Sony slashes PS Vita price in Japan

A price cut for Sony's premium handhled, PS Vita, could be on the way for the UK after the company slashed the costly device in Japan.

During a live-stream presentation on the struggling hand-held device, Sony revealed that the cost of the PS Vita will now be just JPY19,980 or £137 to you and me.

If successful in boosting sales, this price cut could see itself making the trip to Europe and the US, however, Sony is being cagey about promising anything.

"The price cut announced today is for the SCE Japan region only," a spokesperson told Eurogamer. "We have nothing to announce at this time regarding pricing within the our own region."

The PS Vita has failed to gain traction in its home market of Japan which continues to be dominated by Nintendo's handhelds the DS and 3DS.

Likewise the DS-range of handhelds continues to hold sway over Europe and North America, with Nintendo claiming the 3DS sold over 5 million units in the US alone by mid 2012.

Nintendo has also announced plans to support the 3DS with a number of highly anticipated titles this year, including Luigi's Mansion 2 and the new Pokemon titles, X&Y.

James Lee

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James Lee is a freelance writer and analyst with extensive experience in the technology, media and games sectors. For the past few years he has provided content for internationally published industry reports, SEO companies and a variety of news-focused websites. Prior to this, James was responsible for covering news and producing in-depth features for GamesIndustry.biz while occasionally contributing to its sister-site. Eurogamer.net. In addition to this he has contributed to other notable sites such as CVG.co.uk, Edge-Online and DigitalSpy.