More and more problems for Sony
NOT ONLY HAS Sony moved the PAL launch of the PS3 to March 2007, four months later than originally planned and only two months before the original release date, massive shortages of the new console will affect the Japanese and North American territories upon its launch.
Sony Computer Entertainment Chief Ken Kutaragi told reporters that Sony has drastically reduced the expected shipment allocation, with the US set to receive only 400,000 units, and Japan to be allocated an absurdly small 100,000 units.
Accordingly, Sony has now lowered its estimate of four million consoles shipped by the end of 2006, to a more realistic two million. However, the global shipping target of 6 million consoles by the end of 2007 has not been changed.
Kaz Hirai, president and chief executive officer of SCEA (Sony Computer Entertainment America) was recently quoted as specifying that a reduction in shipped units would occur in an interview with Gamespot, which was
reported by the INQUIRER, and then later retracted by Sony - so its plainly to observers that these issues have been known for some time. The PS3 has been a point of contention for some time, but despite reported yield problems with the unit's main Cell processor, the Nvidia GPU having been bolted-on to allow for Cell short-comings, the costly addition of the Blu-Ray drive, draconian DRM measures, and a flood of fanboy mail, Sony seemed to have slowly gained momentum and things were looking up for the firm, and the Playstation 3. Not now. These announcements amount to more egg-on-the-face for Sony in the ongoing PS3 saga.
The INQuirer
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