Sony's downward spiral isn't being helped by its PlayStation Vita portable game console, which is being pulverized by its primary competitor, the Nintendo 3DS, in the electronic giants' homeland. Last week the Vita sold just 4,201 units while the Nintendo 3DS sold 187,077.
The PS Vita's lack of compelling content could be the main culprit. "The Vita had no new releases last week, and none of its games appear in the top 30 chart. There are, by comparison, fourteen 3DS games," writes Gamasutra's Frank Cifaldi.
On October 29th, third party game publisher Square-Enix revealed that the 3DS will receive a complete remake of Dragon Quest VII (originally released on the Sony PlayStation in 2000) in February of next year. The Dragon Quest series, which dates back to 1986, is the most popular role-playing game franchise in Japan, having sold 58 million units worldwide as of March 2011. Combine that with the latest version of Capcom's Monster Hunter series, another exclusive slated for the 3DS, and you have a killer combo that Japanese gamers can't resist.
According to Media Create's hardware sales charts, in the year to date the 3DS has outsold the Vita by a factor of 6-to-1 in Japan, with 3,620,298 units, compared to Vita's 585,706.
According to Agence France Press, Sony's shares have fallen to 775 yen (US$9.55) on the Tokyo Stock Exchange this week. The value has been driven down from its peak of 16,950 yen (US$208.85) in 2000 – the year the PlayStation 2 was released.
The Nintendo 3DS ran into some trouble of its own back when it launched, but the company was quick to turn the tide with a significant price cut. It further placated early adopters by giving them free games via its downloadable service. At this point Sony would do well to follow suit, and should do everything in its power to secure more exclusive content of its own.
Source: Gamasutra
I am happy this is happening, perhaps now all the boards of directors will realize that tighter controls over backing up your games and playing copies/back ups will lose much more money than piracy.
In the end, Samsung is going to kick everyone's butt until someone else (maybe nvidia) comes up with a better game plan that "Latest Google software + best CPU on the market + large AMOLED screen = best portable device available". Nintendo is only making kids toys (they have a pretty good hold on that market, though the WiiU either has to come down in price or figure out the meaning of a real starting line up) and Sony is playing with some big boys that have a better game plan - that of being something other than a second tier parts assembler.
They want to be able to buy a game and own that copy in a way that it cannot be disabled or taken away from them. Just like buying an audio CD, DVD, Blu-Ray or "dead tree" book.
I dont know where you get your info from mate but MY vita plays game cards. All games are available as download from the Store too but its just like a console in that it takes bespoke media, in this case, small game cards.