Sony’s PlayStation Vita Sales Quadruple In Japan, Following Price Cut

By Yannick LeJacq | March 05 2013 4:04 PM

Reuters

Sales of Sony's PS Vita console have increased four-fold in Japan following a drop in its starting price in late February.

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Just two weeks after the beleaguered game company said it was dropping the price of its PS Vita handheld console in Japan, Sony (NYSE:SNE) has already seen a four-fold increase on the device’s sales in the country.

According to a report from the Japanese gaming site GameWatch translated by Gematsu, Hiroshi Kawano, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Japan, announced that PS Vita sales have quadrupled since the price cut went into effect on Feb. 28.

The sales jump is compared to Vita sales recorded in the two weeks prior to the price cut. The handheld console first went on sale in Japan on Dec. 17, 2011. The cheapest bundle sold for a starting price of 24,980 yen ($268), which was lowered to 19,980 yen ($214) following the price cut.

The new PS Vita price is only in effect in Japan. When Sony originally announced the price drop, the company said that it had no plans to extend the discount to Europe or North America. Despite the jump in prices, Sony did not announce any new plans to reduce the Vita’s price in other regions.

That may change once Sony announces additional information about the pricing or availability of its upcoming next-generation console, however. Sony first unveiled the new console at a press event last month in New York City the day after it slashed the PS Vita’s price in Japan. While the company gave no information about how much the PS4 will cost or when it will become available at retail beyond saying that it would be ready for the 2013 holiday season, the developers at the unveiling had a lot to say about the new console’s integration with Sony’s relatively new handheld device.

Sony also openly toyed with the possibility that it could still adjust the price and specs of the PS4. Speaking in an interview with AllThingsD, Jack Tretton, president and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment of America, said that he thinks the company’s goal with the PS4 “is to debut at a more consumer friendly price” than its predecessor, the PlayStation 3. The first two versions of the PS3 introduced in 2006 cost $499 and $599, a price that many analysts and game industry executives have since agreed was far too high to attract a substantial audience to the device during its early years on the market.