Pocket Gamer has taken a long hard sobering look at Sony's latest financial figures and has found some alarming information on PSP:
"In the three months ending December 31st - the critical period that included the run up to Christmas - Sony shipped a mere 1.76 million PSPs worldwide, compared to 6.22 million in the same period in 2005. That's a staggering fall of 72 per cent.
Total PSP hardware shipments in the three quarters so far recorded for this financial year total 7.67 million units. The company is now forecasting total PSP hardware shipments of 9 million for this financial year - a huge plunge from the 14.06 million it shipped in financial year '05, and from its prediction last April of shipping 12 million units, too."
The good news? Well, PSP 2.0 might be along soon - there are rumours of an updated machine complete with hard drive (or Flash drive), camera and smaller chassis. But is the hardware the problem? Or is it something to do with, ooh I don't know, the games?
The ting is, there are quite a few very promising titles on the way this year. If Sony is feeling clever, it should get its hardware update out there now to capitalise on the likes of Metal Gear Portable Ops, GT4 (if it still exists), Elder Scolls Travels: Oblivion and - who could forget - Crazy Taxi Fare Wars.
