Sony sold just 1,000 PSPgo units in Australia during the handheld’s first week of availability.

According to GfK sales figures provided to The Age, the portable sold fewer than 1,000 units in the seven days following its October 1 launch.

Michael Ephraim, managing director of Sony Computer Entertainment Australia, disputed the data, telling the site that the weekly sales figure was "not under 1000 but it's slightly over 1000".

Ephraim labelled the system’s release a "soft launch", pointing out that Australia’s largest specialist games retailer, EB Games, has refused to stock the handheld. The retailer’s decision was no doubt heavily influenced by the portable’s inability to support physical media and hence game sales, trade-ins and second hand sales.

"Clearly we haven't done massive numbers but it's not something that we're concerned about ... because there are still some issues that we need to work through," Ephraim said, adding that upcoming PSPgo features such as e-books and a TV/movie download store will make the handheld more attractive to consumers.

"I suppose the applications are going to catch up with the device ... the connectability to the PS3 and those other applications will start making this device even more viable.”

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe said in early October that sales of PSP hardware had risen by over 120 per cent following the launch of PSPgo.

According to Sony Computer Entertainment America, the company's "top retail partners" saw a 300 per cent jump in PSP hardware sales in the three days following the portable's debut.