Sony’s NGP [PSP successor], may only be launched in one region this year – either Japan, Europe or the US because of the continuing crisis in Japan after the earthquake and tsunami.
Sony Computer Entertainment America president, Jack Tretton told Bloomberg, “It may be the straw that says maybe we get to just one market by the end of the year.”
This should not come as a surprise as Japan is a primary manufacturer of electronics and components and the earthquake has forced several factories in Japan to close for repair. Supplies from third parties in Northern Japan have been badly effected.
GamesIndustryBiz report that new consoles from Sony and Nintendo are often released in Japan first, with the PSP originally appearing in Japan in December 2004, in North America in March 2005 and Europe in September 2005.
Wedbush Securities analyst, Edward Woo said, “It raises the bar on the competitive issues that Sony is going to have to hurdle. As it is now, it’s already going to be almost eight months behind Nintendo, and a delay could push that to a year.”
“Expectations are pretty limited for NGP this calendar year, the idea being that they would need some time to build up a library,” said Jay Defibaugh of MF Global FXA Securities.
