Sony admits PS Vita sales are below expectations, discusses price drop

Sony has stated that PS Vita sales are currently behind the company's projections, but that the console's newly-announced price drop will get more people playing the handheld moving forward.

Speaking with Famitsu - via Polygon - SCE Japan president Hiroshi Kawano said, "Certainly, at the present time, maybe we're a little behind the numbers we originally pictured. I feel we have a ways to go in terms of getting across the good traits of the PS Vita, along with everything the software has to offer."

As for why Sony opted for a price drop this week, he added, "The biggest reason is that we simply want to have more people playing the PS Vita. Based on our research, there are two broad reasons why people who may want to try the Vita aren't purchasing it. One, they want to wait until there's a game they want to play on it. Two, the price is a little out of reach for them.

“What we also learned in this research is that people who do own a Vita have tremendous satisfaction with it; it's the kind of platform where you get a feel for how good it is once you touch it. But we found that the price was too big an initial hurdle for this, and this sparked a long internal debate within SCE."

Now that the hardware is coming down in price, Sony still wants to ramp up its software slate, according to Kawano.

He continued, “I want to keep pushing for more games that people want to play, since like our research showed, that's one thing blocking customers curious about the Vita from making a purchase. There are about 100 titles released [in Japan] in a year's time, and I want to get across that we've got a lot of really good games.

"Like with our other platforms, we're developing the Vita system with the idea that it'll have a lifecycle of ten years and change, so I think we need to do everything we can to flesh out the service going forward. We have the new price down; now it's time for software. Just with what's been announced so far, we'll have more games coming out this year than last, and they're being launched on a regular basis throughout the year.

"I think that'll make users feel they're always getting enough, and we're prepared to push these titles as needed. We're going to be actively on the offensive in 2013."

What do you make of the PS Vita price-drop? Will it go far enough to make more people interested in the console? What about the range of games on offer? Could it use improvement? Let us know below.

Thanks MCV.