PSPgo sales ahead of Sonys forecasts

Despite its controversial decision to ditch UMD functionality with the recently released PSPgo, Sony has claimed that the device has sold more than it had expected at this early stage in its lifecycle.

We are over-forecast on what we thought we’d be selling on PSP Go, so we’ve been very pleased,” Sony America’s PlayStation marketing boss John Koller told GamePro.

Koller went on to say that retail’s attitude towards the machine has been a complication, but one that Sony intends to overcome in 2010.

It’s safe to say that retail hasn’t played as large a role in the types of software that’s coming, digitally,” he explained. So one of our key challenges is to really help out that person coming to market that wants a PSPgo, and letting them know at retail what kinds of games are available to them on PSN. You’re going to see a lot more in-store messaging and promotions surrounding the types of games that are going to be available.”

The exec also added that Sony is still pushing to ensure that new PSP titles are available on PSN at the same time they arrive at detail.

There’s a few things that we’re looking at for the PSPgo, but the most critical thing is that we’re fighting to ensure that we get parity on launch dates,” he added.

We’ve noticed that has been one area for PSPgo owners that they’ve asked about, since they want to be able to get their titles at the same time as the physical goods consumer, the PSP 3000 consumer. That’s one area that we’re going to continue to emphasize.

We are making plans for it and have launched that strategy on the first-party side, but we’re going to emphasize that for third-party. It makes sense. I think that given the type and sheer amount of consumers that believe in digital distribution, we need to ensure that they get their games when they want them.”