I completely agree with leo's well written and argumented post.

I'll now go play my PS2 and wonder if the end of the world is approaching.

 I hate you >_< .. JK :P Anyways , I dont think the curent momentum will be kept ... but will it be as bad as 06 ... never and ever ... the PSP finally gt a raise in sales , and I do bealive that it will be able to do a 160K sales per week overall , much batter than the ~100k it had ( or even wors ) in 06 , and even in the first part of 07 :)

Right now in Japan the PSP has at best one more week ahead of the DS Lite before it slips behind and likely never reaches DS sales again. In Europe the PSP got a spike, but never came close to DS sales. In the US we'll have to wait and see, but at best the PSP may spend one week ahead of the DS before it falls behind forever, and even that's in doubt because Zelda just came out. I really don't see the PSP coming close to the DS when holiday sales roll around.

 The reason the DS Lite gave the system so much momentum, which has lasted ever since it was released, is because of how dramatic an improvement it was on the old DS. While DS and DS Lite are like night and day, PSP and PSP 2000 are more like night and dawn. The system should stabalize somewhere above where old PSP sales did, and I think it's the best story for Sony at this point in time (unless they drop the PS2 down to $100 than that could come back as their best selling system). I just don't believe it changes the fact that Nintendo dominates the handheld market.

Total domination is what the PS2 did , the fact that the PSP still has more than 30% of the handheldmarket is far from beeing bad ;)

PSP can't maintain the moment, it doesn't have the software sales or the software to maintain this kind of momentum. Don't think a few smash hits like Crisis Core, GTA and others will be enough because they do nothing to help the software sales of other games and they themselves quickly flicker down to so-so sales after but a few weeks times.

PSP owners have every right to be optimistic, but if you started this thread in hopes of finding encouragement or support for your hopes that this momentum will continue, then you're on the wrong forum. Here people are savy to market trends and the ups and downs of the gaming world. It will just dash your hopes.

When you start a thread like this asking if the PSP can maintain its current momentum, you already know the answer. No.

@Hunter Alien

The PSPs success in not measured in Hardware sales but Software Sales. Having 30% of the Hardware sales means nothing if you have less than 5% of the software sales.

So , what you mean is that hardware means actually nothing . So it doesnt matters that a console had sold just one million units , untill I can sell 8 million copys of a game . Do you get my point ? With rising hardware sales , in a small measure , like it or not software will sell batter to ... how batter ? I cant tell , but seeing this final weeks , boosted by the redesign , software sales where pretty good for the PSP . If software sales would be actually so atrocious as you would all think , than 3rd party support would be 0 . To give you an example : Sonic Rivals for the PSP did an extremly bad 40k in its opening week ... but surprise , the game had now passed 600k ... how is that possible ? And as soon as the small hype died down , Sega had announced SR2 ... a game that will probably have a bad opening week , but than it will have long legs , and it will become eventually profitable to the company .

Also , these ridiculous 500k/1000k sales first week came only when the Nintendo DS and Wii got their fames , because untill then many million selling PS1/2 games had simillary bad opening weeks ...

Firstly and most obviously the PSP needs is games. I looked at most of the games that most of you mentioned and all I can say is meh and give out one long lingering yawn. If I feel like this then theres a good chance that other people will do too.

What Im trying to get at is that most of the games arnt anything that you cant get on the ps2. For example the next big game out is another god of war game, while it may be good. I and most people have a ps2 for that.

And yes people I do own a PSP and im aware that many wont believe that I have but I can tell you that Loco Roco is one of my favourite games. Its simply wonderful and at the time was completey unique to the PSP.

Yes im aware that I may have contradicted myself a little using Loco Roco as an example because as far as im aware didnt sell all that way but what Im trying to say is that the PSP needs games that are unique

Retain this momentum? No.

Have an overall worldwide increase of about 20% over past 4 months average sales? Yes. Well, that's my vote. People like slim and pretty things.

I say no, because I don't think the PSP Slim is the primary reason its sales jumped so much in Japan. I think it has a lot more to do with FF and MGS games that just released.

The PSP needs unique games to establish its sales as standard. Not just good games. At this point costumers "know" what kind of games the PSP has, and what kind of games the DS has.

Basically, the PSP needs great games that couldn't be made on the DS or PS2 in order to maintain sales. Many of the "heavy hitters" given could be done as PS2 games. This won't bring in new users, this will fight the PS2 gamers who own a DS.

All that said, expect a bump and expect better-than-regular PSP-sales but still below the DS.