Sony announced that they have sold 1.8 million PlayStation Vita units worldwide during their 4th Quarter 2011 Earnings Announcement earlier today. The overall tone of the announcement was that of loss for the company, especially the 19% decrease in sales within the consumer products segment. A lot of it was due to the unfavorable impact of foreign exchange rates, the impact of the Great East Japan Earthquake and the floods in Thailand, and deterioration in market conditions in developed countries.

However, according to Sony CEO Kaz Hirai, having sold the 1.8 million Vitas worldwide was a good start, and that the software is the key to success, “how good software is,”  so “we have to reinforce the software area in order to improve the business, that is the basic line.”

Hirai also stated that:

 “As of this moment, there is no decline or lack of motivation (from developers) for the portable platform. This is a very important product indeed for us and therefore we still have a very high motivation to develop this farther. Software and sevices must be strengthened. So in other words, the collaborative approach with third-party and first-party studios is very important.” 

So in the end, Sony did indeed incur losses to their business, yet the Vita business is indeed starting to perk up. With E3 just around the corner, there’s rumblings around the industry that Sony will be announcing some major titles at the event which will hopefully drive sales of the handheld.

Discuss:

Were you one of the 1.8 million who purchased the PlayStation Vita? What prompted you to buy one?

[Via Sony Corporation]