Demand for the PlayStation Portal “has continued to exceed our expectations”

Sony’s PlayStation Portal handheld is an interesting device which uses the company’s Remote Play service in order to stream titles from your home console to the portable peripheral. Despite requiring a constant internet connection, it seems as though there is a great deal of interest for some sort of handheld PlayStation console as according to the company, “the demand has continued to exceed our expectations.”

In an exclusive interview conducted by the publication GameFile, PlayStation’s VP of product management Hiromi Wakai sat down to discuss the development and success of the PlayStation Portal handheld, saying “Although we don’t have any numbers to share, the demand has continued to exceed our expectations.”

The success of the PlayStation Portal is interesting to see as initial reactions to the device were less-than-stellar, with many showing concern regarding the peripheral’s always-online nature.

Wakai mirrors this sentiment, claiming “From the beginning, PlayStation Portal was intended to be a product best suited for people with specific needs and those who want to play in a specific way, so the reactions after the announcement were very much within our expectations.”

Though production numbers were low, the handheld proved to be a bigger success than expected, selling out its initial stock in just two days. According to Wakai, the current priority is to bring more Portals to the market, saying “The production is running smoothly and we’ve been shipping more units consistently. We will continue to bring more units to the market, so please stay tuned.”

With the Portal recently being hacked to run emulators on the Android-based device, it will be interesting to see whether interest in the handheld continues to grow.

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KitGuru says: What do you think of the PS Portal? Are you surprised by its success? How can they improve the handheld over time through software updates? Let us know your thoughts down below.

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