Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida told Eurogamer in a recent interview that Sony engineers are currently working on methods to reduce the cost of manufacturing the Playstation Vita, to make a price cut possible. He did however say that he price cut would not come into effect this year still.
Mario Dos Santos CEO at Ster-Kinekor, who represents the Playstation brand in South Africa, spoke with us at rAge 2012 this past weekend, acknowledging that the Vita’s sales have been less than overwhelming.
Dos Santos says that while people consistently label the Vita as a great platform, “there is the element of price that is still a little challenging.”
Dos Santos also pointed out that we could see an upswing with the ‘core gamer’ taking to the Vita, with the appeal of games like Black Ops 2 and the next year’s God of War.
“Once those core games are released and the more core gamer can enjoy the Vita, then the sales should begin to grow,” Dos Santos explained.
We asked the Ster-Kinekor CEO if he knew if Sony were any closer to revealing just when the Vita could see the price-drop, to which he made it clear that there is no “official” date.
He did however say that in his opinion, we could see the Vita price drop in April 2013.
“This is really only my opinion,
“I would think it will be around April 2013. There is certainly no indication from SCEE though. This is purely my opinion.”
This logic would make sense from a retail point of view. Sony would probably want to drop the price sooner rather than later, based on the Vita’s modest sales figures.
Even if Sony manages to produce the console at a lesser cost-point this year still, an upswing around the holidays with bundle deals driving sales is plausible. The first quarter never makes complete sense to launch a product, making the second quarter a likely period for a price-drop.
