PS2, PSP to sell 12 million units each in FY06, says Sony

Twelve million units apiece of the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable consoles will be shipped worldwide in the financial year through to March 31st, 2006, according to the latest projections released by Sony.

The figures would bring worldwide shipments of the PSP to around 15 million units by the end of the financial year, while the PlayStation 2 - which currently has a global installed base of well over 80 million units - would be within shouting distance of 100 million units.

In addition to the projections for the current financial year, Sony has also released hardware and software shipment figures for the last quarter of FY2005, which ran through to March 31st.

During the period, some 6.1 million PS2 hardware units were shipped worldwide, around 1.2 million more than the company originally predicted as it struggled to fill the supply channel which was left disastrously dry in the run-up to Christmas.

Around 2.46 million units of the PSP hardware shipped during the quarter, a million of which went to supply the North American launch of the device, while the balance went to Japan - the only other territory in which the console is currently available.

In software terms, Sony shipped 50 million units of PSone and PS2 software during the quarter, along with 4.4 million units of PlayStation Portable software - making up an impressive overall software figure, with the home console software figure a good 12 million units ahead of the firm's guidance.