European PSP announcement expected in the coming weeks - Deering

Sony Europe boss Chris Deering has confirmed that the company's plans for the PlayStation Portable will be revealed in "the next few weeks" - supporting reports that the firm plans to announce a European launch date at E3.

Speaking in an interview with the International Herald Tribune newspaper during a Sony corporate event in France this week, Deering gave no inkling of when the console will appear here, except to say that the announcement will come shortly.

"You can't do a good job of launching in Europe without a critical mass," he explained. "We have plenty of games, but we don't have the devices because they're being used to feed the re-orders in Japan and the US."

Although the unexpectedly weak debut of the system in North America - where only 60 per cent of the 1 million units shipped for launch actually sold through in the first week - raised hopes that Europe might get its launch sooner rather than later, senior publishing sources are less optimistic.

Sources involved in planning European PSP launches for two major publishers have confirmed to GamesIndustry.biz today that they are still tentatively planning towards a September launch - and claim to have been recently told that August is the earliest possible window for a European roll-out.