With PlayStation Vita sales currently at a level where Sony feels the need to obscure exactly how bad things are, many prospective buyers were hoping that a price drop would be announced later this year. Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida killed those hopes today, telling Eurogamer that the company is working to reduce the cost of the system, but 2012 is simply “too early” for a Vita price cut.
“People like cheap or free. Of course, cost reduction is one area our engineering team is working on. But we just launched the platform earlier this year. It takes time to do so. At a certain point in the future we would like to address the pricing issue for some of the people who are waiting. But this year we are trying to add value by creating different types of bundles. We announced we will provide LittleBigPlanet PS Vita bundle pack. That’s affordable for people who are looking for a good deal.”
Shuhei added that their plan to boost Vita sales in the short term is to get as much software as possible released for the platform. Towards that goal, Sony put their best foot forward this week at Gamescom with the announcement of Tearaway, Killzone: Mercenary, and the (long-overdue) reveal of Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified. Additionally, they revealed the Cross Buy program that will give PS3 owners an automatic Vita library, by providing the handheld version of certain titles for free when they buy the same game on the PS3.
Without a price cut, it’s doubtful the Vita will see a sales increase this year. With that said, Sony’s Gamescom announcements this week breathed some much needed life back into the struggling handheld.
