James Delahunty
7 Apr 2005 15:26
Sony has released figures for the sales of their Playstation Portable (PSP) hand-held console in the United States. The console managed to sell half a million units in just two days which falls short of most expectations for its opening sales. The most enthusiastic gamers waited in line for hours to get their hands on a console. In the first week of the console sales, it generated over $150m which is a figure Sony Computer Entertainment America is delighted about.
"The launch of PSP was everything we hoped for," Kaz Hirai, president of SCEA, said in the statement. "In only two weeks, PSP is having an immediate impact across the entire industry, as consumers are clearly voting it the product of the year in 2005." The PSP hit stores in Japan late last year, but only went on sales in the United States in March. The initial number of PSPs available in the U.S. was 1 million. Sony actually had to delay the launch of the PSP in Europe to facilitate for the demand in the U.S. market.
The PSPs sold well in game and computer stores, other retailers (like Wal-Mart and Best Buy) still have many of the consoles on hand. Analyst P.J. McNealy of American Technology Research called the PSP launch "solid but unspectacular". Only one third of the 150 stores he contacted were out of PSPs and several stores reported still having over 100 of the consoles available. "We are hesitant to draw any macro-level conclusions about the success or failure of the PSP and impact on the video game publishers, simply because we are only seven days into the PSP launch in North America," he wrote.
Source:
News.com