SCEE CEO Jim Ryan says that the high sales of the 3DS over the last few months have proven those who say that there’s no place in the market for dedicated handhelds anymore wrong, and that the sales have encouraged Sony itself.
The PS Vita launched in Japan in December, and has been selling very poorly, but Sony still has the western launches of the system to look ahead to.
“One of the encouraging things about 3DS’ sales performance at Christmas is that it is confounding the naysayers who say that there is no room in the market for a dedicated handheld gaming device,” he said in an interview with MCV. “And to that extent we were encouraged by how 3DS did over the last month.”
When asked if he believes the Vita and 3DS can survive together given the current situation of the handheld market, he said: “There are two distinct markets. The quality, the immersiveness, the richness of the experience that we believe we are going to offer on Vita, way exceeds anything that we believe to be available on any smartphone.”
We will be reviewing the PS Vita and a few of its launch titles soon, so stay tuned.