Sony Struggling to Meet PSP Demand

It seems that the company can't make its handheld fast enough. And now it's worried about meeting European demand later this year. Sigh.

The buzz may be about PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Revolution right now, but gamers across the world are still buying loads of PSPs as well.

Six months after the console launched in Japan last December, the PSP remains a top seller, with demand outstripping supply despite Sony's commitment to pumping out more than two million handhelds a month by the summer.

This is good news for Sony but less welcome to Europeans, who are still waiting for the PSP to arrive this September, six months after the first non-Japanese launch in the US in March.

"We have to somehow increase our production capacity as we're not prepared to start selling in Europe, we've run out of units in the US and it's still selling well in Japan,'' Sony president Ken Kutaragi told news service Bloomberg.

To remedy the situation, Sony is considering outsourcing production to either China or Taiwan. The key components will still be made in Japan, though, so as to avoid a repeat of the production problems that have plagued the launches of the PSP in Japan, the US and Korea.

Sony is hoping to ship 12 million PSPs by March 2006, building on the 3 million already in pockets by the end of March 2005. The company's main handheld gaming rival, Nintendo, is also eyeing shipments of around 12 million for its DS handheld during the company's current financial year.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games