Sony unconcerned by low Vita sales numbers
Customer "satisfaction rate is really high" says hardware marketing head Koller
Sony's hardware marketing head, John Koller, has said that he's unconcerned by the PlayStation Vita's shrinking weekly sales in Japan, instead focusing on what he calls the "word-of-mouth factor", which is reporting high customer satisfaction among early adopters.
Sales of the system in Japan, the only territory where it is currently available, have shrunk from a first week figure of over 320,000 to less than 43,000 a fortnight later.
Speaking to GameSpot at this week's CES, Koller explained that sales so far were in line with predictions, and that seeing users enjoy the machine was more important than an upward sales curve.
"If you look at the word-of-mouth factor, it's really strong because people are bringing it home and really enjoying it," said Koller. "That satisfaction rate is really high. But also in terms of when we funnel in additional hardware units, that'll dictate how many sales there are and how many sell through.
"We're still in the first couple weeks, and we're trying to get as many units into market as possible. We're going to give it some time, but overall those numbers have been to forecast,"
Koller said that Sony has learned from other hardware launches which have suffered from gaps in release schedules, perhaps referencing the lull in sales which the 3DS saw post-launch. That same system is now outselling the Vita in Japan by a massive margin, thanks to the release of new Mario and Monster Hunter games.
"What we really wanted to do, and I think we learned from past, most recent, handheld device launches, is that you don't want to launch strongly and then go dark for three or four months and have nothing," continued Koller.
"So in subsequent months for Vita, we have launch, then we have MLB, then we got Mortal Kombat, then Resistance, then Little Big Planet, then Call of Duty, and Assassin's Creed."