US Sees PSP Success as Europe Watches On

More than a million PSP games were sold in the first week in the US, but Sony still refuses to say when the handheld is coming to Europe.

Despite the sexy design of the hardware, the PSP's $250 price tag meant that success was never a given, but the latest numbers from the US show that Sony's handheld has indeed got off to a good start. More than a million PSP games and over 660,000 PSPs were sold during the portable's opening week, according to the latest figures from the NPD Group.

The top performer at the PSP's US debut was Sony's own car mangling action-slash-driving title, Twisted Metal: Head-On. The game sold nearly 130,000 copies and came out slightly ahead of EA's Need for Speed Underground: Rivals and another Sony game, Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade.

Sony has now successfully launched the PSP in both Japan and North America, leaving Europe as the last major region to take care of. But Sony Computer Entertainment Europe is still holding back the announcement of the launch plans for the PSP while demand is met in other regions.

"You can't do a good job of launching in Europe without a critical mass," said SCEE president Chris Deering in an interview with the International Herald Tribune. "We have plenty of games, but we don't have the devices because they're all being used to feed the re-orders in Japan and the US."

Deering did add that an announcement would be made within "the next few weeks". We've heard that before though.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games