If Sony has anything to say, the PlayStation Portable will be the hot hardware item this fall, along with the aging PlayStation 2, not the Xbox 360. Sony said today that it hoped to virtually double its installed base in North America this holiday season. Currently 2.3 million users, Sony hopes to sell 2.5 to 3 million units by the end of the year, an ambitious prediction, even for Sony.
Part of their plan calls for a “Giga Pack”, a PSP bundle that includes various accessories such as a one-gigabyte memory stick, available this holiday season. Sony will continue to sell its $249 PSP Value Pack with a 32-megabyte memory stick bundle that was originally available at launch in March.
Kaz Hirai, Sony Computer Entertainment America president and chief executive, also told Reuters that he hoped to sell 2.5 million to “a tad below 3 million” units of its industry-dominating PlayStation 2 console in North America between now and the end of 2005. If both sales predictions become true, both systems should easily outsell the Xbox 360, which is expected to sell in the neighborhood of one million units in North America.
