Over the past year, Sony’s PS Vita has been squeezed badly by the dazzling success of the Nintendo 3DS and the overall contraction of the video game market in the United States and Japan. After a brief rebound in sales during the holiday season, the Vita’s lack of pulse became again painfully evident this week. As the winter doldrums hit the Japanese game market, the Vita’s unit sales collapsed to just 9,000 during the week ending on January 20th, according to Famitsu. This is far below the 15,000 units the portable console managed during the same period in 2012, a level that was deemed dangerously low a year ago. To make things worse, Vita’s ancestor console PSP just hit 15,000 unit weekly sales level, thanks to the latest Digimon title. It is not often you see a one-year old console being outsold by 60% by its seven year old predecessor.
About Shelly Palmer
Shelly Palmer is the Professor of Advanced Media in Residence at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and CEO of The Palmer Group, a consulting practice that helps Fortune 500 companies with AI strategy, implementation and governance, as well as technology, media and marketing. Named one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices in Technology, he is a bestselling author, covers tech and business for Fox 5’s Good Day New York, is a regular commentator on CNN, and writes the popular daily business blog Think About This. Follow @shellypalmer or visit shellypalmer.com.