Vita sales fall below 4K in Japan for the first time ever

Can we call the Vita venerable yet? The near-seven-year-old console is certainly approaching EOL, but developers still keep kicking out the games for it.

While we are still in the late summer slump, new games are starting to arrive, so you'd hope some Japanese gamers could be keen to pick up a new Vita, even as Switch continues to dominate Japanese gaming.

However, sales have dipped below the mystical 4,000 mark, even if sales are only 100 down on last week. Still, as a psychological barrier, it is disappointing. Is this the start of the slide to Xbox One territory? Or can the lively roster of games keep it kicking to the end of the year, or at least until Sony blinks and pops up with a Vita 2 in a couple of weeks?

Interestingly, psychological barriers are what makes companies do things, such as marketing, price cuts, new models. But Sony seems traumatised by the Vita and has done literally nothing for two-some years. It really is the strangest of situations for a console, slowly removing apps and features, despite the user base that loves it fiercely.  

On the games front, Gust's Nights of Azure 2 on Vita outsold the Switch version by 7K to 4.4K, but the PS4 edition dominated with 18K, even then that's hardly a stellar launch.

Everybody's Golf 2 hit the No. 1 spot in the Media Create chart on PS4 selling over 100K, a game that there's no reason at all it shouldn't be on Vita! It has turn-based play, even though all players 'play' at the same time, so no need for a fast network, and the handheld could easily handle the social side. Likely the blame lies with Sony for this, as Clap Hanz has done stellar work on the PSP and Vita.