December 13^th, 2004 (3:38pm) - Yesterday, Sony entered the handheld gaming market with the PSP as it launched in Japan, and according to initial reports the PSP’s launch has been a tremendous success for the electronics giant.

Retailer Bic Camera reports that lines for the PSP were comprised of over 1,200 persons in downtown Tokyo, with a spokesperson for the retailer telling Bloomberg that "it’s the most people we’ve seen lined up for a game device in recent times." Unfortunately, many of those consumers came out empty handed. Sony’s initial shipments of the PSP had only been 200,000 units of the handheld.

According to Media Create, a market research firm, 171,963 units of the PSP had been sold on launch day. When taking exports and non-tracked sales into account, it is believed that the entire initial shipment has been sold out. As Sony begins to ship more units of the handheld out each week, it hopes to have 500,000 units of the handheld sold by the end of the month.