Sony has revealed that only 1.8 million PS Vita units have been sold world wide, as of March 31st 2013. The information was revealed in a Sony earnings call following the company’s annual earnings report this week, and was picked up by GameTrailers. The figures are very disappointing, considering the Vita has been available for over a year now.
CEO Kaz Hirai did his best to stay positive about the Vita’s sales, stating that “as a starting phase, I think that was a good start.” Hirai also revealed the plan going forward, stating that “software is the key to success.”
Speaking to GameTrailers, Hirai says:
“A game platform, like Vita – the software is the key to success, how good the software is,” he said. “We have to reinforce the software area in order to improve the business, that is the basic line.
“And vis a vis Vita, at this moment, there is no decline or lack of motivation as a portable platform. And also, in order to connect with the Network, this is a very important product indeed for us, and therefore we still have a very high motivation to develop this further. There is no change. And services and software must be strengthened.
“In other words, the collaborative approach is very important, so is third-party. And from first party studios, the titles will be presented one after the other, so please look at them and give your evaluation based on them.”
Sony had announced 1.2 million sales for the system at the end of February, meaning about 600,000 units were moved, worldwide, during the month of March – quite a substantial amount, and could point to an increase in sales. In comparison, the Nintendo 3DS sold almost 14 millions units in the same time period.