Japanese Stores Cut PSVita Price By 20 Percent

[rocketpig]

naznatips said:

Oh come now, you've been on this site for years. You know well enough that a price cut only offers major boosts for a month or MAYBE two unless there's serious long-term consumer interest. The 3DS's sales spike is certainly partially related to the price falling into "mass market" range, but it's also obviously experiencing wide appeal and adoption. Also considering handhelds are generally far more profitable and successful than consoles, I would say shattering handheld records is a bigger feat than console ones. Better to be the next DS than the next Wii. The $70 price cut was hardly positive, but the sales after it have beaten even Nintendo's predictions, and in Japan it's soaring to greater heights than the DS ever did. 

I disagree on the handheld console records point. There hasn't really been a truly successful handheld launch in over ten years and I don't really remember much about the GBA launch. The DS built up momentum over time and only after the Lite released did it take off.

Anyway, I think the 3DS will be fine for Nintendo but what happens if it does 80 million units in its lifetime? That's a huge profit for Nintendo but it's also about a 50% drop in the handheld market (more if you, like me, think the Vita is going to flop and add the PSP to the DS's hardware totals). Market contraction doesn't mean that everyone is going to lose money but it does mean that profits are going to be harder to come by going forward. And I think it also means Sony is going to be forced to make a very ugly exit from the handheld market entirely. Seven years ago when the last generation launched, there was little market crossover from other devices. Now, there is market bleed from multiple sectors and I think it's going to hurt handhelds in this generation.