the PlayStation 3 has been officially delayed until March 2007 for Europe. As widely expected, production has not ramped up enough yet to fulfill expected demand, as such forcing Sony to postpone the launch in one of their biggest territories.
After several little tidbits of information made the news over the last few weeks, mainly the fact that Sony still hadn’t started mass production of the PS3 and the yield problems with Blu-Ray laser diodes, noone really had any hope left that the console giant would be able to produce the promised 4 million consoles before November 17 and actually get them shipped over the world. For the time being the Japanese and American launchdates remain unchanged.
From the Sony press release:
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) today announced that it would revise the launch date of its PLAYSTATION® 3 computer entertainment system in the PAL territories of Europe, Russia, Middle East, Africa and Australasia from 17th November 2006, as previously announced to March 2007.
The revision of the launch date in the SCEE territories is caused by the delay in the mass production schedule of the blue laser diode within the Sony Group, thus affecting the timely procurement of key components to be utilised in PLAYSTATION 3.
The previously announced PLAYSTATION 3 shipment forecast of 6 million units globally within the fiscal year ending 2007 is not changed.
Needless to say several Microsoft offices will be having surprise parties today, as this means another holiday season without any direct competition for their next generation console in many of the key territories… and this time round Microsoft will not be having any shortages themselves. Speaking of shortages, according to the International Herald Tribune, a quite reputable source, the originally projected number of 4 million PS3s worldwide has been tuned down a ‘bit’ to 400k units in the United States and 100k in Japan. Anyone remember Sony laughing at Microsoft only having the same number of 360s or so in the US at launch, and people getting killed and robbed over them because of the shortages?
Repost From: Xboxic
