an additional 600,000 systems during March.
Later in the call, Hirai explained that strong, alluring software will spur the PS Vita as a platform.
"For a game platform, like Vita, the software is the key to success--how good the software is, that is the key to business success. We have to reinforce the software area in order to improve the business, that is the basic line."
Sony also today updated sales figures for its game systems. The company said during the 2011 fiscal year, it sold 13.9 million PlayStation 3 consoles, compared to 14.3 million the year prior. Additionally, the PlayStation 2 moved 4.1 million units, a dip from the 6.4 million sold a year ago prior. Lastly, the PSP sold 6.8 million units in fiscal 2011, down from 8.0 million last year.
As for software, Sony said it sold 156.6 million PS3 titles worldwide, an increase for 147.9 million during the previous year. The PS2 moved 7.9 million games, a drop from the 16.4 million from a year prior, and the PSP sold 32.2 million games during the last fiscal year, down from 46.6 million year-on-year. PS Vita software sales were not announced.
As for Sony's actual earnings, for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2012, revenues for the firm's Consumer Products and Services division (which houses its game business) dipped 18.5 percent year-over-year to ¥3.14 trillion ($39.4 billion). Net losses for the period came in at ¥229.8 billion ($2.88 billion), compared to profits of ¥10.8 billion ($135.5 million) from a year prior.
Sony's overall business was also down. Revenues hit ¥6.5 trillion ($81.6 billion) during the year, marking a decrease of 9.6 percent compared to the previous fiscal year. The company took an operating loss of ¥67.3 billion ($844.5 million) for the year.
Looking ahead, Sony said it anticipates a return to profits in the current fiscal year. The company is presently expecting revenues to surge 14 percent to ¥7.4 trillion ($93 billion), and net income of ¥30 billion ($380 million)
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
@chzchzchzwiz so can i play you on mortal kombat on your ps3 cross play ?? can i play you on your vita on mortal kombat using wi fi ? I m aware of some aspects of wipe-out on cross play i haven,t tried it yet. where can i get Netflix from i have it on the ps3 but it hasn't been released for vita yet. thanks :)
I love my vita, it's a neat piece of hardware. Too bad there's ABSOLUTELY NO F***ING GAME WORTH PLAYING!!!... weeeel, while I'm waiting I'll watch some video on Youtube... mmmh.... no i won't.
I'm pretty angry right now. I'll calm down playing on my 3DS.
@dolome i agree totally man, other than uncharted which again like the ps3 versions was fkn awesome. some good titles coming though i think, need for speed, sf vs tekken. what it needs is gran turismo or a good splinter cell game. unit 13 maybe ????
@dolome the fact that you cannot find anything to play on the vita and are going to play the 3ds is laughable. as if resistance and uncharted arent better than every single 3ds game available. uncharted is by far one of the best games i have played this year its as long if not longer than the console games and just as polished and great. mod nation racers is a blast, lumines is hours of fun if you like puzzlers. hands down far more launch games and more games that are actually worthwhile than the laughable 3ds launch.
@chzchzchzwiz Ignorant comment man. Have you played any of the games that rated vastly higher than the games you are referencing? Resident Evil Revelations, Mario Kart 7, Super Mario Land 3D, Kid Icarus Uprising, Ocarina of Time 3D, these games received much better ratings than all the games you mentioned and are the better games. It's indisputable. The 3DS is waxing the Vita and with Luigi's Mansion, Kingdom Hearts, Monster Hunter, Paper Mario, Heroes of Ruin, Animal Crossing, Professor Layton, Castlevania (just to name a few blockbusters) the beat down should continue......
What crossplay? There's barely any titles that support it.Simply put, the day I see Vita doing something akin to Rhythm Thief is the day people can start boasting about the Vita. Until then it's simply my PSP playing device. :/
@itchyflop the vita uses wifi for multiplayer, not sure why you dont think it does, it uses the wifi for skype, netflix, facebook, four square, vudu, psn store, and most all of its games have some kind of wifi component. Also it has bad ass cross play with ps3.
@chzchzchzwiz i agree, mario kart has lost its way in my view it doesn't have the same appeal at all even the gameboy advance version was awesome. Castlevania i was playing on my c64, i think the point is with time the hardware gets better and smaller, hence the 64 bit genre is now in your hands ! the vita has now surpassed that and was done justice by uncharted, the best looking game on any mobile device to date and full credit to naughty dog. Sony need to get to grips with the multiplayer feature of the vita now, not adhoc mode, i don't know anyone with a vita. at least with the ds you can play over wi fi. and cross play.
@Selznick remakes and sequels is about all nintendo does nowadays. I mean what is so fantastic about rereleasing zelda ocarina of time, or super mario land, obviously they were and are good games, but who cares if you havent already played them you were obviously deprived as a child. the 7th mario kart is suppose to excite me? thats laughable. Luigis mansion will be cool, kingdom hearts will probably be cool but i have birth by sleep which im sure is just as good and probably has better graphics. Monster hunter bores me to death, paper mario is cool, heroes of ruin has some potential but im not sold on it yet. animal crossing i could care less and professor layton is meh. castlevania has its fans but i not interested in the new game. how is the value of a game indisputable, that is moronic. Im sorry if you have come to believe that review scores are all that matters when it comes to a game. i mean look at polls you will see people are consistently fricken stoked about the newest pokemon game, but imo its the same fuckign game they have made every year for a long fucking time, WHO CARES?! the vita actually has new ips, it actually has far superior graphics, it has games i want to play. so whether or not you like it, i still think the 3ds is about 1/100th of the appeal of the original ds. Easily some of the weakest lineups ever especially third party. Nintendo games are fun but you often get the same experience regardless so why not just go play on my ds or gamecube. or i can pay 170 bucks for a lame ass "3-d" experience of games that came out ages ago. give me a break if i wanted hd remakes ill buy packs of them in actual hd graphics on ps3 or vita, not paying 40 bucks for some semi high quality graphics version of a n64 game.
1 Like I have a Vita and I love it. I have only disgaea for now, and I'm thinking of getting either Ninja Gaiden or Mortal Kombat. However, I think sony needs to do something about their games library too.
I hope they succeed, but it'll be hard to do that with the current library and mem card pricing...
yes they sells for now. but sooner no one will buy it because of no worthy game titles. right now my im not using my vita for 3 months!!!! what the!. new record!. i only finish gaiden for 2 days and then finally no games worthy to buy. here in asia many people selling their vita...what a loss..
@mumui10 uncharted, resistance, mortal kombat, mod nation racers, lumines? those arent worth playing? what the hell do you play?
Nope, just the same generic console experiences. Sorry but PS Vita needs more than just copy/paste PS3 games. Gravity Rush is the only interesting game on the PS Vita right now.
1 Like im a real fan of sony i im hoping the can acomplish what they want. i will support them till the very end! i have all of theyr consoles and tons of games!! keep it up sony!!
1 Like The ps vita is the best but I want to know when is assassin's creed coming out on it.
I also like my Vita. They need to build up their library, though. It still leaves me wanting more in terms of games.
i just wish games like nba2K12 or 13, fight night, comes out soon, or better yet some 3rd person shooter (like splinter cell)
@ton50pac NBA 2K12 already available for download bro... Im here in Asia, they just released it in PSN here last week... love it...
I actually play more psp games on my vita than vita games itself, seriously there are only 2 vita games that worth my time and I already have them... they better come fast with nice titles, or at least charismatic ones like castlevania, monster hunter (HURRY UP!), DMC, etc...This makes me remember when my PS3 had no games... meanwhile I'll stick to my 3ds..
If they think that yearly sales will jump from 1.8 to 10 million, they better start releasing games. And I mean great games, not half-arsed efforts like the majority of what's been released since launch. Looking forward to Gravity Rush and MLB The Show '12 isn't going to keep me interested for too much longer.
So they're gonna release more than one game every 2 months, and they gonna add the youtube app to prevent me from throwing my vita out of the window, and since they are expecting so much more sales to come.
I don't see how it can go from 1.8 to 10 by the end of the year, unless they drop the price like nintendo did.
3 Like Well that's no surprise since the 3DS has been out a lot longer and is a lot cheaper.
Also the 3DS is a super casual handheld - I think your mum probably has one to download cake recipes etc.
3DS ultimately has sold loads more units and is generally the favoured device.
Vita is in a different league, very powerful and a full on handheld console experience but still quite expensive in it's own right - add to that super expensive memory cards and you start to understand why you don't see many of them about.
When the price unit drops (which it will) and memory card prices at least halved, it will be a different story I think.
To be honest, I have never seen someone playing a vita but I've seen quite a few 3ds players
5 Like I love my vita and hope It does well so there can be more support for it. The hardware is excellent, all it needs is new software combined with new versions of the franchises we love and I think it might just reach somewhere close to 10 million units.
2 Like Its not as bad as i thought. I think once they reveal some stuff at E3 and once they get software rolling it will sell better in the states. As for Japan, once PSO comes and/or monster Hunter...It will strive. While I am not worried, I do wish i saved my money and bought it at a later date. But on anynote, I will be extremely happy once more games release/reveal (e3)
1 Like It has a lot of potential, but I don't think it'll reach the sells they are anticipating for if they don't use that potential.
1 Like Usually when a new system like the vita comes out its pouring with games then the system would be announce. Its like the games are the first priority and after is the system. Hmm it feels kind a reverse to me now.
@Uchiha_Sasuke1 it has a larger line up of launch and launchyear titles than any gaming system portable or not that i can remember in my lifetime (25 years).
2 Like @Uchiha_Sasuke1 I don't remember that ever being the case. Sure some of the earlier consoles had more games at launch but that was cause they didn't take much time to make but I don't recall ever seeing a lot of games at launch for any console
btw the 1.8mil units sold was through March so it has sold way more then that by now maybe even over 3mil or at the very least close to 3mil
3 Like I love my PS Vita. I'm hoping that E3 does announce that the memory stick is getting a price drop, the digital comics on Vita, The You Tube app everybody is whining for.(just to shut them all up) more AR games and Visualizer for Mp3s.
It appears theres a mIstake they say lifetime sales than give only the sastisics for the last two months which when it was realsed in north america but the japanese has had the vita for longer than that which means world wide sales should be larger than 1.8 million unless they already equated the japanese sales into febuary.
2 Like i didnt have any excitements about this product , i had a psp3000 before, but when i checked it out at a bestbuy, the controls were perfect, second stick made a huge difference for the controls, feels like a controller with a screen , very nice machine, i m thinking of getting one, would love to see another china town wars style game on this...
6 Like add metal gear resident evil god of war a proper Silent hill and a Not emo Devil may cry games and you will sell 3 billion units i dont know what you are waiting for
3 Like If they drop the price on the overpriced memory and overpriced games they might pull through this.
6 Like @wasakawaka i guess you are expecting a game to be what?$9.99?do you even know how much money is needed to even make a full fledge game?
1 Like @graphidz yeah full fledges games, but what about the PORTS that the Vitta is and will be flooded with?
@Chico_Azteca what ports are those? all the vita games are brand new full on games except a couple on psn store and obviously psp games and minis.
6 Like $40 got good games thats not overpriced but the memory card prices those are brutal.
Nice to know the thing is selling, because all I've heard are good things..
However.. Purchasing one myself all boils down to the rumoured GTAV heading to the handheld.
If it has that I'm sold :)
1.8 million units sell worldwide, a good start? I call it a SHAME or a FAILURE at first launched, considering the number of potential gamers worldwide. Let admit it Sony, you expected much more. Sorry for sounding a little too aggressive, but you'll need to do more survey and fully open for comment after product debut if you'd like to avoid failure. Also, it is too expensive compared to the better PS3.
I did bought one for my younger brother though, but I would never buy the current generation of PSvita for myself. Here're some things you, Sony, can do to boost sell:
1) Upgrade at least the back camera to 3MP minimum (You can do the front too if you'd like).
2) Upgrade battery from lithium ion to lithium polymer (optional).
3) Make all upcoming PS3 & PSvita games support Transparring feature. This will make owning PSvita more like a requirement, not an excessive piece of junk, according to some of us down here. This will boost both hardware & software sells, and more importantly gamers will be much more appreciated.
4) Raise the standard of portable game to be PS3 graphically comparable; all of you should see those hackers who play battlefield 3 on PSvita. Amazing!
Doing all 4 of these and the price will be just right. For now, I give PSvita 4/5 stars basically because you don't have comparable competitor. Hmm... I should get pay for sharing this ideas too :D
First of all, Thanks for responding to my requested forum.
1.8 million units sell worldwide, a good start? I call it a SHAME or a FAILURE at first launched, considering the number of potential gamers worldwide. Let admit it Sony, you expected much more. Sorry for sounding a little too aggressive, but you'll need to do more survey and fully open for comment after product debut if you'd like to avoid failure. Also, it is too expensive compared to the better PS3.
I did bought one for my younger brother though, but I would never buy the current generation of PSvita for myself. Here're some things you, Sony, can do to boost sell:
1) Upgrade at least the back camera to 3MP minimum (You can do the front too if you'd like).
2) Upgrade battery from lithium ion to lithium polymer (optional).
3) Make all upcoming PS3 & PSvita games support Transparring feature. This will make owning PSvita more like a requirement, not an excessive piece of junk, according to some of us down here. This will boost both hardware & software sells, and more importantly gamers will be much more appreciated.
4) Raise the standard of portable game to be PS3 graphically comparable; all of you should see those hackers who play battlefield 3 on PSvita. Amazing!
Doing all 4 of these and the price will be just right. For now, I give PSvita 4/5 stars basically because you don't have comparable competitor. Hmm... I should get pay for sharing this ideas too :D
Strategy Analytics expects Sony's handheld sales to start strong and quickly drop, projects $2.2 billion in sales if average price of system drops to $180.
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