Sony delays European PlayStation 3 launch.

[Bunker65]

Even more reason to believe that the nail is approaching the Sony Playstation coffin: Sony delays European PlayStation 3 launch. By Kiyoshi Takenaka Sony Corp. (6758.T) said on Wednesday it would delay the European launch of its PlayStation 3 (PS3) game machine to March from November due to inadequate supply of a key component, missing the critical Christmas shopping season in one of its main markets. This is the second time Sony, which competes with Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) and Nintendo Co. Ltd. (7974.OS) in the nearly $30 billion video game market, has delayed the sale of its latest blockbuster PlayStation console. The company earlier this year delayed overall PS3 launch to November from spring 2006. The announcement, made after the Tokyo stock market closed, comes after recalls of almost 6 million notebook PC batteries Sony provided to Dell Inc. (Nasdaq DELL - news) and Apple Computer Inc. (Nasdaq AAPL - news), raising concerns over its core manufacturing strength. "I feel sorry. I think there are so many people out there who hold such high expectations for PS3," said Ken Kutaragi, the head of Sony's game unit and known as the "father of the PlayStation" The delay means that the PS3 falls substantially behind its rival machines -- Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii -- in time to market in parts of the world. Microsoft launched its Xbox 360 late last year and Nintendo plans to offer the Wii in the final quarter of 2006. Kutaragi said commercial production of blue laser, a key component for PS3's Blu-ray optical disc drive, has fallen behind the original schedule, forcing the delay. Sony has kept unchanged its Japan launch on November 11 and North American launch on November 17. It has also stuck to its target to ship 6 million units of PS3 worldwide by the end of March despite the delay in Europe. Flagging potential problems with the PS3 roll-out, Mitsubishi UFJ Securities last month cut by half its shipment forecast to 3 million of the new PlayStations in the current business year to March, citing difficulties in procuring its cutting-edge parts. FAR-REACHING IMPACT After the announcement of the launch delay in Europe, Daiwa Institute of Research analyst Kazuharu Miura joined a group of industry watchers who take a bearish view on PS3 shipments. "We had forecast PS3 shipments of 5 million, instead of Sony's 6 million forecast. I think 4 million is a more realistic picture now," Miura said. He added that it is hard to tell how the delay would affect the game division's earnings for the current business year to March 2007. Sony said in April it expected its game division to rack up an operating loss of 100 billion yen ($859.9 million) this business year due to heavy start-up costs for the PS3. Sony is expected to make a loss on each console it sells at the initial stage, making the assessment of a financial impact from the delay difficult. The success or failure of the PS3 will have a far-reaching impact on Sony's mid-term group earnings. At stake is more than just pole position in the nearly $30 billion video game industry, but also dominance in next-generation DVDs and the commercial viability of the "cell" microchip co-developed by Toshiba Corp. (6502.T) and International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM - news). The PlayStation 3 comes with a Blu-ray high-definition optical disc player and is powered by the Cell microchip, dubbed a "supercomputer on a chip." The electronics and entertainment conglomerate holds high hopes that the PS3 will help Blu-ray technology conquer a rival format called HD DVD in becoming the standard for the next-generation DVD. HD DVD is backed by a group of companies lead by Toshiba. The game console is the widely awaited successor to the PlayStation 2, of which more than 100 million units have been sold since its launch in 2000. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060906/...JlYmhvBHNlYwM-

[Tullaryx]

I'm not realy that surprised by this news. Some would say that it was good of Sony to announce this delay of the EMEA release of the PS3. It won't create a shortage for Europe when it does come out unlike the 360 during its initial worldwide releases. I would say that even delaying the PS3 for its EMEA release doesn't guarantee that they'll have manufactured enough of the blue-laser diode to cover the EMEA release. Where Microsoft's shortages didn't hurt as much as it should since the 360 was the only machine of its kind when the shortages hit, Sony won't have that luxury since the 360 and soon the Wii will be there to take up the slack of not having the PS3 in the EMEA region.

[Cykotic]

Well, I was gonna get a PS3, but after hearing that, I'm getting a xbox 360.

[p2501]

get the 360. i assure you you'll not be disappointed. as for the news release. good find, but this has been comming for weeks now. if anything europe should be slightly thankfull. the delay will give everyone else time to run out, buy one, blog that the system + launch games = crap, and save europeans tons of money.

[Bunker65]

Where Microsoft's shortages didn't hurt as much as it should since the 360 was the only machine of its kind when the shortages hit, Sony won't have that luxury since the 360 and soon the Wii will be there to take up the slack of not having the PS3 in the EMEA region. Great point. The 360 had no "next gen" competition when it was launched. Along with getting out of their own way, Sony will have to deal with the other 2 major players when they launch. get the 360. i assure you you'll not be disappointed. as for the news release. good find, but this has been comming for weeks now. if anything europe should be slightly thankfull. the delay will give everyone else time to run out, buy one, blog that the system + launch games = crap, and save europeans tons of money. Another great point . Our European friends will get advance warning before blowing their hard earned cash .

[Cody]

sony needs ro quit sucking and im not suprised

[CoinReturn]

Sony is doomed.

[p2501]

i dunno about doomed. their other consumer electronics are pretty kick ass. it's just the oversight in their videogames and console development needs to be sacked.

[CoinReturn]

400k systems for US at launch? 100k for Japan?! What a colossal **** up. Check it out, parody websites popping up already: http://thisiswaiting.com/

[DeadJonas190]

One thing that was left out of the article was that Sony is only shipping 500,000 units at launch with 400,000 of them being here in the US. They originally stated that they would have 2 million launch units. I think I hear a cash register ringing extremely loudly from Ebay come December...

[Danny]

considering they just make the console but unlike nintendo dont make any games and microsoft has contracts with bungie and the like i really think sony is coming to the end of its time in the gameing market, and when you consider its been around 11 years as opposed to segas decades thats pretty damn lame i think the psp was there sega saturn and the ps3 is there dreamcast ,they may be cool but with the wii and a 360 allready being cheaper and having a big catalogue of games by the ps3 launch whos gonna run out to by an overpriced consoel with killzone 2?, no-one thats who.

[DeadJonas190]

microsoft has contracts with bungie Not just contracts, Microsoft now owns Bungie. They bought them flat out to gurantee Halo is forever a Microsoft exclusive.

[Danny]

and a damn smart move it is too. y'know i just checked out gamespot and you should see the fan boy war on the forums over this, one guy just said "ITS A SONY" and then someone called "fragpwenerofn00bs" or some such **** goes all "oh year **** you your just a fan byo sony rock and the ps3 is much better than the x-suc- 360 its gonna pwn!" and this whent on about 1700 times over with different people. but ive spoken with my freind who works for gamestation and all 45 people in his store who pre ordered a ps3 cancelled and bought a 360 or ordered a wii instead, the same thing happened in my local game. face it sony its the end, cus no matter how great it may be there using killzone 2 as a selling point thats bad enough as is.