It may be just an estimate at this point, but Michael Pachter believes the PlayStation Vita sold 4.2 million units in all of 2013, while Famitsu’s sales figures show the handheld moved just shy of 1.2 million Vitas in Japan throughout 2013. Clearly, those numbers don’t put it in a very good position to beat the PSP and its “75, 80 million units [sold] across a number of years.”

That number for the PSP comes from Sony UK MD Fergal Gara in an interview with Eurogamer following the PlayStation UK event this morning, where he talked about how they don’t think the PS Vita can catch the PSP, unless something good happens:

Well, we don’t think the Vita’s going to sell as well as PSP, unless we get a very pleasant surprise, so the current assessment will be it has a strong existence and a strong reason for being, but the market it occupies is no longer as big as it was. It entered a wider and more complicated world, and we all know what has happened to portable gaming. It’s got bigger, but it’s permeated many devices. It’s still a superior device, and it offers a better screen experience, so it plays a role for the committed gamer. But also it’s also a very exciting accessory to PlayStation 4, so it has a very different role to other devices. But it may not be as huge as PSP, which sold 75, 80 million units across a number of years.

You don’t have to worry about Sony forgetting about the Vita though, with Gara adding, “We’re still proud to support it, we still believe it has a role. We know it might not be enormous, but it still can be a healthy business and a very nice PlayStation product. It may not be everybody who’s got one, but show me someone who has one and is disappointed. I’ve yet to meet that person.”

And if you like teases, he also said, “There’s more and more announcements in the pipeline, and we’ll release them as appropriate.”

Do you think the PlayStation Vita can catch the PlayStation Portable in terms of lifetime sales? Let us know in the comments below.