A worrying quote emerged in Japanese publication Nikkei this week suggesting developers in Japan were dropping plans for Vita development in favor of 3DS. With Vita already in the hands of many gamers thanks to the First Edition bundle and others preparing to pick up the system at its proper launch next week, this isn’t the sort of news you like to hear just before or after spending $250 or more on an unproven piece of hardware. Sony is, as expected, trying to downplay the report and as it was only a single anonymous quote, there’s no reason to become overly concerned just yet.

“Major Japanese companies are canceling all projects intended for the Vita and are changing development to the 3DS,” the anonymous source said, per a translation by Gamasutra. There isn’t much ambiguity in the statement, which is said to be from a member of the Japanese development community. The article itself was authored by Kiyoshi Shin, the former head of the International Game Developers Association’s Japan branch.

“I did not see that quote, but you see extremist quotes like that all the time,” said Sony Worldwide Studios senior VP Scott Rohde in an interview with Gamasutra. “I mean, obviously, there is no way anyone could stand in front of a camera and say that all developers are changing focus from one platform to another, no matter what it is.”

Rohde said he had not heard of such a trend happening among developers with Vita games in the pipeline, adding that he believes what the quote suggested to be “largely exaggerated. I know many, many, many third party developers and publishers are feverishly working on Vita titles, not just for now, but for the foreseeable future.” He compared it to situations in the past where it was presumed every developer would abandon core game development in favor of social titles for Facebook or casual iOS titles.

There are certainly things Sony could be doing better with Vita, but as the system remains unavailable to the vast majority of the potential market for it, Sony is right not to panic so soon.

It is easy to see why a quote like this could gain traction, though, especially in light of the consistently low sales of Vita in Japan. The system had its poorest performance yet during the week of February 6, selling only 13,939 units according to Media Create data. 3DS led the way in terms of hardware sales with 67,558 units sold, and even the PSP topped Vita once again with 15,860 sold. The problem over there is a lack of games appealing to the Japanese market;Uncharted is a big deal in the west, but not so much to the Monster Hunter lovers in Japan. Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida even admitted this was the case earlier in the week.

Additionally, a number of major retailers in Australia will not be selling the Vita at launch. K-Mart, Target, and Big W (not a nickname for Walmart, believe it or not) all will go without it initially, with the latter two possibly stocking it at a “later date,” Kotaku reports. “For the launch of PlayStation Vita in Australia, with the specific target market being the active gamer we have chosen to launch the console with a focused retail channel strategy across national specialist game and specialist technology retailers,” said Sony in a statement, although it is unclear how much say Sony actually had in the matter.

At this point we don’t have a clear idea of what Vita games are coming following the so-called launch window beyond a few examples (a BioShock title, plus the HD Collections of Metal Gear Solid and Zone of the Enders), making it difficult to know what may have been canceled in favor of 3DS games. The suggestion could cause some prospective Vita buyers to pass on the system at launch and continue hoping for a price drop, and that alone could be reason for Sony to push forward the announcements of some Vita titles currently in development.