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Sony having a 'difficult time' getting publishers to return to Vita

Once burned...

Sony having a 'difficult time' getting publishers to return to Vita
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In a moment of surprising frankness, Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida has spoken about the difficulties his company is having trying to coax third-party publishers back to the PS Vita.

Talking to PlayStation: The Official Magazine, Yoshida confessed: "We're having a more difficult time than we had anticipated in terms of getting support from third-party publishers, but that's our job."

Despite the Vita's technical prowess and impressive line-up of launch titles, Sony has shifted just 790,663 units in the 6 months since it launched in Japan in December 2011, with the 3DS outselling the system 7 to 1 in its home territory during March of this year.

By the end of February, Sony had sold 1.2 million units of its latest handheld worldwide, compared to 2 million 3DS sales between January and March.

Pushing forward

Though Sony has recently downgraded its portable games sales forecast to 12 million (from a projected 16 million), Yoshida is still keen to promote the strengths of the PS Vita.

"We will continue to talk to development communities and publishing partners and tell them why Vita can provide a great experience for the IPs they have," Yoshida said.

CVG
James Gilmour
James Gilmour
James pivoted to video so hard that he permanently damaged his spine, which now doubles as a Cronenbergian mic stand. If the pictures are moving, he's the one to blame.