PlayStation boasts of 1.2 million Vitas sales

Sony has announced that its new portable console, the PlayStation Vita, has reached 1.2 million worldwide sales following its February 22 launch in North and Latin America, Europe, PAL territories and Singapore.

Figures from Japanese market research firm Media Create show that around half of that figure would have come from Japanese sales -- the device was launched there 10 weeks beforehand on December 17, with Taiwan and Hong Kong following soon after.

Despite the impressive number, it means that the PlayStation handheld has a way to go before matching the momentum of Nintendo's cheaper, technically inferior 3DS.

Though doubt has been cast upon Nintendo's rather optimistic trumpeting of 3.6 million unit sales over the 3DS's first six weeks, more conservative figures still put the dual screen handheld ahead.

Figures from Media Create and North American firm NPD estimated 790,000 sold in Japan and 400,000 in North America over the same period. An earlier report from Nintendo, pitched to consumers rather than investors, pegged the European launch weekend at 300,000 sales.

That places the 3DS's worldwide tally at just shy of 1.5 million in not much more than half the time.

Still, Nintendo was unsatisfied with its own machine's popularity and, doubtless with an eye on the Vita's arrival, slashed prices worldwide by up to 40% in August 2011.

That price cut, combined with the coup of securing the PSP's Monster Hunter series' next outing, and a year-long headstart at retail, may well be factoring into the Vita's slower launch.