Sony's PSP nearly sells out on debut

Published on Monday 13 December 2004 11:54

SONY, the electronics and gaming giant, said its long-awaited PlayStation Portable (PSP), which can play movies, music and games, had virtually sold out on its home debut today.

The company said Japanese retailers were reporting that the group’s first handheld gaming machine - to be released in the UK and United States next year - had shifted almost all the 200,000 units it had so far released. Subsequently, it was considering upping production levels.

Koichiro Katsurayama, spokesman at Sony Computer Entertainment, the group’s game division, said: "We have heard that the PSP has nearly sold out nationwide."

But Mr Katsurayama said Sony was sticking to its target of selling 500,000 units in Japan by the end of 2004.

And although the company was mulling an increase in production of the PSP, he acknowledged it would be difficult as it had established schedules with component suppliers that could not be easily changed.

Sony also stood by its target of selling three million PSP units worldwide by March 31 - the end of its business year. Game fans have been eagerly awaiting the PSP, which is at the centre of Sony’s drive to unseat Nintendo as the king of handheld game machines.

Analysts said the arrival of the PSP was the biggest fillip to the sector since Sony launched its PlayStation 2 (PS2) game console in 2000, going on to sell 74 million consoles. Two weeks ago Nintendo launched its handheld DS console.

Analysts think the PSP will win. "The user who is so accustomed to PS2, which has a very high penetration rate in the world, could migrate to PSP," John Yang at Standard and Poor’s said.