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Sony: PSP "confused customers"

But its Vita sales pitch is "much more focused".

Whereas Sony might have confused some consumers with its PSP sales pitch, the platform holder reckons customers should have no problem figuring out what the Vita is for - namely, playing video games.

Speaking in an interview with Official PlayStation Magazine, SCEE CEO Jim Ryan conceded that it had sent out mixed messages when it launched the PSP - that it was a general entertainment system rather a core gaming platform.

"I think with PSP we tried to position it as a rather broad multimedia device," he explained.

"We talked a lot in the early days of PSP about its video playback functionality, its use as a music device and a host of other multimedia functionality that it had.

"I think this time we've realised that perhaps ended up confusing consumers, and they weren't quite sure what the device was really all about. So this time the Vita does all of that stuff that we talked about on PSP, and it does it a lot better.

"We've been a lot more single minded and much more focused in our positioning of Vita," he continued. "We're saying that this is primarily a gaming device. It has been developed from the ground up as a gaming device. What it does best is play games."

Not long now before we get to see how that approach pans out. The Vita launches in Japan next month, before arriving in Europe on 22nd February.