The PlayStation Portable Business Might Be Slowing, But The PS3 Is On The Rise.

In their fist-half report, Sony's revealed that PSP sales dropped from 3 million in the second financial quarter of last year to just 1.5 million this year. That's a significant drop in demand.

It wasn't all bad for the division which holds the PlayStation business, mind. The Networked Products and Services division moved into profit, recording gains of 3.1 billion yen compared to last year's 95.8 billion yen loss.

Improvements in part are due to the success of the PlayStation 3, which shifted a whopping 5.9 million units in the first half of 2010, compared to 4.3 million in 2009. Software was also up emphatically, with the PlayStation 3 shifting 60.1 million units, nearly double the system's tally of 38.7 million in 2009. Software wasn't too bad for the PSP either, with the portable shifting 20.2 million units this year, a minor drop from the 21.3 million in 2009.

All this paints a fairly positive picture for the PlayStation business. The PlayStation Portable is clearly in decline, but we've known that for a long time now. Expect an announcement of the PSP's successor early next year.