Project Diva f Does “Okay” In First Week’s Sales, But Outlook of Vita Still Bleak

In a recent report by Famitsu, Project Diva f has managed to ship 154,000 units within its first week of launch, and sales of the Vita quadrupled to 47,000 units for the same week. This placed PjD f at the top of game sales in Japan for that week, also making it the only Vita game in the top 20 for last week’s sales. While this appears to come as good news, this report is a silver lining that hides the truth behind these figures.

While 154,000 game units were shipped, this does not translate to an actual number of units sold (aka, in consumer hands). The game itself is readily available and easily found for sale online from multiple vendors without too much effort. The mention of a quadruple increase of PS Vita sales also sounds positive, but it’s far below predicted figures. This places the PS Vita 27,000 units below the Nintendo 3DS sales for the same week, which moved a total of 74,000 units. To further compare, the original PSP is still outselling the Vita, not counting the past week’s sale boost.

The slow movement of Vita units has also effected the sale of the Crystal White Miku Vita, which can be found for sale in healthy quantities from Amazon Japan for about $560 USD for the wifi model. This price has been continuing to drop over the past several days as the number of available units has been increasing. Many online vendors are selling the same system for markups as high as $900, and eBay resellers are already trying to sell these units off for as high as $1400. Save yourself a lot of trouble and money, and simply order directly from Amazon Japan.

While Miku was able to breathe some quick life into the Vita, it was not enough. High unit pricing and high accessory pricing continues to turn away many customers, and Sony will have to do something soon if they expect the Vita to survive another year on the market.

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