The situation is similar to that of the Nintendo 3DS during the first few months

May 7, 2012 23:41 GMT  ·  By

The PlayStation Vita has now been out all over the world since February, but the device has failed to find a solid audience and seems to be dropping sales on a weekly basis even on the home Japanese market.

Shigeru Miyamoto, one of the leading video game developers at Nintendo, a company that manufactures the rival 3DS handheld, told Edge that Vita’s lack of success is linked to its limited software line-up, stating, “It's obviously a very hi-spec machine, and you can do lots of things with it but I don't really see the combination of software and hardware that really makes a very strong product.”

The legendary creator of Mario and Zelda added, “When we launched the 3DS hardware we didn't have Super Mario 3D Land, we didn't have Mario Kart 7, we didn't have Kid Icarus: Uprising. We were striving to have all of these ready for the launch, but we weren't able to deliver them at that time.

“We were kind of hoping that people would, nevertheless, buy into the product, find 3DS hardware promising; but looking back we have to say we realize the key software was missing when we launched the hardware.”

Sales for the Nintendo 3DS have only went up after the company implemented a 30 percent price cut, during August 2011, and then launched the video games that Miyamoto mentioned while Capcom delivered Monster Hunter 3G.

The price cut has led Nintendo to its own annual loss, but the company says that it will start making a profit on each 3DS sold during September of this year.

Sony is widely expected to also implement a price cut for the Vita in time for the fall launch schedule of 2012, but it’s not clear whether the company also has plans to deliver more high profile titles in order to push sales up.