I think that is the real question but we probably won't find out. What was their market research telling them to expect and how much they can afford to lose.

In case some people want to know, July 2012 NPD has the Vita at less than 50k this month. This is the lowest it's gotten yet. Also, the Vita has yet to reach 700k in North America.

This bolded line is concerning, even with having a company the size of Sony, there should not be such a disconnect amongst the divisions. The company now more than ever, really needs to make each of the divisions work together more effectively as a whole. That seems to be one of its biggest problems.

Anyway it will be interesting to see if Sony will do everything it can to make the Vita a success like they did for the PS3 this generation.   

The Dreamcast launch was considered a success.

well supposedly vita wasn't being sold at a loss so as long as it isn't loosing sony money than i suppose it can be considered acceptable. certainly isn't anything to brag about though.

Well, someone has to say good things about it. even if it's sony itself.

I think it's breaking even or selling at a small loss. There are reports saying it's making a small profit, but I don't know.

You are correct.  I remember reading that, at the time, it held the record for the most money spent on entertainment in a single day, ever.

it was eluded to as being sold very close to cost at launch.  so manufacturing cost could have ben cut since than but also yen values have gone up.  it's hard to speculate exactly which side of profibility it is on but as long as overall it is at least slightly profitable for sony, no reason to abandon it while there is still potential to turn things around.

well said.