Playstation 3 Delay Official

Aleman writes "In this interview with Variety magazine, Sony CEO Howard Stringer confirms that the Playstation 3 will be released during the holiday 2006 season." Not very surprising given the available information.

Maybe I missed something....

[RingDev (879105)]

But wasn't Q4 '06 the original expectation for the US release?

-Rick

Re:Maybe I missed something....

[Yusaku Godai (546058)]

That's kinda what I thought too. Either way it's not like it's a huge delay. Heck, I'd kinda rather they'd wait even longer for

a) The price of some of the hardware to come down
b) To watch Microsoft fumble around more
and
c) To rethink this whole format war business

I have a bad feeling that the last one especially won't happen :( If they're gonna stick a Blu-Ray drive in this thing I sure as hell hope it ends up being the dominant next gen video format, or Sony is fucked, I think.

Re:Maybe I missed something....

[YU Nicks NE Way (129084)]

Yes. Stringer was talking about the Japanese release here, though -- so this is a six month slip.

Re:Maybe I missed something....

[apoc06 (853263)]

to be fair, geometry wars has thusfar been their unexpected "killer app". a game that could be done on the xbox1 or the ps2. hell, sans the resolution it could have been done on the psp.

other than that, yeah... MS fumbled, and fumbled badly at that. their "killer apps" have come and gone with slight pause. perfect dark zero? DOA4? not bad games at all im sure, but definitely not as great as hyped. then again, halo aside... the original xbox didnt have dozens of killer apps either. ninja gaiden? splinter cel

Given all the time by MS's execution

[Hangtime (19526)]

Sony is fine with waiting given the poor execution of the 360. Ironically, if MS had given itself a few more months it may have put more pressure on Sony. However, given the numbers I am seeing on the components even another nine months may not be enough for the PS3 to come in at a reasonable amount for Sony . Sony will not price it above $400 USD retail. But losing $500 on each console sold cannot be an attractive proposition for Sony higher-ups.

Re:Given all the time by MS's execution

[Austerity Empowers (669817)]

I've said it before, but be very careful about estimating the price of components sold in consumer systems. Volumes speak volumes. A component we may buy in small quantities (1000) can cost 1/2 to 1/4 if sold in high volumes with a volume commitment (usually 100k/year is where it starts). Designs of mine have been estimated at costs of "$400" by marketing, but the actual COGS was closer to $100-$150 after negotiations.

People assume there is some discount on goods costs with volumes, I don't think many people realize how high it really is. I don't think they're losing money on XBox 360 hardware, nor do I think Sony will lose on the PS3. If money is lost it's warranty/returns.

Variety?!?

[acvh (120205)]

what have we come to that Slashdot has to source breaking news from the Hollywood trade rag?

Re:Variety?!?

[elrous0 (869638)]

Hey, no need to run down Variety! Without their trenchant reporting, we would have never learned about those cost overruns on Waterworld.

-Eric

Death toll for Blu-ray

[PrvtBurrito (557287)]

As far as I am concerned, this will have serious consequences on the adoption of Blu-ray, given that Toshiba's HD DVD drive is coming out in three weeks at less than $500. Sony wants to turn video (movie) technology into a war not unlike the video game console wars. Unfortunately, they are going to lose this one, because the 360 is already out, HD DVD is coming very soon, and Sony is already taking a huge risk/loss on the PS3.

I can't say I feel sorry for them, being proprietary is inherently consumer unfriendly, so they have an uphill marketing battle ahead of them. (I realize that HD DVD is pretty proprietary, too, but it is first and less expensive and that will make a huge marketing difference)

Re:Death toll for Blu-ray

[Perseid (660451)]

I don't think so. The format war isn't going to actually start for quite a while. HD-DVD is going to be prohibitively expensive for the average consumer when it comes out and few people have HDTVs at the moment, making DVDs good enough for the average schmo right now.

Since Sony is going to make the PS3 a loss leader, it might actually be cheaper than comparative HD-DVD players when it comes out. And while many people might wait to see which player comes out on top in the format wars before deciding on a player, you know millions of people are going to instantly start salivating as soon as the preorder slips go out for the PS3. Having a game console push your format is as big of an advantage as Sony says it is. Is it big enough? We'll see, of course, but I don't feel this hurts Sony much, if at all.

Pre-Orders?

[Hollinger (16202)]

When can I pre-order one?

Given the trouble I had getting an Xbox 360 (still don't have it) and a PS2 (I had to write a script to crawl amazon.com and make an alarm go off when it found "add to cart"), I'd like to just plain pre-order one this time, and save all the hassle.

Re:Pre-Orders?

[voice_of_all_reason (926702)]

This may surprise you, but pre-ordering didn't help the xbox buyers any

Re:Pre-Orders?

[tgd (2822)]

I assume you're not looking anymore for the 360?

I seen them all the time. This last weekend, the Walmart, Target, and Circuit City stores near me I went into all had them. Warmart looked like it only had core systems, but thanks to my first 360 dying and MS replacing the console with a whole new console+harddrive, I have a spare drive. I almost picked one up so my girlfriend and I wouldn't have to fight for 360 time.

In either case, are they really still hard to find in other parts of the country? I'm not ou

Re:Pre-Orders?

[Guppy06 (410832)]

Try post-ordering. Wait six months after release and you'll be fine.

The launch games you want will still be available, and perhaps even marked down.

For all the effort you went through to get your PlayStation 2, wouldn't you want to keep playing it for a few more months?

But...

[Donniedarkness (895066)]

Isn't that when it was supposed to come out?

Also, will they be able to offer it at a more reasonable price than was stated in earlier articles (assuming that the other figures were for if it was released earlier)?

And, most importantly, will it run Linux?

Rumours!

[OK PC (857190)]

I wish Slashdot would stop running all these unsubstaniated rumours about the PS3 dela... Oh wait!

P.s. Variety went down quick!

No word on price, I see...

[by Anonymous Coward]

First off, this article is really more focused on Sony's various troubles and not on the PS3 in particular, so after wading through the stuff on Sony's failing entertainment businesses (with no mention of "root kit" or "copy protection"...), I was hoping to see something on the projected price.

Nope.

Instead, we get: "If PS3 'delivers what everyone thinks it will, the game is up,' Stringer boasts."

"If?!" So, in other words, the PS3 won't be delivering what everyone thinks it will. Which, ironically enough, I think everyone already knew. Essentially it sounds like the entire game-plan for the PS3 is to sneak Blu-ray into a consumer market that otherwise doesn't want it, to hell with games. Really encouraging.

From the article: "Sony's new PlayStation 3 was widely expected to be introduced this spring, but will be delayed as the company fine-tunes the chips that are crucial to the success of the console's Blu-ray function."

"Fine-tunes", huh? So, in other words, the rumors of an almost $1000 price tag for the system weren't too far off, and Sony has to delay until they can get the cost down to something that people might actually pay for. But he can't actually say that, of course.

Ultimately it sounds like the PS3 is Sony trying to abuse a monopoly it doesn't have to force Blu-ray into the market place. Yeah, that might work.

A bad thing?

[hunterx11 (778171)]

From a sales perspective, wouldn't the holiday season be a good time to release a product like this?

Re:A bad thing?

[geminidomino (614729)]

As far as raw launch sales, probably.

As far as getting the Blu-Ray mind/marketshare, not so much.

Not really...

[rinkjustice (24156)]

because when the PS3 finally comes out, whatever time of year, it will likely be in limited supply, not well supported by 3rd party software, and expensive as hell. This makes it an early adopters "must have" and not much else until price goes down and support goes up.

Re:This is Japan release

[mwvdlee (775178)]

I hope (for Sony's sake), they are adoption the system for online distribution of "indie" games; I hear it's going pretty well for MS.

Re:Sony Strategy?

[omega9 (138280)]

Sony: Playstation!
Nintendo: N64!
Sony: Playstation 2!
Nintendo: Game Cube!

That's a joke, right?

Re:Sony Strategy?

[gormanly (134067)]

huh?

• The NES was released 27 months before the Master System and won, despite being technically inferior.
• The SNES was released a year after the Mega Drive and won, and was technically superior.
• The N64 was released 18 months after the Playstation, and lost, despite being technically superior.
• The GameCube was released 18 months after the PS2 and just before the Xbox, and lost, despite being technically superior to the former and inferior to the latter.

What matters seems to be the available games, though in the PS2 case a lot of people bought it as their first DVD player, justifying the purchase that way. That's what Sony were banking on with the PS3 too, but the BluRay capability has undoubtedly delayed their launch.

Add in the facts that their CPU is quite weird and hard to program, and that they'll be last to market in this generation, and they've some small difficulties to overcome.

I'd still bet that they will be a very strong contender this time round (not least due to backwards compatibility and the desire to keep game libraries while trashing the old machine), but unless MS continue to shoot themselves in both feet it'll probably be a lot closer this time round...

Re:Sony Strategy?

[dogbowl (75870)]

I'm with you. I've been a Nintendo fanboy for years, but just last night I thought I try out Shadow of the Colussus. I've read so much good press about the title, and I love out-of-the-ordinary games.

But I'll be damned if I didnt think that game was awful. The controls reminded me of Prince of Persia ala '93 and the camera angle was awful. I don't care if the designers decided to make the game entirely out of the color grey, or go only with level bosses that still doesn't make it an "innovative" or even "artistic" game.

The game *mechanics* are just like every other game I've played on the PS2; worse so since the controls were terrible.

I think I've been spoiled on Nintendo's first party games

Re:As I predicted, PS3 is AFTER Blu-Ray players

[jchenx (267053)]

I haven't had any problems with my 360 console itself. It sits happily in my entertainment shelf, with the power brick sitting behind the TV on the carpet. No disc reading problems, which plagued me on the Xbox and PS2. (With the PS2, I did the whole "tilt it vertical" to get it to work with some games)

I did have an issue with a controller charger. I had to get a new one and now it works fine.

I know a few other folks with 360s, and no one has had any problems either. Either we're just lucky, or they know the proper way to keep it ventilated and such. I'm also on a listserv with probably over 100 360 owners too, and only a few people have reported problems. I don't know exactly how many 360 owners there are, since it'd be pretty annoying to have a "raise your hand if you own a 360!" thread going.

I see a lot of complaints about the 360 hardware, but it seems like it's so anecdotal. Usually it's folks complaining that don't even have the console ... they just read about it on the Internet. And obviously, those folks are going to be a lot more prevalant on sites like Slashdot, which aren't friendly to MS by any means. *shrugs* I imagine we'll see the same complaints when the PS3 ships, since there are plenty of Sony haters as well (rootkit anyone?).

For those who care, here's my philosophy with defects: Are there occasional problems with the hardware? Absolutely! Every hardware product is going to have some defect rate. That's what return departments are for. Unfortunately, it's pretty common to happen in the console space. Anyone remember the PSP "dead pixel" problem? Or the rants about the original GBA's bad design (lack of backlighting)? Or the many "dirty disc" errors with the PS2 and Xbox? What WOULD be nice is to see actual statistics on how often 360s have to be returned, and then compare it to how other consoles fared (especially when they first started). However, I can't imagine that being made public information by MS, Sony, or Nintendo.

So, why not make a product that is 100% guaranteed to work every single time, in whatever situation you put it in? Well, you COULD do that, but either the cost of the unit will go up, or it'll take a lot longer to go out. Meanwhile, you have a lot of enthusiasts which will take whatever you have and run with it. I'd say the ideal is to get something that works the vast majority of the time, for the vast majority of cases. Let's say 95%. For the 5% that get screwed, again, that's what return departments are for. It's cheaper to funnel those folks through returns, instead of making the product absolutely idiot proof and NASA-safe.

But that's just me. Then again, I'm not one of those unlucky 5%, so to each his own. (And it seems to me that the defect rate for the 360 is lower than 5%, but that's just my own guesstimate)