3DS continues strong sales in Japan, PS Vita flat

New sales data has Nintendo’s 3DS once again trouncing the competition.

The latest Media Create data shows another strong week for Nintendo's 3DS. In the handheld sales race between the 3DS and Vita, consumers are continuing to prove more interested in the 3DS, in Japan at least. Nintendo sales increased week over week from 197,952 units to 240,819 units for the week of January 8th. For the Vita, sales were up slightly. With 42,915 units sold in the week, the company eeks out an increase of a couple hundred of the handhelds.

The flat sales following the launch of the handheld have been a growing point of concern for analysts troubled by the sluggish start for the device. On both the software and hardware fronts some believe it's a sign of how the rest of the world will welcome the Vita when it launches later this year in North America and Europe.

Sony will launch the PS Vita on February 22nd with one of the most diverse software lineups a handheld launch has ever seen. Much of the problem likely stems from the handheld competing at retail with a Nintendo console that is priced significantly lower than itself.

By Al McCarthy on January 11, 2012

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Br@D

Its 1 country. Calm down.
reality

It’s a highly overpriced handheld, come down in price, go up in sales. Simple. 3DS went down in price and sales skyrocketed. A $250/300 handheld is ridiculous, I don’t care what it does. Hell, I can buy a 3DS plus extras, or a 360 plus extras, or a Wii plus extras, or just a PS3 for the same price as a Vita, not hard to deduce why it’s not selling.
- Cool dude
  
  ^^^This
  
  One of the reasons is probably because of its overpriced hard drive.
Underworld

$250 is not overpriced. That’s a fair price for a new piece of hardware with a lot of great features and games. Try having to pay $350 like us Aussies have to pay. That’s expensive.
Brian

Well the xbox was expected to fail in Japan, the vita was expected to fly off the shelves, so not really the same situation.

I get why their concerned, japan should have been the vitas main market, but I still think it will succeed or at least do well once it’s fully released.