The planned global launch of Sony's next-gen PlayStation Portable late this year may be in serious trouble, to hear Sony Computer Entertainment of America president Jack Tretton tell it.

Speaking to Bloomberg, Tretton said the PSP's unnamed successor (codenamed NGP for 'Next Generation Portable') might arrive in just one region this year instead of Asia, Europe, and the U.S. simultaneously. Why? Because of supply chain disruptions caused by the March 11 Japanese earthquake and tsunami.

"It may be the straw that says ‘maybe we get to just one market by the end of the year'," said Tretton, adding that staggering the handheld's introduction "may give game developers in certain regions more time to complete their software."

In the event "maybe" becomes "probably," Tretton won't say which region would get the device first.

None of that bodes well for Sony. Nintendo's 3DS debuted globally between February and March to record sales (see our review of the hardware and eight launch games). Sony's PSP successor was already set to play the back half of the year, but a multi-region holiday delay could drive fence-sitters to snap up Nintendo's handheld in lieu of waiting for Sony's

Early this year, Paul Miller and I hopped a flight to Tokyo to see Sony executive Kaz Hirai reveal the new PSP, codenamed NGP (for “Next Generation Portable,” of course). At that point it was said to be coming this holiday season, making E3 2011 the obvious choice to divulge more details. Top on that list? An actual name. This week, Games Pundit and Mega Rock (via Joystiq) posted the above image, purportedly from an E3 proof sheet — and written clearly on the top left, below the screen, and even in its reflection is the name PS Vita.

Corroborating that leak, it seems the developer network subdomain vita.scedev.net is up and redirects to a main portal. The link also works if you substitute vita for “ngp.,” “ps3.,” and the like — but not for random words like “move.,” “wii.,” or “rosswantslastguardian.” It seems clear to me Sony is at least heavily considering Vita as the official name, and coupled with the leaked images, I’d be more surprised if the final name wasn’t Vita.

As far as price is concerned, Sony’s CFO Masaru Kato recently told The Wall Street Journal that it plans to forego building its own semiconductor factory and seek alternate methods, such as outsourcing to chip foundries, to “ease capital expenditures” — which may or may not translate to a lower price tag for the consumer.