580,000 PSP Slim And Lite Sold In Japan

Officials from Sony have announced that the recently released PSP Slim and Lite has sold a total of 580,000 units since its launch in Japan three weeks ago. A special edition of the new version of the console, which is 33 percent lighter and 19 percent thinner than the original version, was launched in Japan on September 13th. The special Final Fantasy VII 10th Anniversary edition was limited to 77,777 units, which are now reported to have completely sold out. The standard versions of the PSP Slim and Lite, available in a variety of colors, were launched on September 20th, with independent market research firm Media Create reporting a total of 277,794 units sold for the week. However, it made no distinction between the original version of the hardware and the Slim and Lite in calculating this total. Sales for this week should be available tomorrow, following details of the software top thirty today. Total units sales in September 2007 have reached the highest level ever in Japan since the original launch of the PSP in December 2004. As a result, the PSP has outsold the Nintendo DS for the past two weeks, according to Media Create sales data, while games such as Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII and Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus have topped the charts. The PSP’s turnaround in success comes at an unusual period for the Japanese games market, with Nintendo hardware, and some software, sales cooling at present. Other hardware, both next and previous generation, is also showing a general downwards trend, which is unlikely to be reversed until the release of higher profile titles in subsequent weeks.