Sony executive feels “much better” about Vita sales

By: Moses Abaortae

  |   August 18th, 2012   |  

Uncategorized

Jack Tretton believes that the PlayStation Vita is making a comeback on the sales front and claims that the figures are acceptable considering the nature of the market and the industry.

The PlayStation Vita was supposed to be Sony’s saviour. The multinational consumer electronics giant was struggling on the financial front after taking a number of hits including a hacking scandal that cost the company over $170-million.

The Vita is Sony’s second generation portable console and the successor to the PlayStation Portable. The console failed to live up to the hype on the sales front, although everyone concerned with the video game industry agrees that the Vita is an impressive piece of technology.

Sony’s console was not able to knock the Nintendo 3DS off the top of the charts and has seen a downward trend in sales since, with only a few spikes in sales. Things have improved over the past few weeks though, especially since the announcement of a number of triple-A titles set for release on the console, such as Black Ops: Declassified and Assassin’s Creed 3: Liberation.

Jack Tretton, the President of Sony Computer Entertainment America, who everyone will know as the presenter during Sony’s E3 Press Conferences, explained that although the sales figures for the console were not amazing, they were acceptable.

He said, “In this industry, you can’t get too high or too low, because it moves very quickly. I think there’s an acceptable number – and (the number) we’ve sold: that’s acceptable. If it was triple that, I’d be happier. If it was one-third, I’d be disappointed.”

Tretton also reiterated Sony’s strategy for boosting sales of the console was the same as before and that it revolved around proving quality content on the console.

He said, “Anything with great rewards is going to come with great challenges. We felt if the tech was there, and the game support was there, then the audience would be there.”

The SCEA boss concluded, “I feel much better about it now than I did four months ago.”

Gamescom proved to be an important event for Sony as the publisher took the opportunity to bombard the gaming world with Vita announcements. A number of new games were announced including two major first-party titles such as Guerrilla Games’ Killzone: Mercenary and Media Molecule’s Tearaway.

Interest in the console is definitely growing and those waiting for a price cut may be left wanting as Sony repeated their stance of not having any plans on lowering prices anytime soon.

But what does the reader think, is the PlayStation Vita continue to struggle or will there be turnaround in the console’s fortune when more games are released later on this year and into next year? Let us know in the comments section below.