Sony won't cut price on beleaguered PS Vita in 2012

Despite floundering sales for PS Vita -- and a drastically reduced forecast for the company's handhelds this fiscal year -- Sony remains determined to not lower the portable's price in the near future. Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studio president Shuhei Yoshida has said it's too early to discount the 8-month-old system this year, according to Eurogamer. He added, though, that the platform holder's engineers are working to reduce manufacturing costs for PS Vita. Earlier this month, PS Vita's struggles forced Sony to lower sales projections for its portables this fiscal year (ending March 2013) by a quarter -- it now expects to sell only 12 million PSP and PS Vita units, instead of 16 million. While Yoshida acknowledged that the hardware's pricing ($250 for the cheapest model) has kept some customers away, he reiterated that PS Vita's biggest challenge is providing consumers with compelling software. Sony sought to address that problem by announcing a few new PS Vita titles at Gamescom this week. None of those announcements for PS Vita exclusives, though, were for third-party published games. Yoshida has previously admitted that the company has had a more difficult time than it expected getting support from external publishers. Last year, rival portable Nintendo 3DS appeared to be in a similar rut, with few big titles available and many consumers complaining about its $250 pricing. Nintendo responded with a dramatic price cut just six months after launching the system, and 3DS hardware sales have improved considerably since.