European PS3 Launch Delayed to 2007 440
An anonymous reader writes "Sony has finally admitted that the November release date for the release of the PS3 is unfeasible. Specifically, it will not be available in any PAL territories until March 2007. Sony cites '(a) delay in the mass production schedule of the blue laser diode', forming a critical part of the much-maligned Blu-Ray drive. With the Xbox 360 having been released for almost 6 months in overseas markets, and the Wii looming large, can Sony afford a delay like this?" Update: 09/06 17:58 GMT by Z : Just to make sure you caught it, the announcement includes the word that the U.S. will only be getting 400,000 units at launch in November, with Japan at 100,000 units. Go Sony.
USA and Japan unit numbers at launch (Score:3, Informative)
400 000 units for USA and 100 000 for Japan - the launch starts to sound not-so-spectacular.
Or is this clever marketing?
Re:no surprise then (Score:3, Informative)
(and probably many other places)
Now they are really in trouble.
Re:no surprise then (Score:3, Informative)
But UMD does seem to be a screwup (I though they were going to create other players for the video / music discs or something).
Sony have created other sucessful formats, like the 3.5" floppy disc, and the Betacam professional videotape formats. No-one seems to remember them...
Sony's money (Score:2, Informative)
Now, IANAB, but from what I understand of this [yahoo.com], Sony is in the black.
Re:Don't Worry About Sony (Score:3, Informative)
Uh? How are these things not game console related?
They probably wouldn't care any way.
Because Nintendo is sitting on a fucking huge pile of cash, because they never lost any money in their whole history (which includes the console-gaming part).
Because 15 years of Game Boy and 2 years of DS along with hugely popular first-party games made them more money than Microsoft could ever lose on an Xbox iteration
Because even though the sales were not quite high they still made a benefit out of the N64 and GC hardware sales alone
Because since third-party weren't interrested in the N64 and GC games, only Nintendo games were released, and only Nintendo games were bought, and pretty much everyone would buy the new Nintendo game, and Nintendo would get millions of sales for every single game.
Because it's never dug in the hoard of cash it made from the NES and SNES days either.
Don't worry about them, even if they come dead last worldwide with 10 million sales (which I highly doubt), they'll still be perfectly fine.
Oh, their stock would take a dive, no question about that.
But they'd still be perfectly fine.
Re:First Post? (Score:3, Informative)
Which Sony?
Sony-BMG brought us the rootkit. They haven't done anything useful in awhile.
SCEA is responsible for the Playstation line. They are wildly successful, although they have taken risks in the design of the PS3.
Sony Electronics has taken a hit lately but are still highly regarded; the Bravia TVs are much sought-after. The Pro video line has never been anything but incredibly successful (DigiBeta, Betacam SP, etc). The laptop battery issue is their fault, but the press seems to pin this one on Apple or Dell.
Sony Pictures makes tons of money (Spiderman, etc).
No idea how their financial services division does.
My point is - Sony is much more than just SCEA.
Re:Will Sony start to die now? (Score:2, Informative)
Sony is huge. The name itself still has a lot of value. However, if the PS3 is a miserable failure, they run a definite financial risk of stockholder revolt leading to a number of things:
- Sacking of some senior level execs
- Corporate restructuring
- Selling off divisions that are not profitable
- layoffs, cost cutting measures, bottom line modalities
Basically, if the PS3 sucks ass and loses them millions of dollars (hundreds of them), Sony will be forced to whittle itself down into shape. Expect the record label and movie studio divisions to spin off into their own separate companies (or be sold off to other record labels and movie studios). Expect the consumer electronics division to retain the Sony name, etc.It has the potential to turn Sony into a shell of its former self...but not kill it outright.
Re:It is their fault (Score:3, Informative)
Are you serious? It's true that some games' pre-rendered scenes these days look like nothing more than compressed in-game cinematics with some post-processing (with adds some value by itself), but you can't mean to say that next-generation graphics engines are up to, for instance, Blizzard's pre-rendered cinematics in real-time. Currently the norm of graphics cards just isn't up to rendering animations, particle and lighting effects, camera tricks, etc. as good as pre-rendered. I'll admit that, given the effort, some game developers go a long way to establish great in-game, real-time cut-scenes, but I rather look forward to brilliantly done compressed video scenes. Besides, not all cut-scenes are pre-rendered: some are live action (in which case the acting must be of good quality, of course).
I agree that continuity is a problem with pre-rendered scenes. Personally, though, I don't find that it breaks immersion. Especially when you consider that your other arguments are meaningless if you consider a good title that knows how to stretch compressed video so that it looks good (no middle-of-the-screen small windows). Loading up a video (at least on the PC) doesn't take moments; it is possible to immediately popping up a video. Besides, with the immense storage that Blu-ray can provide, lossy compression won't be much of a problem anymore.