According to a recent Reuters report, Sony does not expect to make any money from its PSP handheld during its initial sales period because of both the development costs already incurred and the price of PSP components and manufacturing. Sony is, however, predicting a lengthy 10-year lifespan for the PSP system--giving it plenty of time to climb out of the red and into the black.

"If you're saying 'Day one. Are you going to be profitable on the hardware?' then probably not," said US Chief Executive at Sony Computer Entertainment Kaz Hirai during an E3 interview. "Hopefully, this will have a 10-year life cycle, at which point I'll look back and say 'Yes, [it was] definitely profitable.'"

Hirai also commented that the PSP will require between six and 10 games at launch, depending on how many of these could be considered "killer apps" that gamers would be willing to purchase the system for.