So I was looking the hardware numbers on this site when I found something quite interesting.
Platform | North America | Europe | Japan | Rest of World | Global |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
PlayStation Vita (PSV) | 2.34 | 4.13 | 4.04 | 1.75 | 12.26 |
In general there are low numbers, yes, but what really surprised me is that, acording to VGChartz, the Vita has sold better in Europe than in Japan. Now, Europe has a tradition of being very PS-centric, but having sold more Vitas than Japan, the main market for the handheld?
Software-wise, of the top 10 best-selling Vita games, Europe is the main market for six of them: Uncharted: Golden Abyss, LittleBigPlanet PS Vita, MineCraft, Need for Speed: Most Wanted, Killzone: Mercenary and Tearaway. That's a lot, even if those numbers are different if we included digital.
It also says than the Vita has sold better in Europe than the XBone, which, again, Europe has always favoured the PS brand over Xbox, but it's sure a decent feat for a console that most people (hell, even Sony) says is over in the West.
Europe likes the Vita, it's only behind the PS4 (the monster of this gen) and the 3DS (Nintendo's handheld). If Sony pushed their brand there more, they could improve their success, but with them taking features away (like youtube and facebook support), it seems that's not on their minds. Should Sony try and push the Vita, even if it is just with a pricecut or better bundles (the Tadeo Jones, Disney Infinity and Looney Toons ones are the only ones I ve seen on stores. Not a great incentive for someone looking for core gaming).?