Major Australian retailers won't stock Vita at launch
Target, Big W and K-Mart back away, Sony focuses on specialist retailers
Three of Australia's leading retailers will not stock the PlayStation Vita at launch, Kotaku reports.
Target, Big W and K-Mart are all backing away from Sony's handheld, though Target and Big W confirmed via e-mail that they would consider stocking the product "at a later date."
However, K-Mart stated that it has no plans to sell the Vita at all, dictated by a broader to strategy to move away from expensive items and towards cheaper products.
As a result, the Vita will be chiefly available through specialist stores, and there is concern that consumers looking for a more competitive price from department stores will be frustrated.
However, Sony is resolute that it fits with an underlying strategy to aim the Vita at a core audience.
"For the launch of PlayStation Vita in Australia, with the specific target market being the active gamer, we have chosen to launch the console with a focused retail channel strategy across national specialist game and specialist technology retailers," Sony said in a statement.
"There is a long term vision for our revolutionary new hand-held platform, in the same way we had a long term vision for PS3, and anticipate that in line with this we will broaden channel distribution in the future."
With a week to go until launch, Sony has also dropped the retail price of the 3G Vita by $30 [Australian] to $419.95. The Wi-fi Vita will remain at $349.95.
IPads are the exception, as they attract consumers to stores (and may have reasonable retail margins?).
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Scott Davis on 16th February 2012 3:22pm
Having said that, if they do FIFA for it, and bring out an NHL, I'll be happy enough.
Can't wait to see if they bring out NHL for the Vita, remember playing NHL '10 i think it was with a friend on the PSP....good times!
No source? Why? Because the only 'source' was an unsubstantiated series of Twitter posts by @vook64 (an Australian who runs a Nintendo community site and writes for Kotaku Australia). Even he was only speculating on why these retailer might not be stocking Vita.
Meanwhile, Gi.biz has somehow made the leap that these retailers have decided the Vita is too expensive and decided to abandon support for it.... yet evidence would actually suggest it is Sony who have decided to exclusively provide it to traditional 'games' retailers and not these large big box chains. Considering Big W are already stocking and selling Vita accessories, it would suggest they actually DO want to sell Vita.
Tldr; this article is factually misleading.
To clarify, the source (which I admit I missed initially), is a link to a Kotaku post by the same Daniel Vuckovic I was referring to as @vook64. He broke the 'rumours' via twitter, then made an article about it on Kotaku. One person, one source. The 'statements' supposedly from Big W and Target were based on emails that again were communicated via twitter or posted on whirlpool.net.au (an Australian broadband community forum). K-Mart's comments from a casual phone call to their 1800 number - again, by the same guy.
I'm not suggesting anyone is being less than honest, simply that many conclusion are being jumped to here and scratch away at the thin veneer and you'll quickly see that the comments on if and why these retailers aren't stocking Vita is little more than speculation at this point.
If I - as a casual reader - can dig out that kind of info and fact checking in 5 minutes then I would have thought gamesbiz would do the same before claiming it was the retailers backing away from Vita and not the other way around.