PS3 Delayed In Europe, Shipments Cut

[Shawn Andrich]

PS3 Delayed In Europe, Shipments Cut

The PS3 has been delayed until March, 2007 in Europe while shipments to North America and Japan have been cut in half.

In an official statement made today, Sony has canceled plans for a worldwide launch due to shortages [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/newsroom/view/64458] of the blue laser diodes needed for Blue-ray drives. As a result, Europe, Russia, the Middle East, Africa and Australia will not see the PS3 in November as expected. Currently, the new launch date for the regions is March, 2007.

Sony has also cut their shipment expectations in half for North America and Japan. Previously expecting 4 million units by the end of 2006, Sony now plans for only 2 million units. The current November 17th launch numbers are expected to be 400,000 consoles in North America and only 100,000 in Japan.

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[Incommunicado]

Interesting to look at the number of units to be available in the US and Japan. Obviously Sony is not afraid to loose a considerable number of potential Japanease customers to Microsoft, as sales of the 360 have been pretty grim anyways. In the US on the other hand Sony seems to have understood that unless they deliver a considerable amount of PS3 units for christmas they will seriously loose ground to the competition. Nintendo sure loves Sony's strategy as they will have a few months more to position the Wii in Japan without any major competition.

 

[Lex Darko]

With such a complex machine I wonder if the launch PS3s will have any defects? And are they releasing both versions of the PS3 on the 17th or just the premium version?

 

[Goofonian]

With such a complex machine I wonder if the launch PS3s will have any defects?

I don't think there was ever any doubt about this. Look how many 360s were defective, now look at how much more complex the development of the PS3 has been and how much lower the production yields are at this point.
The only saving grace here is that such low yields could mean sony is only signing off on consoles that are running perfectly. More likely they just really can't make these things with any consistency and they are pushing through as many as possible to try and increase supply. Even if I was planning to buy one before the price drops, which I'm not, I think I would probably wait till the model numbers had changed once or twice before I picked one up.

 

[Lex Darko]

All this talk about how much the console cost anyone have an idea of how much the actual games are going to cost? Is there even a list of launch titles yet? Do we actually know anything about the PS3 other the price, how it looks (also specs), and the fact that sony is going to have about 500k of them ready for Nov.17th?

 

[Shawn Andrich]

You would have to think that the games will cost the same as Xbox 360 titles at most, even Sony isn't stupid enough to try and jack the price up further. Well, probably isn't stupid enough anyways.

I think the launch list will be made clear at Tokyo Game Show when we see what's playable on the floor. With Nintendo likely coming clean on the 14th and Sony later this month, I hope we'll have a clear picture of what to expect before pre-orders open.