by Colin Moriarty

Update: Japanese gaming blog Andriasang has since reported with more concrete sales numbers for PlayStation Vita, as well as a more reliable day-one shipped number for how many Vitas Sony sent to retailers.

Andriasang cites Media Create with a new number quite close to the 321,407 reported earlier. Apparently, Vita sold a little more than that, closer to 325,000 units in its first 48 hours on the Japanese market. Media Create pegs the "sell-through rate" of Vitas sold to retailers at 65%.


That sell-through rate is based on another Andriasang report from Nikkei. According to that report, Sony has shipped around 500,000 Vitas to Japanese retailers so far, 200,000 short of the 700,000 reported earlier.

Andriasang talks about the "critical" Nikkei article, noting that "the main problem [Vita] has faced at launch is price. [The Nikkei writer] notes that the cheapest purchase, assuming you buy the Wi-Fi model, an 8 gigabyte memory card, and a 5,000 Yen game, would cost you about 33,000 Yen."

33,000 Yen translates to $423.89.


PlayStation Vita was released in Japan this past Saturday, December 17th. In anticipation of this date, Sony was rumored to have shipped 700,000 units to retailers. Yet, if numbers reported by Famitsu (and translated by Andriasang) are to be believed, Vita didn't manage to sell even half of that number during its first 48 hours on the Japanese market.

Andriasang reported on Famitsu's numbers from Enterbrain. Enterbrain states that 321,407 PlayStation Vitas were sold on December 17th and 18th. These numbers are respectable, to be sure, but still fall short of Nintendo 3DS' first two days on the Japanese market in February, when Nintendo's handheld sold 371,326 units to consumers.

Andriasang also notes PSP's first day sales from December of 2004, when it pushed 166,074 units. Multiplying that by two gives you a sum of 332,148, above Vita's numbers for its first two days.

Could Vita's relatively weak sales be attributed to rumored issues with Vita, which Sony has already commented on? It remains to be seen, though long-haul sales figures are what are most important with PlayStation Vita, especially as a follow-up to PlayStation Portable, a wildly-successful handheld that has sold well over 70 million units worldwide.

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