In Japan, handhelds typically dominate over consoles. The 3DS is selling extremely well in Japan, after getting off to a rocky start. The PlayStation Vita, however, is not, and is suffering from an even rockier start than the 3DS had.
In fact, eight months after the PlayStation Vita's launch, only 790K units have been sold in Japan. Sales are picking up, with the PlayStation Vita seeing its best weekly sales since launch with the release of Persona 4: The Golden.
Software is struggling as well, with Persona 4 being the best-selling PlayStation Vita title yet, at a mere 188K units sold in Japan.
Sony sees the hardware numbers in line with initial expectations, and plan to focus heavily on the PlayStation Vita during the upcoming Tokyo Game Show in September. Sony also promises a handful of big Vita-related announcements at another "Game Heaven", said SCEJ CEO Hiroshi Kawano in a recent Famitsu interview.
Still, that doesn't help the PlayStation Vita's situation in the rest of the world. Sony seemed to have dropped the ball during their E3 press conference, only showing Assassins' Creed III: Liberation and nothing more than a logo of Call of Duty: Black Ops – Declassified.
There is some hope for the Vita in Europe, as Sony has just dated their gamescom press conference for August 14th. But with a supposed new PlayStation 3 redesign and possible price drop, there may not be much room left over for Sony's new handheld during the show.
Things will eventually pick up, once more software is released. But for now, the PlayStation Vita isn't living up to its potential.
