Sony's latest financial report has revealed some of the figures which will be involved in the launch of the company's handheld PSP device. Sony plans to have 3 million units in the market by March 2005. This figure covers supply from the, planned, mid-December Japan launch of the console till the end of Sony's financial year, March 31st 2005.

Although no official date has been confirmed for the U.S. and European launches of the PSP, even the Japanese one seems vague, it is strongly expected that the handheld will arrive early in 2005. It is now widely accepted that the global launch, first talked about by SCEE, will not go ahead.

Considering that the 3 million units figure will supply all markets during the first 3 months of the PSPs life, with the U.S. getting most of those while Europe and Japan are expected to settle with about 750K each, it is very likely that we will experience the, by now expected, Sony launch shortage. It has even been suggested that Sony may deliberately cause such, small scale, shortages in order to hype their product by continuous talk of long queues and eager gamers.

It may backfire for Sony this time however, since the PSP is not exactly what the PS2 was, upon its launch, and since its price is likely to test even the most enthusiastic of gamers.