Sony: PSP Out in Due Course

Days away from the US launch and Sony is still mum on when it's coming out in Europe.

After taking Japan by storm in December, the PSP is being readied for release in North America on March 24th. If things had gone according to plan, Europeans would be about to buy theirs as well. But they won't be. Instead, Sony has delayed the PSP's release in Europe and is not giving any information as to when it will finally arrive.

The reason for the delay is simple - Sony does not have enough PSPs to keep everyone happy.

With the handheld still in short supply in Japan and more than a million of them allocated for the North American release next week, the company does not have enough stock at the moment to launch it in Europe as well.

"It is our desire for the UK and Europe to have a strong quantity for launch and to ensure a strong continuous supply post launch," says Sony's head of PR David Wilson in an interview with UK games trade paper MCV.

"To this end we have taken the decision to delay the launch announcement."

But delay it to when? The official word from Sony is that it will be out "in due course".

With no solid plans, though, and taking into account recent comments from Sony representatives in France, there is speculation that it could be any time between May and September before the PSP is released in Europe.

In the meantime, the demand for the handheld is there and it's growing. Amazon.co.uk has revealed that the PSP is the most popular pre-order item on its site and the 12th best-selling product overall. And this is despite the arbitrary £179 price tag - the PSP sells for $249 (£130) in the US and ¥24,800 (£124) in Japan - and unconfirmed release date.

Nintendo, on the other hand, has recently launched its own new handheld, the DS, in the UK and broke all hardware launch sales records in the process. More than 87,000 DSs were shifted during its first weekend on sale, outpacing the openings of every other piece of video game hardware that came before it.

Sony and Nintendo have both claimed that they are not going after the same audience and that they are each chiselling out unique portions of the gaming and non-gaming populaces. While this may be true to a point, many feel that there is more overlap than either company would like to admit.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games