It seems that like attraction to people, attraction to gaming consoles also varies person-to-person. And perhaps country-to-country, as well.

Despite many people (and by many, I mean two that I know of: Alexa and I) wanting to "spike our 3DS consoles on the ground" (her words, not mine) after getting our hands on the PlayStation Vita at Sony's holiday party earlier this month, it seems Japan does not agree for now.

In the second week of sales, the Vita only sold 72,000 consoles, compared to 482,000 3DS units sold that same week. Before you go harping on about Nintendo dominance, let me add that the PlayStation Portable, the last generation Sony handheld came in second with 101,000 units.

Why is the old generation selling better? Perhaps the current lineup of titles does little for the Japanese gaming community as a whole, as evidenced by my article last week. Perhaps the increased functionality of the Vita does not yet justify its high price tag for a large enough percentage of the community. Perhaps people are upset they're being charged per game for backwards compatibility. (I know that even in the far-off future when I own a Vita, I will still own my PSP as well, for mass Dissidia butt-kicking on the go.)

No matter the reason, we can only wait, watch and hope for sales to go up and new games to come and popularize the Vita as the next great portable console.