PS Vita: General Discussion

[tahirpasha]

Probably not, but lets not rule it out; after all, this Fiscal Year for Sony is a fresh start, with Kazuo Hirai taking over Howard Stringer as CEO and promising a big change in Sony. But will his change be enough? Sony’s loss for last Fiscal Year was $6.4 billion dollars and as I’m sure you know they haven’t turned a profit in over 4 years. The problem for Sony, as Kaz puts it, is that there is too much concentration on too many things.

    This is our only chance to change

    - CEO of Sony Corp. Kazuo Hirai

Sony literally has its paws over everything in the electronics industry. But the main problem for Sony lies in T.V’s, they are wiping profits in other divisions. All in all Sony’s TV business has lost over 10 billion dollars in 8 years, and haven’t turned any form of profit.

However it’s not just the TV’s causing the problem, Sony’s Playstation division is also a source of debt. With the PlayStation division losing $2.8 billion dollars last Fiscal Year (nearly 50% of the debt).  ALL hardware sales including PSP, PS2 and PS3 were also down from the numbers of the last fiscal year and Sony predicts that within this Fiscal Year combined hardware sales between the PS2 and PS3 will be even worse than last year. The one thing Sony is banking on? Handhelds.

This nifty chart shows the Hardware and Software sales of the Playstation Division. As you can see the PSP sold 6.8 million units in the FY of 2011 compared to the 8 million units in the FY of 2012. Sony’s estimates for the combined sales of the PS3 and PS2 this FY are sitting at 16 million compared to the 18 million sold last year.

The handheld projection is what’s most interesting as it sits at 16 million as well. Interesting because if you look at the declining PSP Sales 8 million from FY10 > 6.8 million in FY11 you’d have to assume that in FY12 PSP sales are going to drop below 6 million, especially with Sony’s latest handheld now on the market.  So with a projection of 16 million handheld sales and assuming that the PSP sales are declining each year you can assume that Sony is projecting the PS Vita to sell over 10 million units this year. At its current rate, 10 million units wouldn’t be possible. If the Playstation Vita’s sales kept continuing like they were right now it would only sell 3-4 million units by the end of the year. So how will they reach 10 million?

There’s going to be something big at E3, there’s got to be, otherwise I can’t see Sony making it anywhere close to their current projections.

[antboy71]

What sony,and all other big corporations dont get is that money is very tight.Things aint what they was 5 years ago,im sure the vita will sell ok,but also remember theres strikes every week at the mo.And under 25 unemployment across the eu is rife.Thats not gonna help. 

[CrustyJockStrap]

No chance it will sell 10 million at the current price,

till the end of the next financial year is 10 months that 1 million a month.

I would say 6 million is a figure to aim for at the current pricing,

The only way it will sell 10 million is Unit price cut, memory card price cut and games price cut.

The UK has just dipped back into recession and still many in Europe have not got out of the first recession.

Japan are still struggling after the tsunami and other money problems that is widespread.

US is still struggling with jobless up again.

I am not saying it is a failure just being realistic in this economy

[Rob--M--]

They must have something special in the pipeline for Vita if they think they will sell 10 million this year.

I cant wait for E3!

[Minezumi]

They will at E3 there will be a price cut and Monster Hunter announced.

[CrustyJockStrap]

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Minezumi wrote:

They will at E3 there will be a price cut and Monster Hunter announced

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Price cut doubt it

Monster Hunter maybe but it will be over a year away.

[ScootaKuH]

He's very hopeful but I don't see it. I love my Vita but it's not moving very far. It still seems like Sony expect it to sell itself. Try putting money into marketing and maybe, just maybe that would bump up public interest. I still know very few people who know what a Vita actually is and this is what Sony need to change. They need to make it a household name. Something that the 3DS definitely is.