Sony plans to sell a lot of PSPs and Vitas in 2012

After its shocking performance (as an overall company) in recent years, Sony is looking to get back on the offensive with the PlayStation games unit at the core. The company plans to sell 16 million portables in 2012 around the world, across PSP and Vita, according to its latest financial report.

That's around 300,000 a week (and the PSP and Vita managed 10% of that last week in Japan, funnily enough), which gives you an idea of the task at hand. According to vgChartz (cough), the pair also sold 43,000 in Europe and 30,000 in America last week.

Sony has sold a total of 1.8 million PS Vita's up to the end of March, after its staggered worldwide launch. Add in April's numbers and it should be over 2 million now. The company expects to sell around 6 million PSPs and 10 million Vitas according to new CEO Kaz Hirai during the company's analyst call.

The PlayStation division lost some $2.8 billion last year, much of which was down to the PS3's price cut, which explains why the company is unlikely to give the Vita a premature chop on the price point stakes. Instead it is bundling games and memory cards to create more attractive packages, although clearly needs more games to make regular offers.

Assuming similar trends in sales around the world markets, then Sony needs to almost treble its current sales to hit that mark. With a PS Vita price cut inevitable toward the end of year, new colours and a stronger line up of games, it could hit that mark, but things will be slow going until it reaches a critical mass of price and good games

That's the same trend the 3DS suffered/followed, but Nintendo has had a stellar run of games out recently and Sony has to match or exceed that output. One thing you can basically carve in stone, Sony will always be No. 2 in the handheld market, but, frankly, the superior technology that means I can play Mortal Kombat full-on, on the go makes me one happy camper.