Miyamoto: Vita needs more games for true success

Shigeru Miyamoto seems impressed with the technical abilities of Vita, but he feels that in order for it to succeed, the handheld needs more available titles.

Speaking with Edge, Miyamoto said while Vita is a very "hi-spec machine [that] you can do lots of things with," it would be a stronger product if it the "combination of software and hardware" was more robust.

"When we launched the 3DS hardware we didn't have Super Mario 3D Land, we didn't have Mario Kart 7, we didn't have Kid Icarus: Uprising," he said. "We were striving to have all of these ready for the launch, but we weren't able to deliver them at that time.

"We were kind of hoping that people would, nevertheless, buy into the product, find 3DS hardware promising, but looking back we have to say we realise the key software was missing when we launched the hardware."

Vita had a strong start in Japan moving 325,000 units and 600,000 in the west at launch, but sales - in Japan at least- have slumped. Since launch, the title has been outsold more times than not by PSP, PS3 and 3DS. The later hasn't left the top spot on the Media Create charts since its price was cut in August 2011.

What Miyamoto is suggesting it seems, is like 3DS before it, in order for Vita to succeed, it needs more retail releases.