I simply believe that Sony is in panic mode at the moment. They kept saying, "It's on target," again and again while others say, "Don't worry, it'll get better!" Mixed messages usually aren't the best manner in which to do business, but I tend to think that articles like this are meant to try and get everyone to hold their horses until they can figure out what to do next. While I believe that online media's effect on sales is practically nil, it doesn't help when people, even their fans, tend to notice a distinct dearth of decent ads and what not and wonder what the hell they're doing.

For the moment, statistics and comparisons are not on their side. DS, 3DS and PSP are all destroying the Vita in terms of sales speed and now they're trying to pull a Hail Mary pass to get things moving at a decent clip. The market is insanely volatile, the Yen is still strong and the best they've got right now is bundles. Considering all of that, I tend to think that judgement, in the face of current appearances, isn't entirely unfounded. It's Sony's job to turn the perception around, because nobody else is going to do it for them.

However, in a sense, they're also right. Personally? I believe that if the Vita can't manage to surpass 5 million units by January 1st, Sony is going to be in a terrible position to try and move forward with 2013. So, I will wait until then to pass my own judgement. It's probably fair to give them that, at least.

The OP is a good example of how Sony likes to throw stones in a glass house out.  They're so defensive in their wait-for-first-Xmas statement, considering they said Nintendo and Microsoft would have trouble staying relavent after 2011...  Reminds me of how they sulked when Nintendo said glasses-free 3D was the way to go, or when they said the 3DS was for babies only to later say they needed to skew younger with the Vita.  Sony like's putting foot in mouth.

Not an apt comparison.  Gamecube sold tons of software.

As long as the good games keep coming, I am happy. :D

That is what I expect from Sony, to keep support going by any means necessary.

If the good games stop coming, then I am sad. D:

People love to throw numbers around, but in my experience the Wii has sales and GameCube has twice as many good games. So, GameCube>Wii

Don't count unhatched chickens...

Th Wii was an astounding sucess in the non gaming market. Droves of people not interested in gaming pick up a Wii. I'm not saying gaming media effects those who don't game, the mainstream if you will, it affects gamers. Gamers are the ones who read the articles, who are influenced by it. Gamers are the bulk, if not the repeat consumers of the industry. You don't need mainstream appeal to succeed, you can do fine by attracting the "core". The Vita became a target and is taking overwhelming bad PR that has crippled its sales to the core gaming consumer. It wouldn't have meant much if they had mainstream appeal like the Wii which managed high sales despite core backlash.

Right now Vita is surviving off of PlayStatiin fans and independent thinking consumers who decide to get one, not much else. Either Sony needs to quite the angry core, or attract the outside mainstream market. It looks like they are trying to wait it out until they get bored or the software starts to appease them, rather than cut the price out of desperation. Providing several bundles is their attempt at appeasement at the moment. As for the mainstream, well that's a harder fish to fry, but maybe they are pushing their marketing budget for that...a long shot to try and catch fire though. The Vita is in a tough position trying to sell while trying not to sink potential profits as an antidote. Maybe they will do better than people think this holiday, either way a price drop will come at some point, but at a better time for Sony financially.

Guess you weren't here for the first 18 months of PS3 because it was totally on track for failure.

I know they were selling ps3 at some incredibly large losses and it was being sluggiish but ps3 was always destined to sell well once the price was affordable enough. How they are effected now I don't know. But I knew ps3 would catch on because (as I said in another thread) sony is a stubborn goose. They sit and watch things continuously drag itself through hurdles wether they have the money or not. I see the same tellies at the same stupidly high prices and yet months later they are still there.

It is likely to be the same with vita. Sony will step back and watch it drag itself if it didn't pick up at christmas. You can argue they don't have the money to do that but they are stubborn. Even when there aren't adverts, posters or anything. Unless retailers take a stand against it, the system will sit there on store shelves clinging to every little sale it can get.

I don't think you can survive in today's economy by just being stubborn... 

You joking, right? They put Uncharted and LBP there, they are making PSABR for it. They announced several good looking games at Gamescom. Yet they got nothing in terms of games? Why so negative?

I've already said in another thread. Sony needs to implement a 1-2 years free for all to the developers where they don't have to pay royalties for the sold games. They don't take royalties, or reduce them, but they make Vita a viable platform, with tons of third party games. A price cut isn't going to help without lots of great games.

PlayStation Vita
Release date JPN December 17, 2011

But it had a Christmas already? I don't get it.

Edit - Kynes that is actually a fairly class idea, but the price cut would still help, when the 3DS got cheaper devs knew it would be an easier sell so it made it attractive to make games for it also.