The latest entry in the line of PlayStations from Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE) is set for launch this weekend. The company has been touring Japan for the past several weeks to drum up interest by giving potential customers a chance to get their hands on the new portable game player.
Competitor Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) does not have a portable player, though its Xbox is a big seller. Nintendo Corp. (OTC: NTDOY), with its 3DS player, is Sony’s stiffest competition in the handheld game space. The real competition, though, may come from smartphones and tablets like the iPhone and iPad from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and others.
A report on ZDNet describes last week’s stop in Tokyo:
Booths were erected in major shopping districts from late in the morning, allowing potential customers to test out the new console. There were several PlayStation Vita devices running different launch titles, from Uncharted: Golden Abyss to Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3.
The PSVita, as it’s called, is a replacement for Sony’s PSP (PlayStation Portable) which was introduced in 2004. Sony claims to have shipped 73 million PSPs and hopes for better sales for the PSVita. Nintendo expects to have sold 16 million 3DS players by next March.
To say the Sony needs a winner is to state the obvious. Whether the PSVita is that winner is about to be discovered.
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