Sony slashes PS Vita forecast, sales of PS3 fall

Sony has once again slashed their outlook for the PlayStation Vita and other handhelds in their PlayStation Portable lineup. Announced in the quarterly report, Sony cuts the projected sales total from 12 million in fiscal year 12, to 10 million sold by the year’s close (March 31, 2013).

Alongside the slashed outlook for the new handheld, Sony also saw declining numbers in sales for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 2 hardware. The division within the company saw a year over year decline in revenues of nearly 15%. In the most recent quarter, Sony saw a year over year decline in the number of consoles in the PlayStation family of nearly 1.5 million.

One bright spot in the recent financial report from Sony, software sales have picked up year on year, if ever so slightly. The company managed to sell 41.4 million games in the most recent quarter, compared to 40.2 million last year.

The holiday season was billed to be an all-important sales window for the PlayStation Vita, being the first North American season that the handheld would be available. Sony has stacked their software lineup with big releases like Assassin’s Creed III, Black Ops, and Need For Speed in hopes of enticing gamers to get on board with the PS Vita.

Currently, critics haven’t been as kind to the handheld versions of these console releases. Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation, which launched earlier this week, currently resides on metacritic with an average of 72. This is down considerably from other versions where the scores are considerably higher.