Sony’s PlayStation Vita, after debuting in late December with a respectable 321k units sold in its first week, has had a rocky go of things. Sales dropped off considerably, to the point at which it trailed the 3DS and PSP on the charts and some retailers even cut the price of the next generation handheld. Yet the publisher’s European branch isn’t too concerned.
Jim Ryan, president and CEO of Sony Europe, cited Japan’s unique tastes as his reason for non-concern. “One of the things we have learnt over a long period of time,” said Ryan, “is that whether it is PS1, PS2, PSP or PS3, it is dangerous to the point of impossible to take any experience from the Japanese market and try and extrapolate it, and propose upon what will happen in Europe or North America.”
Continuing, he mentioned that the handheld platform has not spent enough time on the open market for its future success to be accurately predicted at this time. “Not withstanding the fact that it is just way too early to make any conclusions,” Ryan claimed. “The markets are now just so different, I actually think they are diverging to a greater extent than they were different in the past – if that’s even possible.”
The firm’s European president and CEO added that he believes it to be “impossible” for anyone to extrapolate anything worthwhile from the device’s performance to date. He finished by saying that Sony’s PlayStation division is zeroing in building up a healthy supply for the North American and European launches on February 22nd and is more focused on keeping its stakeholders pleased than paying attention to retail sales or enthusiast press coverage.
[Source: MCV]
[Image via Gaming Bolt.]
