The Sony NGP has not been hit delays in the wake of last month’s devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan. That’s according to Sony Japan’s Satoshi Fukuoka, who was refuting claims made by Sony’s US gaming boss, Jack Tretton, that the console’s release would need to be staggered because of the natural disaster.

Fukuoka said, “So far we see no impact from the quake on our launch plan.” Tretton had commented in an interview with Bloomberg that the NGP could be held back owing to production problems.

“[The earthquake] may be the straw that says ‘maybe we get to just one market by the end of the year’,” said Tretton. That said, Sony has said from the off that the so-called PSP2 would only be released “in at least one territory” in 2011, suggesting a staggered release could still happen.

Whatever happens, Sony faces a race to ensure the NGP is out by Christmas and ready to take on the Nintendo 3DS. Can it see off its Ninty rival? tell us what you think on our Facebook and Twitter pages.

Via CVG