PS Vita sales hit new lows in Japan

Weekly sales for the PS Vita in Japan have hit new lows according to sales data from the week of February 12th.  After appearing to stabilize, the newly released handheld saw its lowest sales since releasing back in December.  Sony’s PSP handheld handily outsold the latest hardware, and competitors also bested the Vita with the 3DS selling around 5x more units than the PS Vita.

Nintendo’s 3DS not only outsold the PS Vita, but the PS Vita and PSP combined.  For good measure, the Nintendo 3DS outsold the entire family of Sony products when measuring against the PS3, PS Vita and PSP.  In the week, Nintendo sold 67,558 3DS units, Sony sold 13,939 PS Vitas, 15,860 PSPs, and 22,0002 PS3s.

Consumers have been gobbling up the Nintendo 3DS since the holidays where Nintendo dominated the sales charts.  A strong lineup of first party titles were the likely catalyst for this, and the combination of a strong software lineup and significantly lower price point continue to push Japanese consumers toward the 3DS week in and week out.

The sales numbers for the PS Vita were lower this week, which is a bit surprising when you look at software sales for the region.  The top two titles were for the PSP and the PS Vita.

The PS Vita is getting ready for a worldwide release next week, with early adopters able to get their “First Edition” Vita’s beginning yesterday. Sony believes that the PS Vita will see a stronger launch in the U.S. than in Japan, and has recently revealed that they have committed $50 million dollars to advertising the device as the worldwide launch rolls out.