It’s amazing what a price cut and some good games can do to a system’s hardware sales. Following the PlayStation Vita price cut in Japan, sales of Sony’s powerful handheld quadrupled in the country. Now, for the first time in what has felt like ages, the Vita outsold the 3DS this past week.
Japanese games marketing research website Media Create published sales data today, showing a total of 63,581 Vitas were sold from March 4-10. That’s over 1,000 more sales than the previous week’s number of 62,543.
However, more impressive is this week’s Vita sales exceeded both the 3DS XL and regular 3DS system sales combined (39,801 and 21,207, respectively) by over 2,500 units.
Aside from the price cut, the release of some major game titles boosted the Vita’s popularity. 5 Vita games were in the top 20 bestselling games in Japan that week with Soul Sacrifice taking the #2 spot and Tales of Hearts R at #5.
There’s a good chance Japanese Vita system sales could stay at its current level or rise with the release of more big games on the way this month: Steins;Gate, Nobunaga’s Ambition: Heaven, Dead or Alive 5 Plus, Atelier Meruru Plus and Muramasa Rebirth.
Hopefully Sony Computer Entertainment America and Europe learn from the success of their Japanese counterpart by making a permanent price cut to the Vita and ensuring more quality games are released.
Stay tuned to PSU for breaking news on the Vita and everything PlayStation.