The PS Vita launched in Japan on Saturday and now it appears that the next generation portable game console from Sony has started its life with sales of 321,000 units in its first two days. Reuters reports that those sales numbers come from third party research firm Enterbrain rather than directly from Sony.
If those sales numbers are true, it also means that the PS Vita didn"t sell as many consoles as Nintendo"s 3DS, which sold 371,000 units in its first two days in Japan earlier in 2011. While the 3DS started strong, a lack of popular games combined with a high price tag caused sales to stall. Nintendo was forced to slash the price of the 3DS worldwide in August in order to boost. Sony"s first portable game console, the PSP, sold 166,000 units on its first day of sales back in 2004. So far the PSP has sold 73 million units.
The PS Vita"s Japanese launch was not 100 percent smooth. Some users complained that the console they purchased had an unresponsive touch screen and software issues. Some users even claimed the entire console froze and stopped working. Sony has already issued both an apology as well as a firmware fix for the PS Vita, according to Engadget. The console makes its debut in the US and Europe in mid-February 2012.