Nearly a third of PS3 owners "seriously considering" buying Vita - poll

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 21 February, 2012

Because they "want a powerful handheld console".

Nearly a third of UK PlayStation 3 owners are seriously considering buying a Vita, a new poll has found.

Playr2 polled 1321 PS3 owners, asking them various questions about the Vita.

More than three quarters of respondents, 76 per cent, said yes, they were excited about tomorrow's Vita launch. 32 per cent said they were "seriously considering" buying one in the near future. Of these, 22 per cent intended to buy a Vita within one week of its launch.

62 per cent of those who intend to buy a Vita said they "wanted a powerful handheld console". Of the 32 per cent who intend to buy a Vita, half have owned a PlayStation Portable. Six per cent said they planned to sell their current PlayStation console to buy a Vita.

The results of the poll are sure to please the higher ups at Sony Computer Entertainment UK, who have seen Vita get off to a slow start in Japan.

There, the console has struggled to sell more than the PSP, which still enjoys strong publish support and attractive new titles.

How will Vita do in the US and Europe? The console launches across the UK at midnight tonight. It comes in two flavours: Wi-Fi only (around £230) and Wi-Fi plus 3G (around £280).

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (51) Latest comment 3 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Srift #1 3 months ago

    Post deleted at 12:46:47 21-02-2012

  • Whitster #2 3 months ago

    Post deleted at 15:13:22 09-05-2012

  • LHH #3 3 months ago

    I bet Sony wished they were buying one rather than contemplating it lol

  • repeater #4 3 months ago

    How many said they were considering getting a second job to be able to afford the Vita? :-P

    Seriously though, if the comments section of EG is anything to go by, there seems to be a not insubstantial amount of excitement among core gamers in Europe for Vita, which can only be a good thing. Let's hope it does better here than it has done in Japan so far!
    Edited by repeater at 21/02/12 @ 09:09

  • bad09 #5 3 months ago

    So 1321 is nearly a third of PS3 users now?

    Surveys, 100% horsecrap (asked 2 people and a cat named Mr Frisky to reach that result). ;)

  • BigDannyH #6 3 months ago

    I am the 33%

  • Sodding_Gamer #7 3 months ago

    I have a PS3 and I really can't be bothered with the Vita. I barely played my psp and rarely have the time while I'm out and about to play it. If I am in the house, I'd rather play my actual ps3 than use the laggy remoteplay anyway. It looks great and all but with people keeping their money in their pockets I can see people just sticking with their mp3 players for the boring bus journeys/car journeys.

  • X201 #8 3 months ago

    Playr2 polled 1321 PS3 owners.

    More than three quarters of respondents.

    How many respondents?
    All survey results are useless without that figure.
    You could mailshot the entire country, but if only one person responds the survey isn't representative of the UK.

  • Perfecto #9 3 months ago

    This is similar to that questionnaire in the 1950's that explained exactly what a paedophile was. Each man in Britain was asked if he thought he was one. 92% said yes.

    :D

  • CaptainQuint #10 3 months ago

    I just can't seem to get into handheld games in the way I do for more conventional gaming. I struggle to become 'immersed'.

    On iPhone or iPad, I manage ten minute burts here and there, at best.

  • Spong #11 3 months ago

    @Perfecto
    Kudos (and a plus) for the Brasseye quote.

  • DirectAim #12 3 months ago

    If it came with all the PSN titles available on the USA PSN id give it a thought but to be honest after seeing the zero support for the xperia play id be worried id be buying a 280£ handheld that has 15 shitty games come out for it this year

  • X201 #13 3 months ago

    @Perfecto

    That's Noncesense ;)

  • Beano #14 3 months ago

    As a PS3 owner I'm not considering buying a Vita....

    (already bought one)

  • CORIANA_SIX #15 3 months ago

    That's John Fa-shanoo...

  • Trent_Steel #16 3 months ago

    @CaptainQuint

    This is a bit strange, but I've actually begun to dislike the "immersed" feeling a bit when playing games of late, maybe because I'm getting older and subconsciously feel I'm wasting my time or something.

    As a result, I've found myself enjoying my 3DS more as I can get into the game while still feeling some connection to the world around me.

    Anyway, before I start sounding like a dreadlocked road protestor, if I thought a Vita could replace my PS3 and eventually have a library of the same quality, I'd buy one. At the moment, I'm not too confident but would like to be proved wrong.

  • spatuluk #17 3 months ago

    As a PS3 owner who can't get near the PS3 due to a girlfriend and a sprog, I want one! Gaming on the loo 4tw!

  • Dave52 #18 3 months ago

    I'm getting a Vita in July as a Birthday present to myself. There's no point getting one this week as I've just broken my finger... :(

  • scoop #19 3 months ago

    1231?? I think you'd get more participants from poll post in a knitting forum.

    "Niché group" comes to mind.

  • TopKatt #20 3 months ago

    @Trent_Steel

    "Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time."

  • razzafazza #21 3 months ago

    i ll seriously consider it when there s proper handheld games for VITA.

    i m fairly sure Uncharted Golden Abyss is exciting for seeing such graphical power on a handheld for the first time but i m not really willing to drop full price on 6-8 hour shooters that are simply more fun to play on a big screen with surround sound once the novelty of the handheld wore off anyway.

    ....but bring some kind of "western monster hunter" and i ll buy a VITA. sandbox and/or RPG games with high lasting appeal, replayability and a focus of gameplay over cinematics is what interests me (not only) on a handheld platform.

    i dont get Sony, i mean they should have looked at what sold most on PSP (GTA & Monster Hunter) and then if i were them I d have made sure VITA shipped with 1-2 launch titles from first party studios that appeal to fans of these games. Not mere clones/ports but new IPs with the VITAs best graphics, new original ideas etc.

    ...now they are once again completely dependant on Rockstar & Capcom or others to release their systems system-sellers while they waste their first party talent on watered down ports of their home console shooter IPs .... that aside from uncharted dont sell that well anymore to begin with ( deserved or not: i thought resistance 3 was a great singleplayer shooter ... ).

  • wayn3h #22 3 months ago

    @CaptainQuint True, but the gaming experiences found on phones and pads are generally pretty damn shallow and not meant to immerse you in another world. I'm quite looking forward to throwing some headphones on and playing console quality jrpg's etc.. while the other half is watching eastenders and whatever else it is they are into (as a side note, I HATE TV!>< )
    Edited by wayn3h at 21/02/12 @ 09:40

  • -Mew- #23 3 months ago

    They need to poll a LOT MORE PEOPLE.

  • super_monty #24 3 months ago

    Yet on Gamespot article the % from the poll is not even close to 33% or 20% or 15% !!!!!!!!!!!!

    It all depends where you ask the questions.

  • LHH #25 3 months ago

    I have my mobile for short bursts of gaming, but mostly I just end up browsing and posting on the internet like now. And even my crappter android phone lasts longer than 3 to 5 hours!

  • xero521 #26 3 months ago

    Getting mine on thurs an cant wait,gonna use it more in the house when i cant play on my ps3! Saw wipeout on a vita yesterday looks awsome,shame about price of memory cards an sony not including one with them tho think that will put many ppl off

  • Snake_2011 #27 3 months ago

    Vita first handheld since gameboy that has made me go I need one of them.

  • ddeblasio #28 3 months ago

    "I'm seriously considering" sleeping with a supermodel instead. Not sure it'll ever happen, but hey, that's what polls are for...

  • Po1ymorph #29 3 months ago

    It does look a very tidy piece of kit the Vita. I would be after one myself but I want to get a PS3 first, then I need to upgrade my PC...then...maybe.

    *thinks about buying a lottery ticket.

  • Tyronne #30 3 months ago

    I have not been asked and if I had been asked then I would say no I do not want one, nor am I interested in one.

  • abigsmurf #31 3 months ago

    What about the people who jokingly considered it?

    "I was considering A Vita but it was fully booked so I went to see Phantom of the Opera instead!"

  • TheBusterMan #32 3 months ago

    @razzafazza Couldn't agree more.A GTA title and some decent RPGs at launch would have been great.I'd of got one straight away.And it would have flown of the shelves in Japan with a Monster Hunter game out for it.And imagine in the West if it had a Mass Effect and Skyrim game for it.I'm sticking with my PSP for now.

  • rockavitch #33 3 months ago

    I'm sure it's a decent machine but I simply do not want one, I don't care for handhelds, I game at home when time allows it.

  • seeafish #34 3 months ago

    @bad09 "2 out of 2 Australians can't spell beauty! Get out of my country!" comes to mind hahaha.

  • LakuNoce #35 3 months ago

    This spot's got a nice idea, but the last scene strikes me as very inappropriate: A "soldier" running and shooting in a war scenario, shouting: The world is in play!

  • J.C #36 3 months ago

    Nearly a third of ps3 owners want one? And they are all cod chavs. and, they know chavcod is landing on the vita soon. COD will sell vita's over here.

  • jonbwfc #37 3 months ago

    @-Mew-
    Not necessarily. Proper statisticians can do sums which can tell you how good a representation of a bigger population a smaller group is. Depends how 'spread out' the answers are basically. I don't know if this was a statistically significant sample size (I'd need a lot more detail to do the sums) but I've seem smaller samples be validly representative of larger populations.

    As I work it out though, 32% or respondents said they were considering buying a Vita, and 22% of THEM said they would first week. That's only..(mumble mumble, counts fingers) 7% of the respondents said they were likely to buy first week. That's probably not the number Sony want you to remember from the article though. Mind you, 7% of a few million is still quite a large number of people.

  • mastablasta #38 3 months ago

    There is hardly any hype for the machine. I can't see it selling well at all.

  • drumbaby #39 3 months ago

    Monster Hunter Freedoms 1 and 2 were my only reasons for perservering with PSP for so long (Syphon Filter and GOW were the only 2 other games I finished on the handheld) until MHF3 failed to come out over here and I wrote the system off. It's the lack of really good 3rd person action games and the painfully slow release of new MH titles that finally killed my enthusiasm for what was a lovely bit of kit with so much potential. So much for the promised DMC game, for example...

    As much as I like the look of the Vita I need to see more than Uncharted and a rumour of a MH Vita before I take the plunge. This time I'll take a 'wait and see' stance, rather than eagerly snapping one up at launch like I did with PSP.

  • freethinker101 #40 3 months ago

    I suggested to my wife that if she got me one, then I could use the remote play function and we could be in the same room, with out me hogging the TV. Who knows it might just work..... If you asked me yes I am considering it, will I buy launch day...... No!

  • jabberwocky #41 3 months ago

    You mean a third of the people polled said they might pick one up at some point, not that they'll be day one adopters. That'll mean second hand sales and after price cuts.
    Edited by jabberwocky at 21/02/12 @ 13:04

  • Ace-Reject #42 3 months ago

    Happy with my 3ds for the time being.

  • skunkfish #43 3 months ago

    I wouldn't touch this survey statistic with a bargepole. Anyone know how they collected their data?

  • makeamazing #44 3 months ago

    Getting mine tomorrow and cannot wait.. Uncharted for the win :)

  • OneClassyBloke #45 3 months ago

    I will buy a Vita next week if I get that job I was just interviewed for. Honestly, I skipped on the PSP, so I've got plenty of reason to get in on the Vita.

    </blog>

  • Trent_Steel #46 3 months ago

    @TopKatt

    Excellent point, but when I find myself going through the motions in Skyrim for 6 hours, I sometimes feel it's out of habit rather than enjoyment.

    I get a very different feeling playing Mario 3D Land and OOT 3D, but i suppose that's just as likely down to the Nintendo factor as it is the fact it's on a handheld.

  • X201 #47 3 months ago

    @skunkfish

    No, I tried their site but couldn't find it.
    Will have a harder search later.

  • juliankennedy23 #48 3 months ago

    What percentage of current PS3 owners bought a PSP?

  • lazyboyblue #49 3 months ago

    @freethinker101 remote play is a long way off still. Sony busy trying to fix lag issues. If we're getting it we will find out at e3 - not before.

  • MeBrains #50 3 months ago

    well... i am not one of them...

  • jefranklin18 #51 3 months ago

    I would like one but the wife has banned me from getting one. Just wait until the spring fashions come out and she wants to "update her wardrobe", we'll soon see how long that ban will last...