Low initial shipment figures for Sony's forthcoming PlayStation Portable are down to a decision to focus on manufacturing the profitable PlayStation 2 hardware, according to a spokesperson for the Japanese giant.
Comments attributed to SCE spokesperson Kenichi Fukunaga in an Agence France-Presse article stated bluntly that manufacturing resources are being directed to the PlayStation 2 - a new slimline version of which was introduced earlier this month - rather than the PSP.
"We are entering a phase where we profit greatly from PlayStation 2," Fukunaga-san told the agency. "It was a matter of reaching the optimum allocation of our resources."
Only 200,000 units of the PlayStation Portable are expected to ship in Japan in time for the launch of the system on December 12th, with a further 300,000 anticipated by the end of the year.
According to Fukunaga-san, this is down to a cautious approach on the part of the company with regard to the PlayStation Portable - perhaps as a direct result of the firm's embarrassing failure with the much hyped PSX home media system last Christmas.
"We are being very careful about this project," he confirmed. "We did not want to have lots of PSPs on inventory."
