World wide November launch my skinny white arse. Sony have just announced (literally, just then) that they will be revising “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.” Why? Well, why not, for one. Far be it from me to suggest that PAL territories should actually be treated as markets that are just as valid as the rest of the world. The actual reason, however, is due to those pesky Blu-Ray lasers:
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.
That would be the same ones that Sony has been pretty much hoarding for the last few months, and has even been denying to other Blu-Ray player producers.
But wait! There’s more! Associated Press claims that “about 400,000 PlayStation 3 machines will be available when they go on sale Nov. 17″ in the US. They also claim that about “100,000 will be available on the Nov. 11 Japan launch date”. 500,000 worldwide? That’s a fair chunk less than the 4,000,000 previously promised by Sony. Things are sure to pick up soon, though, says Ken Kutargi, because the console is set to go into production at the end of this month.
Wait, wait…they’re launching in September, and they’re only going into production a month and a half beforehand?! The launch has been looking pretty shaky for a while now, but the cracks are really showing.
A few things will no doubt come of this:
- Nintendo and Microsoft fanboys will be very happy.
- Microsoft themselves will be super happy.
- Sony’s already battered share price will not fare well.
- Pretty much everyone in Europe and Australia will be annoyed.
- Anyone who doesn’t get one of the 500,000 consoles will be very annoyed.
Hopefully, one thing that will not come from this is Nintendo seeing this as a go-ahead for a similar delay for the Wii. This is a really good chance for them to steal back a good chunk of the PAL market over Christmas, and, hell, probably the US and Japanese markets too.
On the bright side, at least we’ll have time to save up that AU$1,000, eh?