Initial sales data from the PSP is in, according to Money, and while it’s a solid start, it’s far from the blow-out Sony was hoping for (and I was expecting, if I may hide my misestimates behind Sony’s). Consumer sales research firm AmTech estimates somewhere in the neighborhood of 475k to 575k units sold, which is far short of the one million units that are supposed to be available to the US sales channel at the moment. Perhaps a European launch at the same time as the US wasn’t as unfeasible as Sony thought.
I still think this thing still stinks of hit product, though, despite Sony’s bungled PR launch. 500k units is enough for every person to know at least one person with a unit. In my experience, the best sales technique for the PSP is putting it in the hands of a potential purchaser. All the blowhard prognosticating sort of fades away when people start playing something that looks like Wipeout Pure on a handheld machine. We’ll see, though—Christmas will be the real test.
PSP sales ‘solid, not spectacular’ [Money.CNN]
