Sony Corp. is reported to have said that it had raised its shipment targets for the PlayStation 2 (PS2) and PlayStation Portable (PSP) game consoles. The company does not seem to be afraid of the launch of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 game console this November, which is likely to steal some sales away from Sony’s entertainment division and slowdown the PS2 sales.

PlayStation 2 game console shipment target for the year to March 2006 was set to 14 million units from 13 million, whereas shipment target for the PlayStation Portable machine is also 14 million units from 13 million, Reuters reports. While the guidance is up from the previous more conservative guidance, it is lower than a year before: the company shipped 16.7 million consoles throughout the most recent fiscal year.

The worldwide shipments of Sony PlayStation 2 totaled 90 million in June and included 36.48 million units in North America, 32.48 million consoles in Europe and 21.04 million devices in Asia, including Japan, according to Sony. 

Microsoft is expected to launch its the Xbox 360 game machine in North America on November 22^nd. The release will followed by a December 2 launch in Europe and a December 10 launch in Japan. Analysts believe that the software giant will sell up to 3 million of such consoles by the end of the year.