Tretton: Japan earthquake may delay NGP in some regions

The massive earthquake that hit Japan a few weeks ago could result in shipment delays of electronics products made in that country. One of them may well be Sony's next Playstation Portable console, codenamed NGP, according to Jack Tretton.

Chatting with Bloomberg, the Sony Computer Entertainment of America president said that the NGP may only debut in one region before the end of the year, but declined to state where that might be.

Tretton said the recent Japanese disaster has caused production problems and has caused Sony to consider this latest move.

A delay in other parts of the world for the NGP could cause Sony to lose market share in the portable gaming market. Wedbush Securities analyst Edward Woo commented that "As it is now, it’s already going to be almost eight months behind Nintendo, and a delay could push that to a year and delivery when the iPad 3 may be coming out."

Thanks, Gamasutra.