Japanese hardware sales, December 12 - 18: Festive holiday song edition

@Lerkero

I'm pretty sure it wasn't a full week of sales for the vita.

@Lerkero
The Vita was only for sale a few days that week, but it is nice to see 3ds doing better.

@Lerkero Vita was only available 2 day of that week and it almost surpass what the 3ds did in a whole week and you belive 3ds is selling better? nah.

@den69

Thanks for bringing that to my attention. I did not realize the timing of the report was an issue.

For comparison I went and found this report about the first couple days of 3DS. As reported by the agency listed on this page 3DS sold 371,326 units in its first 2 days (Feb 26-27).
http://andriasang.com/comzfc/ps_vita_sales/

Based on these numbers 3DS sold about 45,000-50,000 more units during its first couple days than PSV did. Of course, the real test is future sales trends and not initial sales trends. The Monster Hunter & Pokemon factors have not been added yet.

@Tristan77

The point is that 3DS had a stronger launch than Vita, debuted with less compelling software, and sold more in its 40th-something week than Vita sold in its first week. That's not good news for Sony.

@A Sandwich

Think there was only 2 days of Vita sales in that week.

@A Sandwich

The first two days were estimated at 321,000. Do you honestly think they only sold 3 thousand more systems for the rest week?

Thinking. It prevents dumb comments.

@Shockwave You're sort of correct, but also sort of wrong. Those two days are a standard "first week" for consoles and video games in Japan, and it's the same two days the 3DS sold 370K in for its Japanese launch in February. For a console to have a healthy market it should be outselling everything else in those two days.

If you've been following Japanese sales in the past you'll know that the second week, even though it represents many more days, also generally represents a large drop in sales. In Vita's first full week (the numbers that we'll see next week) it will absolutely be lower than the 3DS, judging by these numbers.

Don't get me wrong, Vita's not selling horribly, but it's not selling very well either, especially for a holiday launch with plenty of stock on the shelves (Sony gave official numbers of 500K launch units shipped to retailers). It's an OK start for a system that lacks any major sellers for the Japanese market.

@(Unverified)

I would like to point out that when the 3DS came out it was competing with no one for next gen hand holds. No shock it sold more then, and not by much. If Vita came out with no 3DS to compete with, this wouldn't be the case.

@Shockwave

Come on, man, you'd have to be a pretty blind fanboy to think that the Vita is off to a good start.

@LoneWolf18 I watched that nintendo conference but I have not heard that MH4 is an exclusive for 3DS.

@Halgrimur

Somewhere in time and space...

@Halgrimur next Sunday, A.D.

@Halgrimur

Way down in Deep 13.

(I had to finish it)