Sony is reporting strong sales of the company's latest handheld device, the PSP, after the system's launch this past weekend in Japan. According to a report from Reuters, Sony has nearly sold out of the 200,000 units made available at launch. An estimate from game magazine publisher Enterbrain states that 166,017 PSP units sold on Sunday with Hot Shots Golf (67,685 units sold), Ridge Racers(57,131 units sold), and Armored Core Formula Front(11,867 units sold on day one) ranking in as the top games purchased during the weekend.

"We have heard that the PSP has nearly sold out nationwide," said Koichiro Katsurayama, spokesman at Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE), the group's game division."But we have not changed our target of shipping 500,000 in Japan by the end of 2004."

As you may have read or even seen across the net, some gamers stood in line all night to get their hands on Sony's PSP, which is priced at 19,800 yen ($188) in Japan. With this being the first attempt at the handheld gaming sector for Sony, the strong sales add fuel to the competition with market leader Nintendo, who launched their latest handheld, the Nintendo DS, just 10 days prior to the launch of Sony's PSP.

Sony is expected to launch the PlayStation Portable in North America and Europe early next year.