Sony is burning according to many on The Bore. And while the Vita is definitely having its problems, I'm asking myself, was this the master plan the whole time? Sony finished with a red ledger in it's last fiscal year. This is the fourth annual loss in a row. There were a variety of factors that contributed to that loss, many still affecting the company, but Sony still gave guidance that they would return to profitability by their fiscal end this March.
During the US Holiday season, the Vita sold 225,000 units. You've all seen the reactions to those numbers earlier in the thread. This is not the time to have that discussion. The Vita is also the only hardware Sony is currently selling at a loss. The PS3 (now profitable) sold 625,000 units and remarkably the PSP sold ~50,000 units. That's 675,000 units of money making hardware over a 60 day trading period.
So was this the real strategy? Launch the Vita to the hardcore fans and begin to build their install base while taking a small loss-to-small profit, but protect the bottom line by pulling every last dollar out of the PS3/PSP? Clearly Vtia is not performing to guidance or expectation, but the continued success of the PS3/PSP will improve the companies profitability.
Sony is a business after all, and their number one responsibility is to make money.