The devastating earthquake that struck the north of Japan last month will likely push the release of Sony's next handheld, NGP, back to a vague "2012" release window, according to CEO Jack Tretton, speaking with Bloomberg.

"It may be the straw that says 'maybe we get to just one market by the end of the year'," Tretton said, likely referring to Japan as the "one market" they'll get to. While it's not really alarming that something like this could happen as a result of the earthquakes, it does put Sony's machine months behind Nintendo's recently released 3DS which could lead to a massive loss of potential market share; leaving Sony's new handheld in more of a position to mirror the PSPs performance against Nintendo DS.