E3 2012: Sony 'relaxed and confident' about Vita's prospects

June 8th, 2012, 01:59 Posted By: wraggster

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe CEO Jim Ryan has told CVG the company is "very relaxed and confident about the prospects for Vita this year and beyond".
In an interview published earlier today, the executive said upcoming content will help give the platform a lift Japan - where sales of the new handheld have fallen sharply since launch.
"We're not at the stage of thinking about price cuts," Ryan said. "In Europe we're three months in - in Japan a little bit longer. I think that all history in the Japanese market indicates that it's real killer content that provides the stimulus to hardware sales - and that continues to be the case. There's a lot going on - a lot of very Japanese specific content that wouldn't really resonate with the Western world. We're very relaxed and confident about the prospects for Vita this year and beyond."In the west, Ryan expects new entries in established first and third-party series to drive Vita adoption.
"We obviously launched Vita with a very strong launch line-up, easily the strongest of any other platform that I've been involved with - and that's all of them. As you say though, there's still a lot of content to come. We have Little Big Planet to come, and then on the third party side FIFA, BioShock, Call of Duty and Assassin's Creed. So, in my mind it's a line-up of real quality - and a good balance across various genres."
Ryan added of the newly-named Black Ops Declassified: "It's fantastic that it's coming at Christmas time, and I think that it's going to provide a huge stimulus for the platform."
Company CEO Kaz Hirai revealed in May that worldwide Vita sales stood at 1.8 million units at the end of the company's financial year on March 31, 2012, almost four months after the handheld's release.
He called it a "good start", but acknowledged that "software and services must be strengthened" if the company's to hit its targets for the current business year, which include ten million Vita sales.
Sony recently announced a limited-time Vita price cut of 50 Euros (£40) in France, which runs from June 1 to July 15.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...tas-prospects/

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