Sony UK comments on Vita sales, future and how gamers maybe saved the handheld

An interesting piece on CVG, with Sony UK boss Fergal Gara covers all things in the run up to the PS4 release, but his comments suggest a few interesting things about the Vita's troubled existence and its slow turnaroud.

For a start, the price cut hasn't boosted sales much, although Vita sales are well up on last year.

Well, we're very pleased with how PS Vita sales have picked up this year. I must say, in the UK we were promoting it hard before the price drop, so actually the difference before and after Gamescom isn't that noticeable in the UK. The difference between the start of the year and now, however, is much more noticeable. PS Vita is forecast to hit its sales target in the UK  

PS4 gamers are getting Vita to enjoy remote play:

We also believe that the rise in unit sales since Gamescom, considering there was no major Vita games in stores, is the result of our Remote Play announcement. That's what we think. I think Remote Play is a new weapon in our armoury. 

Vita owners have kept the Vita ship from sinking (hey, that's us - go us!)

Without positive feedback from owners, I think we would have good reason to lose confidence in the device and shelve it (remember, he's only talking about the UK). We're nowhere close to that decision now. There has been great positive feedback, but I want people to know that we do listen intently to the negative feedback too. 

Are Vita 2000 and Vita TV coming to Europe?

Well, no plan that we're prepared to announce today, but watch this space. 

There are similar themes expressed toward the bottom on a VG24/7 interview (guess he must have been sent around the houses), but the overarching theme is that Sony had the chance to kill (or discuss killing) the Vita, and it is partly down to enthusiastic users, coinciding with the indie wave and PS4 remote play that have dragged it out of the mire.