This is not a big deal.
Sony has been brought down by their consumer electronics division for a while. Yet this division is also what gives Sony such great insight into their consoles, so even if these divisions themselves may lose money their overall contribution helps keep Sony in the black.
And while the PSP launch may be a small reason for this (dunno... my guess is the TV, electronics, and PC divisions are at fault) it is a future looking investment. Sony has great mind share at this point. The PSP is like the iPod--it is hot and wont be gone anytime soon. If Sony had to post millions in losses to get their foot in the door of the HUGELY profitable handheld market that Nintendo has hoarded to themselves then it is worth it. What is a couple hundred million here or there when they can up their yearly profits by even more?
That sad... for devil's advocate sake...
Nintendo just launched a handheld and we don't see them losing over $600M. And Nintendo missed projections on game sales (where profit comes from) and yet sold more units of the NDS (where they could potentually lose money). And considering Sony is so much stronger in the home console market this only accents the point. So from an investor standpoint I want to know why Nintendo is able to launch a new handheld and make over 400M profit, yet Sony loses profit
On a serious note I would not be too worried. Sony has some debt, and as home electonics has become largely a commodity market I don't see typical home devices (DVDs, VCRs, TVs, etc...) every being the staple bread winner for Sony. That is why there is such a huge push for BR, HD TVs, etc... because they offer large profits.
But the losses do make for some serious intrigue. Could the Sony-Toshiba HD talks be motivated by future losses resulting from a format war?
Will these overall losses impact the features included in the PS3? How will this impact Sony's tolerance for losses next gen? The game division seems to be Sony's bread winner--will they skimp to get back in the black or will they continue the all out assault to keep their stranglehold on the home console market?
Again, not a big deal... but another quarter or two of this could really spice things up.