The PS Vita hasn’t exactly been a marketplace knockout in its home nation of Japan. In fact, since its release, it’s been regularly beaten by the PSP in weekly sales charts. The PSP, of course, is the PS Vita’s predecessor.
So, things haven’t been all sunshine and rainbows for Sony’s strong handheld. Sales have been far lower than expected, and the Japanese market hasn’t been kind to the PS Vita in any sense of the word.
Now, however, Sony has announced an attempt to win back some of that consumer love. The PS Vita will be dropped from roughly ¥25,000 to ¥19,980 (nearly $215 USD by today’s rates) starting February 28th in Japan. That drop goes for both the 3G and Wi-Fi models.
Will this be enough to save the handheld in the face of the Nintendo 3DS’ massive success? Nintendo’s handheld has been sitting in a very strong first place for more than a year now. For the sake of comparison, Sony’s PS Vita will move at ¥19,980, while the Nintendo 3DS will sell at ¥14,900 and the 3DS XL (or LL, in Japan) will sell at ¥18,900.
This price drop has not been announced for any other regions of the world. Hopefully the cut will translate beyond Japan. We might even hear about it this Wednesday at Sony’s special PlayStation event.
