Who's that other Sony person guy said it was "acceptable"?
Call me skeptic but I think one or more of them are lying.

The problem here is that he just can't expect those numbers... why?

Because they publicly expected 16 million (Vitas + PSP). Didn't happened.
Then they publicly expected 12 million. Not gonna happen.

He basically said this (from gaf):

It performs worse than expected, as expected.

Related? Not related? Just popped in my head. (The Economist June 8th cover)

I don't it's possible to be expecting it to do worse than expected.

I don't think the poor guy had any other option than to say that it was 'along expectations' and the like. It's typical corporate lingo, but the sub-text is never that hard to read in most cases. Who knows, maybe they DID have some projections where it would not do very well and are trying to compensate, but they definitely have a steep hill to climb. Either way? There is absolutely NO way they could have said anything else.

They could have sold three systems in a month and they'd say it was along expectations. To even hint that the Vita wasn't selling as well as expected and even giving a shred of indication that the company figured it was in trouble would be like enabling a run on their own stocks. Shareholders are fickle beasts and spook easily. They're like wealthy gazelle. Simply admitting problems would be picked up by a dozen different analytical firms and what not and would end up causing them another punch in the gut monetarily.

Simply saying that things are trending back and along expectations is probably the safest way to admit some issues. We'll probably never have any inside info on the Vita until they either start making a tonne of money off of them or the system tanks.

Trending behind in some regions...one of those regions definitely is earth. I heard it's doing well on mars. Anyone have the mars numbers?

Exactly.

Jack Tretton. He's funnier than Kevin Butler!

These comments are positively glowing when compared to the reality of the situation. Sure that is a obvious thing to say about the comments, but it isn't the skew that fascinates me. No what fascinates me is just how toned down the whole commentary was. Unveiling portable devices, and no playing up of the Vita. No overselling the device, or any hint at a strategy that will drive up sales. You know I have come to expect a lot of marketing speak from Sony, but it tells you something when they aren't even bothering to do that at the very top.

This sounds like a defeated man, and it sounds like he has given up on the device. I cannot say as I would blame him if that were the case, but does anybody know if there is even a graceful exit strategy available to Sony as far as the device goes. Based on this sites software tracking if the hardware sales are really bad then the sales for the software are the stuff of nightmares. So it might not take long before the cancelled games start rolling in.

When I look at the Vita's hardware, and software specifications I am not seeing the room for redundancy that may allow it to be a stand alone digital device. Let alone be a effective device for value bundling as a portable games library. Anyone see any way Sony can back out of this without taking a huge fucking bath.

This is why I like Kaz so much, he's a really honest and nice guy, he's not like other Sony representatives which said the Vita sales are acceptable.