Sony offers Vita referral bonuses for 'convincing' friends

Sales of Sony's Vita have been struggling from the start, and even CEO Kaz Hirai conceded that it's on the "low end" of expectations. The company has tried the cross-buy program and free games already. The next plan? A referral program.

A referral bonus is giving $20 in PlayStation Network credit and 1,000 Sony Rewards points ($10) for each friend that buys a Vita after you recommend it to them. Your friends who buy a Vita will get $20 in credit too, to get them started buying games. You can stack up to 10 of these together, so you could potentially get $200 in PSN credit altogether. The promotion ends on February 28.

The phrasing is a little problematic, though. It asks interested users to "convince" their friends to buy a Vita system. That sounds less like a friendly recommendation and more like it will require serious debate, as if your friends will happily spend upwards of $250 if you make a really compelling case. That doesn't really send the best message for a system that's already not flourishing.