14 DAY TRIAL // Hardware maker Sony has announced that it plans to sell 10 million units of the PlayStation Vita handheld during the fiscal 2013 year, which started on April 1, but at least one analyst believes that the figure is overly optimistic given the recent market performance of the device.
Colin Sebastian, who is an analyst watching the video game industry for RW Baird, has told GamesIndustry International that, “10 million looks like a stretch goal at this point. Perhaps there is a price cut baked into that guidance later in the year, or Sony believe that there are titles such as Call of Duty for Vita that will be meaningful platform drivers.”
He added, “Vita is a great dedicated game device, but the market for those products continues to shrink as smart devices become better platforms for games.”
Sony has officially revealed that it has sold 1.8 million Vita units all over the world since it has launched the device in December 2011 in Japan and late February 2012 in North America and in Europe.
Just 600,000 of the handhelds have been sold during March, showing the slowdown that the Vita has seen after a few solid weeks just after launch date.
It’s not clear how Sony plans to boost sales for the Vita in the coming months.
The company has announced that it will introduce a new version of the device, Crystal White, on the Japanese market, but it’s highly unlikely that just one more color option will be able to push the new hardware forward.
Nintendo face a similar situation after the launch of the 3DS, with slowing sales only reversed by the launch of titles like Kario Kart 7, Super Mario 3D Land and Monster Hunter and by a big price cut.
Sony might also drop the price of the PlayStation Vita later during the summer.