Sony’s set its sights on rolling out NGP to “at least one” major territory by the year’s end, with the hardware manufacturer further adding it’s aiming to avoid repeating the various issues that plagued the launch of PlayStation 3.
Speaking during an interview with Engadget, SCEA boss Jack Tretton conceded that a global simultaneous release for its next-generation handheld may not be possible.
“I think our goal is, we would get at least one territory out by the end of holiday 2011,” he commented. “It’s very difficult to have the quantities to be able to launch on a worldwide basis on the same date.”
“When you’re dealing with new technology, there’s always challenges you didn’t anticipate,” he added. “There’s a ton of new technology, but I think we’ve been about reaching beyond the status quo and delivering technology that people couldn’t even envision, and with that comes risk.”
Reflecting on the launch of PS3 back in 2006, Tretton described the flagship console as “the biggest technological achievement [Sony has] ever had,” though admitted “it wasn’t without challenges both financially and from a production standpoint.”
“I think at the end of the day it was worth it, but I think it certainly made for some difficult challenges. I think we’d look to avoid repeating that, but when you’re dealing with new technology there are always road blocks.”
Sony announced yesterday that NGP will be released in Japan in winter 2011. Launch plans for western markets remain unknown at this point.