After a slightly sluggish April debut and a postlaunch dearth of software, Sony's PSP is on pace to double its US hardware sales in the last two months of the year, Reuters reports.

　　Sony claimed 3 million units of the multimedia device had sold by November, and Sony Computer Entertainment America president Kaz Hirai told Reuters in October that he intended to double that figure by year's end. According to the news service, a Sony spokeswoman recently confirmed that the company was on pace to achieve that goal.

　　However, there is some debate about the accuracy of Sony's numbers. Industry sales tracking NPD Funworld has the PSP at 2.5 million units sold at the end of November. Despite recent releases of prominent PSP titles like Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories and Prince of Persia Revelations, NPD's figures seem to put the 6 million year-end tally well out of reach.

　　If Sony fails to make its goal, it shoudn't be terribly surprising to most industry watchers. Shortly after the system launched, UBS analyst Mike Wallace projected sales of "4 million or more" PSPs by the end of the calendar year, while American Technology Research's PJ McNealy expected 4.5 million to 5.5 million units sold in North America.