PS3 delayed in Europe - March launch now planned

LookingFor · 06-09-2006 08:48AM #1

Well this sucks royally.

http://gaming.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=6644

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) today announced that it would revise 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.

Launch dates for Japan and North America will remain the same, which are November 11th and November 17th respectively.

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.

The day after Sony Europe starts advertising the thing, they decide to delay? I can see eBay being a busy (and expensive) place for importers this Xmas

At least the games are supposedly region-free.

RE*AC*TOR · 06-09-2006 08:53AM

That was always inevitable, given the late start to production.

Lets just hope Nintendo don't follow suit.

RE*AC*TOR · 06-09-2006 09:01AM

If you really really want one, you could place your pre-order online for a US one now.

LookingFor · 06-09-2006 09:06AM

Do you know who is taking preorders online?

It's probably going to be very difficult getting one.

Smellyirishman · 06-09-2006 09:11AM

Wow, didn't see that one coming.

Crucifix · 06-09-2006 09:13AM

Microsoft were saying Sony would hit problems with production, I guess this is their equivelant of the 360s chip yield. Delaying Europe is probably a professional way to deal with it, although it's sad to see this market being treated like **** yet again. But pfff, I wasn't gonna buy one for ages anyway.

Vegeta · 06-09-2006 09:53AM

Crucifix wrote:

But pfff, I wasn't gonna buy one for ages anyway.

yeah i am in the same boat wasn't going to buy a launch console anyway. Not good business on Sony's part but i'd rather see them have a good european launch rather than an early launch with loads or problems and shortages

LookingFor · 06-09-2006 10:06AM

Check out the US/Japan launch allocations. They expect 2m by the end of the year, total, but on day one there'll only be 100k units in Japan and 400k units in the US :eek: :rolleyes:

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/i_latestdetail.asp?id=40845

Importing from the US looks like it just got a whole lot more difficult.

Xterminator · 06-09-2006 10:36AM

I dont know if its professional to tell the Eurozone their euros are not wanted.

Whatever spin they put on it, its a kick in the face to Eurozone consumers, who have in the main been loylal customers for years.

Personally, I dont think im intersted in buying their console now.

PS what a shot in the arm for the launch of the WII? Noone to steal their thunder this crimbo now.

X

skywalker · 06-09-2006 10:46AM

Xterminator wrote:

Personally, I dont think im intersted in buying their console now.

I wasnt planning on buying the thing anyway, but I can see a lot of people being of a similar mindset as yourself. And about time. Europe has always been treated like **** by games manufacturers. Perhaps hitting them in the wallet might make them think twice about it in the future.

RE*AC*TOR · 06-09-2006 10:56AM

I would say generally speaking though, where the US goes, europe follows.

Ri_Nollaig · 06-09-2006 11:01AM

Xterminator wrote:

PS what a shot in the arm for the launch of the WII? Noone to steal their thunder this crimbo now.

no comfirmed release date for the wii has been set yet

this did look likely as this time last year all game shops had taken preorders for the 360, while now the ps3 was due for release in two months and no one was still taking preorders.

CiDeRmAn · 06-09-2006 11:06AM

Of course in the longer term what sony have done is made Christmas 07 as the year gamers buy a PS3 and 08 the year the rest of the gaming public wake up to the machine, as has been the way in the past, its only the 2nd Christmas after release that ordinary folk buy into the next gen.
Regardless this is really going to hurt Sony, and gives MS the chance to release Halo3 at the same time, damaging Sony further, I mean Killzone or Halo? Really?

And one other point, Sony has just lost the opportunity to get their Blu-ray player into european homes, just at the Chriatmas when lots and lots of shiny HD ready tvs are being plugged in for the first time, with MS bringing out an affordable HD add-on for the 360, looks like Sony could well have dropped the ball big time with this one, everyone wanting a next gen DVD player already having one by the time the PS3 debuts in March 07.

Vegeta · 06-09-2006 11:17AM

Thinking about this a little bit more i think it doesn't matter at all

You can bet your ass every single PS3 released in Japan and America wil be bought

When they are released in Europe every single one will be bought.

There are enough Sony fanboys and genuine gamers that will snap them up.

Sony will suffer a 6 month hit on sales in Europe, big deal. They will recover.

There are enough teenagers who only want the Playstation because of its brand to save them, the girlfriends brother is one of them.

Once again a company who treat their market like sh1t will suffer very little.

I truly hope Sony are hurt by this and feel the backlash of a market scorned, i don't think it will affect the overall life of the console though.

Kinetic^ · 06-09-2006 11:24AM

LMFAO, nice foresight there Sony you bunch of morons!!!!!

So that's another 5/6 months Microsoft and Nintendo have to gain a nice chunk of the market.

v10 · 06-09-2006 11:29AM

Ah, I dunno if it'll make much difference Sony will sell near equal amounts of the PS3 regardless of when it's launched ..

I'll be buying one thats for sure whenever it's released and getting rid of this 360 piece of crap I bought in February.

DBK · 06-09-2006 11:54AM

Was it not originally planned for a March release and they brought it forward for a global release?

LookingFor · 06-09-2006 12:00PM

Vegeta wrote:

Thinking about this a little bit more i think it doesn't matter at all

You can bet your ass every single PS3 released in Japan and America wil be bought

When they are released in Europe every single one will be bought.

There are enough Sony fanboys and genuine gamers that will snap them up.

Sony will suffer a 6 month hit on sales in Europe, big deal. They will recover.

There are enough teenagers who only want the Playstation because of its brand to save them, the girlfriends brother is one of them.

Once again a company who treat their market like sh1t will suffer very little.

I truly hope Sony are hurt by this and feel the backlash of a market scorned, i don't think it will affect the overall life of the console though.

This is probably all true. As much as the delay pisses me off, it's not going to matter in the heel of the hunt.

But I think the bigger story here might be the launch allocations in the US and Japan, and whether they will actually hit their target for the end of the year in those territories. They want about 1m in each territory by the end of the year, but they're launching with just 100k units in Japan and 400k in the US. The problem seems to be the blue laser supply - better hope it falls into place.

MonkeyWrench · 06-09-2006 12:03PM

v10 wrote:

Ah, I dunno if it'll make much difference Sony will sell near equal amounts of the PS3 regardless of when it's launched ..

I'll be buying one thats for sure whenever it's released and getting rid of this 360 piece of crap I bought in February.

Why do you think the 360 is a piece of crap? while the first few games have had only a few must haves, most consoles go through that period for a while. there are many 360 games in the pipeline that look very promising. I think the playstation 3 will suffer greatly for this. I'm not one for sticking directly will brands having owned a playstation and xbox but I think it will be 2008 at this stage before the ps3 really takes off. Alot of people don't want to buy the first release of a machine because of software bugs and hardware issues...

Vegeta · 06-09-2006 12:06PM

LookingFor wrote:

But I think the bigger story here might be the launch allocations in the US and Japan, and whether they will actually hit their target for the end of the year in those territories. They want about 1m in each territory by the end of the year, but they're launching with just 100k units in Japan and 400k in the US. The problem seems to be the blue laser supply - better hope it falls into place.

Agree completely here.

evad_lhorg · 06-09-2006 12:20PM

hope not..... Devil may cry 4 and metal gear 4 would sit nicely in my 360 as well

projectmayhem · 06-09-2006 01:15PM

Smellyirishman wrote:

Wow, didn't see that one coming.

indeed not a surprise, but that's a huge gap. i'd like a price drop with that date please...

FutureGuy · 06-09-2006 02:29PM

Come November, many people will just buy a Wii and either an XBOX360 or a high-end graphics card for their PC.

Big mistake Sony

steviec · 06-09-2006 02:50PM

#Elites wrote:

stupid sony!

ebay is gonna be flogged now with american PS3's... imagine.. so 600$ add IMPORT tax on that.. nearly 700$ ... is it worth it?

:rolleyes:

wii!

Hmmmm isn't that still cheaper than the euro price?

With so few consoles on sale at first though I doubt they'll be anything less than four digits on ebay.

Disappointing news, the shortage moreso than the EU delay, at least we'll have a better idea of how the console is fairing before it gets released over here.

GrumPy · 06-09-2006 02:51PM

WIi60 will rule xmas

(assuming nintendo do actually release in PAL before xmas)

Wont make any difference though for sony, they will still outsell nintendo, and MS by millions of units.

ALl those "fanboys" and "casual gamers" will buy ps3's left right and centre, regardless if they have to wait till march or not.

CiDeRmAn · 06-09-2006 03:51PM

So sure the PS3 will sell out its launch units, all consoles do that, but you can't abuse your target market forever, when folk in Japan and especially the US get to the store this Nov and find the console allowance for their area is gone in preorders since this summer, you can be sure they will be real pissed off, I can see the 360 being a good alternative, given the rising quality and quantity of its games releases on the run up to Christmas.
Here in Europe, the desire for all things Sony will mean another bumper years end for the PSP, but perhaps the DS lite will take a hunk out of that too.
Suffice it to say Sony may not have everything their own way, they are not the defacto winner of every console war.
Sony have always treated the PAL territories with some respect despite the rest of the market historically showing little attention to us, until MS got into the game that is.
Now we see Sony leaving Europe high and dry, how are the punters going to take that, how are the retailers to react?
On brighter note at least it gives folk time to save up the money to buy one!

Retr0gamer · 06-09-2006 05:32PM

CiDeRmAn wrote:

Sony have always treated the PAL territories with some respect despite the rest of the market historically showing little attention to us, until MS got into the game that is.
Now we see Sony leaving Europe high and dry, how are the punters going to take that, how are the retailers to react?

Sony have also been just as awful to the PAL market as anyone else other than Microsoft. There has always been a long wait for their consoles in Europe (anyone forgotten the 9 month wait for the PSP and Europe being practically the last territory to get it behind even China). There has also been a delay in releasing their games in Europe.

v10 · 06-09-2006 08:20PM

MonkeyWrench wrote:

Why do you think the 360 is a piece of crap?...

Maybe its not a piece of crap but I would say its only a marginal improvment on the standard xbox. I have a xbox, a 360 and a PS2 and I would have to say the xbox and PS2 are still used far more than my 360. I have games on the 360 that are available on the xbox and I find them the same, so based on what I've seen so far .. they're bad value for money.

I'd be very suprised if the PS3 is only marginally better than the PS2 but time will tell.

Easy Rider · 06-09-2006 11:16PM

v10 wrote:

Maybe its not a piece of crap but I would say its only a marginal improvment on the standard xbox. I have a xbox, a 360 and a PS2 and I would have to say the xbox and PS2 are still used far more than my 360. I have games on the 360 that are available on the xbox and I find them the same, so based on what I've seen so far .. they're bad value for money.

I'd be very suprised if the PS3 is only marginally better than the PS2 but time will tell.

Ohhh okay so you have played the PS3 and know it is going to be great? I have to laugh, there is no evidence that it will look better than the 360 graphics wise, just compare COD3 and Tiger Woods 07...they are identical? On another forum you had a guy saying that it will be great to get rid of his 360 due to fan noise.....like he knows the PS3 will have no noise issues???

I'm don't have any preference for PS3 or 360, I have a 360 already as it was out first and don't see ps3 being any better...

steviec · 06-09-2006 11:21PM

Easy Rider wrote:

Ohhh okay so you have played the PS3 and know it is going to be great? I have to laugh, there is no evidence that it will look better than the 360 graphics wise, just compare COD3 and Tiger Woods 07...they are identical? On another forum you had a guy saying that it will be great to get rid of his 360 due to fan noise.....like he knows the PS3 will have no noise issues???

I'm don't have any preference for PS3 or 360, I have a 360 already as it was out first and don't see ps3 being any better...

Well actually it has been confirmed that the PS3 is as silent as a PStwo, they released the decibel information a while ago. Of course you can just say 'Sony are liars!!!one!! Riiiiidge Racer!' to that but logically it makes sense - the DVD drive makes all the noise in the 360, it's very quiet when running demos from the hard drive, and the PS3 blu ray drive spins far more slowly and should therefore be quieter.

The 360 is a lot more than marginally better than the xbox though. As the PS3 will be. Comparing cross platform titles is pointless because they're designed to meet the lowest common denominator. We're seeing some truly great 360 games arriving now, it may be a year from now before we see the same from the PS3 but it will undoubtedly have great games, there's too many talented developers working with it for it not to.

Villain · 07-09-2006 09:41AM

Ok so anyone know where these can be pre-ordered from the US or Japan online, I'm sure some Irish parents will be willing to pay a pretty sum for one of these for xmas!!

PS3 delayed in Europe - March launch now planned

Comments