There's been lots of talk of PSV being a failure thus far and going as far as saying it will have a very short life. (especially from me... it should be a phone!)

But let's compare it to the PSP.

Both launched in December.
Both are 2x the price of their direct competitor.
Both have games that are largly knock-offs of their home console counterparts.

PSP from December 2004 to June 2005 and PSV from December 2011 to June 2012. (July is not complete, so I left it out)

So, in the same time frame, the PSV is about 1m less than the PSP. Most striking is how quickly the PSV dropped off after its launches outside of Japan as compared to the PSP.

(EDIT) NOTE: PSP WAS ONLY LAUNCHED IN JAPAN AND NORTH AMERICA DURING THIS TIME FRAME WHILE PSV IS FULLY GLOBAL.

We all know Monster Hunter is the title that basically saved the PSP and really allowed it to be the first real challenger to Nintendo's handheld dominance ... ever. But, that was a unique experience that wasn't available on consoles. Kinda like Pokemon is for Nintendo handheld line.

I could be wrong, but so far I don't see a similar, truly unique experience coming out for PSV that could give it the required value and desire to purchase a >$300 handheld. There are definitely a lot of games coming, but is quantity all that is important? What do you all think? Is PSV on track to die early or is it doing ok relative to history and going to bounce back tremendously after the next series of game launches?

I think the end of this year will make or break the Vita. If Sony advertise, push it and get good games, it could be a contender. If not, then it'll be discontinued within 3 years.

could you make a comparison between Vita, GC and DC?

can't wait to see what COD will do for the Vita :P

prediction: it will do nothing

Not easily. The sites numbers don't go back that far.

But... didn't the PSP launched in Europe in september 2005? Is it included in those numbers?

Where did you get those PSP numbers? I only ask as my data is from the sites new graphs and yours (global above) shows a much larger difference in the same time frame.... or are they not "launches aligned"?

Ignore. I see that my data is not including PAL territories as its only based on first seven months. OP noted.

Honestly, I didn't look up when it launched in Europe. I was just using the first 7 months of our new graphs in VGC. However, given that info to be true and that's probably why kowenicki's global graph is different from mine... PSV is FAR worse off than I thought.

EDIT: Looked it up, yep you're right. So yeah... PSV is truly global while PSP wasn't in PAL territories yet. wow.

THis is japan, during vita's big Persona 4 week (34k)

It was getting awfully close to the DC, but it rebounced a little. In europe I don't know, but I believe in America DC is way above vita, it's anecdotal but I remember it being a success there, reading from magazines such as EGM

Ehm, the PSP wasn't even available in PAL terretories in this time frame (Europe, Australia, Korea I think). September 2005 was the release date of the PSP in Europe. So that should give you an idea.

*edit* Stealth edit is so 90s.