Sony PlayStation 3 delayed in Europe
Caused by problem in mass production of Blu-ray disc laser
By Lisa Baertlein and Kiyoshi Takenaka
Updated: 9:48 p.m. ET Sept. 6, 2006
LOS ANGELES/TOKYO - Sony said Wednesday it would delay the launch of its PlayStation 3 game machine in Europe and other regions to March from November due to inadequate supply of a key component, missing the critical Christmas shopping season.
This is the second time Sony Corp., which competes with Microsoft Corp. and Nintendo Co. Ltd. in the nearly $30 billion video game market, has delayed the sale of its latest blockbuster PlayStation console. Earlier this year, it had pushed back the overall PS3 launch from spring 2006.
The announcement, made after the Tokyo stock market closed, follows recalls of almost 6 million notebook PC batteries Sony provided to Dell Inc. and Apple Computer Inc. , 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," Ken Kutaragi, the head of Sony's game unit, told reporters.
Sony said in a statement out of London the delay will affect regions that, like Europe, use Phase-Alternating Line (PAL) as a standard video format, so PS3 launches in Russia, the Middle East, Africa and Australasia will also be pushed back to March.
The United States and Japan, the largest markets for video game consoles, both use the competing National Television System Committee (NTSC) format.
Sony, the world's second-largest consumer electronics maker in the early stages of an earnings recovery, hopes the PS3, as well as its hot-selling Bravia brand liquid crystal display TVs, will put it firmly on the growth path.
But the delay means the PS3 falls far behind rival machines Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii in reaching some markets. Microsoft launched its Xbox 360 late last year and Nintendo plans to offer the Wii in the final quarter of 2006.
Kutaragi, known as the "father of the PlayStation", 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 Nov. 11 and its North American launch on Nov. 17.
It has also stuck to its target to ship 6 million units of PS3 worldwide by the end of the current business year to March despite the delay in Europe, while cutting by half its shipment target for calendar 2006 to 2 million.
Far-reaching impact
Shares of top U.S. video game publishers, including Electronic Arts Inc. and Activision Inc., fell in response to the PS3 European delay.
And Daiwa Institute of Research analyst Kazuharu Miura joined a group of industry watchers who are bearish on PS3.
"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," he said, adding it was hard to gauge the effect on game division profits in the year to March 2007.
Sony said in April it expected its game division to make an operating loss of 100 billion yen ($860 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. But the success or failure of the PS3 will certainly have a huge impact on Sony's mid-term earnings.
At stake is more than just pole position in the video game industry, but also dominance in next-generation DVDs and the commercial viability of the "Cell" microchip co-developed by Toshiba Corp. and International Business Machines Corp. The PS3 comes with a Blu-ray high-definition optical disc player and is powered by the Cell, dubbed a "supercomputer on a chip".
Kutaragi said production of Cell chips has been progressing smoothly, and the company now has more than 3 million of them in stock, dispelling speculation that Sony may be experiencing difficulty in volume production of the advanced microchips.
"Cell production is going extremely well. In fact, it is going much better than we had anticipated," Kutaragi said.
Sony hopes the PS3 will help Blu-ray technology conquer a rival format backed by a Toshiba-led group of companies, HD DVD, to become the next-generation DVD standard.
The game console is the widely awaited successor to the PlayStation 2, of which more than 100 million have been sold since its launch in 2000.
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Y por último por que muchos sonyers habrán estado esperando más de año y medio para tener lo mismo que tenemos los que nos hemos comprado una X360 hace la tira. 
