Sony plans to sell 10 million PlayStation Vitas by March 2013, according to Sony Computer Entertainment president and group CEO Andrew House in an interview with Reuters Japan.
"The end-of-year holiday season is extremely important for handheld game consoles," House said in explaining how Sony hopes to reach its goal. "To that end, we've got showcase titles such as Call of Duty and Assassin's Creed coming out as well as our own first-party software. We also want to strengthen the Vita's online services, so we'll be adding YouTube and Hulu apps. We want to build up those two pillars: games and online."
Sony had previously forecast selling 16 million portable game consoles during fiscal 2012, without distinguishing between the new PlayStation Vita and its older brother the PSP. To date, the Vita has sold less than 2 million units since launching last December.
Weekly sales reports out of Japan have bottomed out as of late, with the Vita falling far short of the Nintendo 3DS and PSP. However, a spate of new releases this month as well as a new white model are expected to boost sales according to Sony Computer Entertainment Japan President Hiroshi Kawano.
When Reuters asked where the sales of the Vita fit in the company's games division ability to turn a profit, House instead turned the subject to the PlayStation 3, saying it was "ripe for the harvest." Certainly the focus of Sony's E3 stage presentation this week was PlayStation 3 games like Beyond and The Last of Us, with the announced Vita games (such as Assassin's Creed III: Liberation) all being spin-off releases of established franchises.
He responded to a follow-up question about the successor to the PlayStation 3 with "I have nothing to say about that."
