Sony Gives PS3 Launch Details: Sorry Europe!

The important details for launch numbers
This is just so crazy.  The original figures that Sony was publicizing up until yesterday were 2million worldwide for launch in mid-November, 2million more for the rest of the year, and then another 2million in until March 2007, so making a total of 6 million units by March.

The initial worldwide launch units have now gone down by 75%!  Sony says they can still release up to 2million units by the end of 2006, so that would be a drop of half, and then meet their targets of 6million by March.

In the meantime the Euro-launch of the machine will be delayed until March 2007, this coming the day after Sony Europe has started a slick new advertising campaign to promote the PS3.

I always knew there would be no way Sony would meet their targets, but to launch with so few is just amazing.  I still don't know what to think, and what kind of long term ramifications this will have, but they'll be there, you can bet on it.

I don't get it, how can they be so off on their numbers? Was there a major miscommunication somewhere along the line? I'm guessing eBay sellers are going to be snatching these up pretty quickly.

The main culprit is the high-definition Blu-Ray drive, and more specifically the blue laser diode that reads the data off the disc.  There has been major worldwide shortages of the diode for some reason, but people said this wouldn't affect Sony since Sony is a supplier of the diode, so they'd just hoard it for themselves for the PS3.  Seems like the problem is deeper, and this is precisely why their revised numbers are incredibly suspect as well.

Just remember that the PS3 was supposed to launch in Spring of 2006, for Europe this will be a full year's delay.  It's just unbelievable.

When you have these kind of delays you have to wonder if there's a serious quality problem. If they have a high dppm (defective parts per million) that they didn't anticipate, I would be worried that their solution would be to lower standards to meet (at least partly) the demand. This is just a guess, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were true.

Anyway you slice it, this should be bad for Sony in the end. And i agree with amanie, what if there's a major problem with the PS3? I do believe there will be some angry people in Europe this year.

There is a real danger that Sony will not be able to meet demand for the PS3. I'm not sure how Sony will be able to recover from the lack of systems at launch. And won't  third parties be ticked if there games don't sell well because of the lack of PS3's in stores. The PS3 didn't have that many units planned to be shipped at launch anyway ( the Wii has a planned 5 million worldwide), but now theres hardly any out at all. The PS3 is supposed to be the big thing in next gen, but it may instead unseat Sony off its throne of gaming greatness.

Good point silence, I didn't even think about the game developers. What a blow for them and all their effort into making the games ready in time. Sony probably has a clause in their contract absolving them of all responsibility, but seriously, this obviously affects more bottomlines than just Sony's.

Developers, publishers, retail, accessory makers.  All of them will be affected by Sony's manufacturing problems.  Let alone the millions of gamers that won't be able to purchase their console of choice these holidays.  Xbox and Wii are great, yes, but there are a lot of people that just want a Playstation, so this really sucks for them as well.

Oh, and expect more than one person dying in the North American launch.  With the kind of numbers the 360 saw on eBay last year, it's going to be 10 times worse with the PS3.  It's not just a game console people will be waiting in line for, it's a $1200 check.