PSP sales outpace the DS in Japan

According to Enterbrain Inc., publisher of Famitsu and other game magazines in Japan, sales of the Sony PSP have begun to outpace those of the Nintendo DS.

According to independent research conducted by Enterbrain, Sony's PSP bested Nintendo in handheld console sales in both February and March of this year.

The most popular handheld in Japan is still the Nintendo DS. However, the DS sold an impressive 1.09 million units during December, a total that Sony has only just now reached after four months of sales.

The PSP, suffering from production delays, sold only 330,000 units in December. The DS continued to beat the PSP in January, selling 450,000 units to the PSP's 360,000 units.

But the tables turned in February, when 195,000 PSP units were sold, edging out 121,000 DS units. PSP sales increased by a small margin in March, reaching 202,000 units, and DS sales also increased, reaching 136,000 units.

While these new numbers are encouraging for Sony, the PSP still lags behind the DS in overall penetration: Japanese consumers currently own 1.09 million PSPs and 1.8 million DSes.