Japanese earthquake disaster delaying NGP outside of Japan?

It seems like every day now we hear more and more Japanese game companies announcing that their titles have been either delayed our outright canceled becuse of “various reasons” which is quickly become an extremely unsubtle and unnecessary code phrase for “That natural disaster that just killed thousands of people and severally damaged our countries infrastructure”.

So I have to hand it to Sony (America) President Jack Tretton for just straight up admitting that the destruction the earthquake/tsunami combo dealt to their Japanese factories “may be the straw that says ‘maybe we get to just one market [with the NGP] by the end of the year’’”. Hmm I wonder which market that will end up being? The one where the PSP is much loved and managed to outsell the newly released 3DS or the other markets where it’s quickly becoming irrelevant?

Don’t quote me on this, but I think it’s a pretty safe bet that we won’t be seeing the NGP over in the English speaking world quite as soon as we would have hoped. But at least if Sony keep to tradition and don’t region lock the device then there’s always the import option for those with very little patients…… (read: me)

I suppose there’s one possible silver lining to this dark dark cloud; by the time the NGP’s eventual English release comes around, publishers will hopefully have had enough time to throw together a line up of launch titles that don’t suck. Nintendo’s worldwide mass market appeal is enough to let them  get away with having a lackluster selection of early titles on any platform they put out. Sony on the other hand? Not so much.

If you want to help out with the Japanese Tsunami relief effort, Red Cross is always a good place to start. Alternatively PlayStation users can donate directly through the PSN.