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Before the launch of PS3 next year, SCEI said it will strengthen its PS2 and PlayStation Portable, or PSP, games device operations by rolling out many new game titles toward the year-end shopping season.

SCEI also said it will upgrade an operating system for PSP, featuring an Internet browser function. The new operating system, available from July 27 in Japan, will enable users to download video content via the Internet and view it on PSP, for example, the company said.

For the current fiscal year through March, Sony plans to ship 12 million units of PSP, four times as many as the last fiscal year`s shipments of 2.97 million units. As of July 20, its accumulated PSP shipments have topped 5 million units, SCEI said.