Feb. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Sony Corp., which makes the best- selling PlayStation 2 game console, will delay the European debut of the hand-held PlayStation Portable until after March because it won't be able to make enough chips to meet expected global demand.

The game player will start selling by the first half of the year, Kenichi Fukunaga, a spokesman at Tokyo-based Sony, said today without giving a specific time. The device, known as the PSP, will reach stores in North America by March 24, the company said yesterday.

The PSP, which plays music and video as well as games, is central to Sony Chairman Nobuyuki Idei's plan of reviving profit with digital products that meld different media. A delay in the PSP's European debut may hurt earnings at Sony, which expects the device to contribute to profit next fiscal year, said Keita Wakabayashi, an analyst at Mito Securities Research in Tokyo.

``What's crucial is that Sony meets the year-end shopping season in Europe,'' said Wakabayashi, who has had a ``neutral'' rating on Sony shares since June 2003.

The delay marks the second time Sony has missed a debut date for the PSP. The company had planned to have the device ready for all regions by the end of last year.

Sony can't make enough specialized chips and hand-held players to meet demand in all three markets of Japan, North America and Europe, said Sony's Fukunaga.

`Sell Out'

The PSP uses a specialized 90-nanometer chip that combines the central processing unit and graphic functions while the older version of the PlayStation 2 used two separate processors. The new slimmer PlayStation 2 that went on sale in November shares the same computer chip.

``We plan to have 1 million units of the PSP ready for the U.S. debut,'' said Sony's Fukunaga. ``With even that number, we expect to sell out fast.''

The company had a similar number of consoles ready in each market when it unveiled the PlayStation 2, said Fukunaga. Sony has shipped about 80 million PlayStation 2 consoles since the product went on sale in Japan in March 2000.

The PSP will sell for $249 in North America including accessories such as headphones, a memory stick and a movie, music and game sampler and a copy of the film ``Spider-Man 2,'' the company said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.

Sony said Jan. 20 it shipped 800,000 units of the PSP after it went on sale in Japan on Dec. 12. The company last month cut its forecast for full-year operating profit, or sales minus the cost of goods sold and administrative expenses, by 31 percent to 110 billion yen ($1.05 billion).

The company shipped 200,000 units of the PSP to Japanese retailers when it first went on sale. The console sold out within hours in most stores.

Shares of Sony fell 1.6 percent to 3,790 yen, after dropping as much as 2.1 percent, at 2:18 p.m. on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

To contact the reporter on this story: Desmond Hutton in Tokyo at

Last Updated: February 4, 2005 00:20 EST