PS Vita 2000 Japanese sales revealed today, a new start for Sony?

At 2PM UK time we should get the latest Media Create sales figures through. I suspect they won't represent some magical "Vita is saved" moment for the handheld, but things should be looking gently up from now on. The main reason is I think that Japanese's loyal Sony gamers are rather more looking forward to the Vita TV, but mostly because agnostic gamers are all playing Monster Hunter and Pokemon on their 3DS systems.

Some 5-6 million combined sales in a couple of weeks puts the Vita in true perspective, when its best games are selling maybe 250,000 copies. Perhaps God Eater 2 and Hatsune Miku 2 will shift 500,000 but where is the Vita game that will sell in the seven figure range?

That's Sony's next part of the Vita puzzle. Its hard getting new games to sell lots, so Soul Sacrifice and the upcoming Freedom Wars, however good, will take time to generate fans. Then there's the move to mobile which further limits investment. Look at Namco in Japan, moving all its big titles to free-to-play on console, and you know they'll be cut down to mobile soon enough.

The Vita really can't compete for third-party developer's attention (especially in the west), which leaves a life of plentiful but small-selling indies until Sony can unleash a Gran Turismo, God of War double-act, with perhaps a little help from a GTA Stories or another go at Call of Duty. That interest might tick up due to the huge number of bundle bargains now available, guess stores are clearing out ahead of the western launch of the new Vita model.

Even that level of activity might not boost its fortunes that much (unless Sony pays a fortune for Star Wars Battlefront exclusivity, but that's madness), but should do enough to see the Vita through to its mid-life point, where Sony can either try again, or quietly retire its portable gaming dreams. Anyone think there will really be a true successor to the Vita, outside of Japan anyway?